Film OpeningSaving Private Ryan

In this scene an elderly man walks ahead of his family. Enigma codes are used to make the audience question who the man is and where he is.

The shot then changes to an establishing shot of a world war 2 cemetery – this introduces the audience to the theme and genre of the film, as well as the characters you are likely to meet in the film. A waving American and French flag is shown above the graves. This gives further indication to the identities of the character as you know no they fought for the allies in the war.

The old man then kneels next to a specific grave and starts to cry. This shows the relationship between him and the dead soldier, giving hint to the plot as you now know an important character will die.

Cemetery scene

D-day

The scene then cuts to a beach covered in Czech hedgehogs (anti-tank obstacles). This shows the audience the setting of the scene. The date is also significant in giving the audience an indication of the setting/plot as this is the date of the D-Day landings. The text then reveals that the scene is taking place at Omaha Beach, a massive allied landing point.

We are then introduced to the main character, this is show by the fact that specific focus has been placed on him when he amongst a group of around 15 soldiers. This is also shown as he is central to the shot. A close up is used to show his shaking hand – showing nervousness. I feel this is particularly effective as at the time other action films were filled with gun-hoe “super soldiers” who were extremely brave and survived every situation. The nervousness of the character demonstrates the realism in the film as it is an accurate portrayal of how the soldiers were feeling at the time.

It then cuts to a close up of his face as he begins saying orders to the soldiers, this tells us that he is their leader an probably a captain – this is also demonstrated by the rank on his helmet. He delivers the orders very calmly saying “I’ll see you on the beach”. This gives a very positive attitude to a very negative situation showing his leadership skills and further developing his character.

Here the landing craft arrives at the beach and the ramp is lowered. Immediately the soldiers at the front are cut down by machine gun fire giving a very gruesome but realistic feel to the scene. The perspective changes to that of the Germans in the bunker firing on the soldiers. A high angle/over the shoulder shot is used to look at the soldiers running up the beach. This shot shows the power the Germans have over the allied forces in the scene and accurately portrays the real event and how the Germans had every advantage.

The next few minutes show gritty scenes of soldiers being shot under the water and drowning because they could take their equipment off. It also involves a clever effect where the camera bobs above and below the water. When above all the sounds of gun fire and explosions can be heard but when below it is all cut out. This realistically re-inacts the sounds as if you were a soldier in place of the camera. Several gruesome scenes are then shown via eye line match as the main character is “shell shocked” and has temporarily lost his hearing. These include a man picking up and carrying his own arm that has been blown off by an explosion. Men running out of a landing craft that has caught on fire and they too are on fire , and explosions that show the dismembering of soldiers. Each of these scenes have a “blurred” sound to represent what the main character can hear. Each of them are equally disturbing but provide a gross sense of reality.

Overall I think it is a very successful film opening as it introduces a very recognisable character and situation but provides us with new interpretations of it. The sound effects add to the in-depth realism and help put the audience into a soldiers shoes. I feel all this hooks the audience in and makes them want to watch the rest of the film – especially as the character of “Private Ryan” hasn’t been introduced yet.