Textual Film Analysis 2 :Saving Private Ryan

Film Opening 2

Saving Private Ryan

Saving Private Ryan is a hybrid genre of war film and action.Most of the scene follows Captain Miller (Tom Hanks) around the war zone, showing the destruction of war.

The intro contains about one minute of dialogue overall, so most of it is presented visually. Its a linear narrative, showing the storyline in order.The beginning contains mostly diegetic sound and ambient sound such as the sound of the waves, boat moving, gun bullets and explosions.Foley sounds would have been made for sounds like the gun bullet and the explosions, so its sounds realistic.

The establishing shot shows the location which is on a beach called Omaha beach. The establishing shot is taken at a low angle to make the opening scene strike to the audience. Part of the scene is taken in water and the other half on shore.Captain John Miller takes his men behind his enemies lines to find Private James Ryan, whose three brothers have been killed in combat.While searching for Ryan they go through many dangerous paths that is likely to get them killed.Each man embarks upon a personal journey, discovering the harsh reality of war, courage and strength.The men fit the genre conventions because they are wearing army clothes, holding survival bags , and holding a gun for defense(props) .So they are solider trying to survive their way out of the war zone.

The font is an all bold white capital letter set on top of the video.

We see many men in the war zone but only following one man named John Miller , who is the Captain of all the men. 

The pace of the film is a mix of fast and slow pace ,at first the pace is slow and it starts to increase when the shooting starts. The pace and noise of the film will make the audience feel intense, scared and interested in seeing the rest of the film.

This is a mid-shot of the soldiers on the boat.This shot was taken to show the amount of soldiers on the boat, this should make the audience feel suffocated like the soldiers on the boat.

Here is a close up of the soldiers face, a close up allows the audience to see his facial expressions.The solider looks as if he's trying to build up his bravery thats in him to fight his enemies.

Fast cuts is used to create a match-on-action during the beginning of the shooting .For editing continuity editing is used.

Here are three examples of low angle shot, first one is taken under water and the second on the shore; the third is a soldier looking up above at his enemies.This makes the scene more intense putting the audience on the edge of their seats.

This is an extreme close up shot of Captain Miller, this shot shows the expression on his face clearly.

This is an over the shoulder shot of the enemy shooting, this is also taken at a high angle to show what he is shooting towards.

This is a two shot which includes two soldiers having a small conversion.

A hand held shot was taken for most of scene especially when the soldiers were walking through water .This should make the audience feel as if they are part of the war and they are seeing it from their own eyes.

During the film opening there was only one type of lighting used which is low key lighting.This goes along with the desaturated colour scheme, showing the shadows during the dark scenes which makes the audience feel as if its real.It shows how they feel,  making us feel anxious.