Saving Private Ryan - Essay Example

The Point of View of the Soldier in Saving Private Ryan Saving Private Ryan is regarded as a great war film for a number of reasons. One of the main ones is that it creates a unique, often nightmarish vision of war form the point of view of the ordinary soldier. This is a film about war at the ground level, rather than from the perspective of the generals. This essay will show how Steven Spielberg uses different views to create a memorable view of the momentous occasion of D-Day in 1944, and its aftermath.

The film starts with a scene in which an old man walks along a Normandy beach with his family. He is clearly experiencing many different memories, and the modern world around him scarcely exists. Spielberg shows this through many close-ups on his eyes, within which the audience sees the emotions and turmoil that exist despite his slow physical progress. Soon the film moves to a landing craft approaching the beaches on SD-Day. This is different from traditional war films in a number of ways. First, all the soldiers look terrified.

Second, the very physical effects of this fear and the rough seas - a soldier vomiting - is shown. The soldiers around him do not even seem to notice the soldier vomiting because they are so caught up within their own thoughts and fears. Once the landing craft gets to the beach and opens up, German machine guns essentially eviscerate three soldiers before they even have a chance to move. Again, this is the point of view of the soldier. The audience sees the bloody pieces of the soldiers spattered all over the landing craft and their comrades.

The scene continues with the point of view of a soldier struggling to make it up on to the beaches, and shows one of them drowning because he is wearing too much equipment. All of this shows the terror of war, and the easy, almost casual manner with which it takes life. As the scene continues the main character, played by Tom Hanks, essentially withdraws into his own world. This is shown by the fact that the film slows down to near slow motion and silence as soldiers burn (with their fat sprayed onto the soldier's face) and others carry around their recently detached arms.

Later in the film the point of view of the soldier is taken up quite literally through the scopes of an American sniper. The audience sees what he sees as he aims at Germans and kills them. This illustrates the ease with which some killing occurs in war, the detachment that can occur when the person becomes the weapon. It is thus apt that the audience sees the soldier's point of view when he faces an enemy that his rifle and sniping skills are useless against: a tank. The tank turret moves slowly, almost teasingly, as it aims at the building the soldier is sniping from.

He is dead within seconds. To conclude, Steven Spielberg produces a memorable film in which war form the point of view of the soldier - with all his terrors, hopes, dreams and physical pains - takes the forefront. The film is perhaps a living example of the fact that "war is hell", something which is often forgotten within the war-mongering that often occurs when a country is attacked. ____________________________________________________ Works CitedSpielberg, Steve, (dir) Saving Private Ryan.