Saving Private Ryan Opening

The opening of Saving Private Ryan, is brilliant at setting the story running for the entire film. Its based in World war II, and tells the story of a group of U.S soldiers sent to retrieve a fellow soldier to bring him home. Fighting in a world war is obviously a terrifying experience, and this is shown early on in the film , as the first shot of the soldiers is at eye level, which lets the audience interact. You feel like your on the boat along side the soldiers, you can see by the looks on their face that they are scared. I think the slight use of low key lighting is effective, as the weather is used as an comparison to what the soldiers must be feeling inside.

2 minutes into the opening a high camera angle is used, showing the view of the German soldiers. This shows there power in this situation as they are the ones who have the land and the dominant weapons. The U.S soldiers are being looked down on as the weaker force. On a few occasions, low angle shots are used to look up at Tom Hanks, as he is the main character and hero in the film , and also the highest ranking officer.



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