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'Saving Private Ryan' by Steven Spielberg Essay

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'Saving Private Ryan' by Steven Spielberg

Saving Private Ryan is an epic war film directed by the world-renowned Steven Spielberg. The movie received several awards including five Academy Awards for best cinematography, best director, best effects, best film editing and best sound, it also picked up other prestigious awards. The first twenty-five minutes are a flashback to the storming of Omaha Beach on D-Day. Through his unique uses of proxemics, camera angles, costumes, special effects, editing, sound, colouring, props, events and characters Spielberg has made a shockingly graphic and unflattering war movie. During the visceral first twenty-five minutes Spielberg does his best to de-glamorise and …show more content…

Men constantly surround Captain Miller; this suggests his importance and the fact that he is a figure of authority. Without this entourage of soldiers beside him we would probably not even notice his superiority amongst the ranks.

At the very beginning of the film when we see the aged Private Ryan making his way towards the grave of Captain Miller he is walking about three metres ahead of the rest of his family, this shows the way the war and thinking about the war has made him distant. It is clearly a long time after the war has finished the fact that he still seems that he doesn’t want to walk with his family and share the experience shows how the gruesome war has shaped him into a possibly despondent person.

Janusz Kaminski, who was the lead camera man on the recording of Saving Private Ryan, through various techniques and camera angles, helps to make the opening battle scene to Saving Private Ryan both shocking and realistic. On the boats as they are approaching Omaha Beach, the camera is zoomed in on the faces of

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