Saving Private Ryan opening analysis

Camera
There are a lot of close ups on the soldiers faces. This is to show what they are feeling inside about their situation. There is also a shaky tracking shot which is showing the soldiers travelling towards the beach packed in boats. This shot is shaky to show how rough the sea is. There is also a camera shot from the Germans view behind the turret. This gives a sense of scale and shows how many people are being killed.

Mise En Scene
Straight away we are told the date and location so people know that this is D-day. We can tell that this film is about war as there are military vehicles and soldiers travelling into battle. We can tell they are soldiers because of their uniforms and their iconic helmets. The lighting outside is bright but not colourful. Inside the bunker with the turret it is very dark which shows that the people inside are the enemies. Tom Hanks is the main character and is the leader in this scene. People will recognise him as a main character as he is in most films he stars in. There are many props which help to show that this is a war. Props such as the guns which were used in world war two. The metal flask is another prop that showed that these men were soldiers as they all carried them.

Sound
All the sounds are diegetic and there is no music. All you can hear is what the soldiers can hear. This puts us in the shoes of the soldier and makes it tense. There is a mixture of off screen and on screen sounds. We can't see the explosions happening in the water but we can hear them. We can see and hear the boats and the sea. There is dialogue which is given to a group by three people. The rest of the soldiers don't talk which shows their fear.

Editing
There are no smooth transitions and one shot snaps straight into the next shot. This speeds up the pace and makes it feel more realistic. The pace is slow in the boats and then speeds up very quickly as soon as they get onto the beach. This shows how quickly the soldiers are dying and how fast the living soldiers have to think of a way to survive. All of the shots were put in the chronological order and wasn't sped up or slowed down at all.