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Cinematic Analysis Saving Private Ryan

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Saving Private Ryan, directed by Steven Spielberg, is set in 1998 in the midst of the
Invasion of Normandy in World War II. The film opens with an elderly man looking down on the
grave of a fallen soldier. It then moves to the front line of the Normandy invasion as Captain
John Miller leads his men up the beach. Through gunfire and explosions many men are killed,
and many more are grotesquely injured. Captain Miller, played by Tom Hanks is respected to
such an extent that on the way to the first trench four people die in an effort to save him. After
the troops successfully capture the beach, a squad led by Captain John Miller is reassigned. Their
mission is to find the last of four brothers, Private James Ryan, to ease his grieving mother. On
this mission the squad faces a number of obstacles, resulting in the death of three of Captain John
Millers men. In the final scene, just before the American planes bomb the enemies into
surrender, Captain Miller himself is shot. His dying words to Private Ryan are earn this. What
John Miller meant was that Private Ryan should live a life that was worth what it took to save
his. Steven Spielberg portrays the idea that you should live a life worth saving. The movie ends
back at the graveyard and it is established that the elderly man is Private Ryan and he is standing
over Captain John Millers grave, he proceeds to say that he believes he earned it.
Saving Private Ryan is ultimately a very accurate portrayal of World War II. says
worldwarIIfilms.weebly.com. It continues to say that the gore and horrors of war were accurately
portrayed in the film and that, soldiers were constantly losing fellow men within their squads,
and it was common for the fatally wounded soldiers to scream out in agony, as shown in the
film. However the site did note that in almost every scene the soldiers would be shown with their

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helmets unbuckled which was very irrational. However accurate the initial battle scene, Saving
Private Ryan online encyclopedia assures us that, the story for the search for Private Ryan is
fictional, however there was a real paratrooper in the 101st Airborne Division whose family
suffered the loss of three out of four sons in combatUnlike the fictional Ryan however, there
was no need to send out a rescue mission to find Sergeant Niland. In conclusion, although the
first twenty minutes of the film concerning the Normandy landings are very illuminating and
factual the story of Private Ryan is only based on a true story.
Throughout Saving Private Ryan various cinematographic techniques are used to enhance
the viewers awareness of the setting. The film won the 1999 Academy Award for Best
Cinematography for good reason. From the close ups in the Normandy Landings, to the wide,
all-encompassing shots as the troops executed their various missions the cinematographic
techniques gave the viewers an intimate insight of every aspect of the war. An especially notable
cinematographic moment in the film was the sniper battle which consisted of a series of POV,
ECU, and CU shots to establish the tension and gravity of the situation at hand. When the shot is
finally taken the camera zooms out to show the enemy sniper dead and the tension is relieved.
Another cinematographic technique used in the film that I thought was intriguing was when the
sniper was individually killing the enemy troops down below and the camera switched back and
forth between a POV shot down the barrel and a CU of the sniper as he recited his prayer and
reloaded, adding a very intense feeling to the scene. Overall, the various cinematographic
techniques used in the film, Saving Private Ryan, kept the viewer interested throughout the
surprisingly long film.

Bibliography
3

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Historical Accuracy of WWII films. N.p., n.d. Web. 8 Mar. 2015.

<http://worldwariifilms.weebly.com/saving-private-ryan.html>.

Saving Private Ryan Online Encyclopedia. N.p., 29 Jan. 2010. Web. 8 Mar.
2015.
<http://sproe.com/n/fritz-niland.html>.