Saving Private Ryan by Steven Spielberg opens with a sequence that, to some degree, complies with “war drama” conventions. But the movie also possesses innovative elements, challenging the characteristic heroic notion of war. The director employs micro techniques like handheld camera use as well as other techniques that correspond to the documentary genre (e.g., on-location filming) for creating an intense feeling of realism, thereby making the war appear awfully shocking. Consequently, he ends up conveying a negative representation of war (Andrews). Amplified diegetic sounds communicate the immensely ghastly reality of the D-day clash. Loud crashing waves reflect soldiers’ vulnerable position as they face war’s true harsh and violent nature. Loud marching beats help portray war as an unnatural occurrence in society, as it indicates the natural order of things has suffered from Nazi indoctrination, making man dominating and regimented, rather than free and peaceful. Hence, the sounds echoing around soldiers render the phenomenon of war inevitable for them, with the sounds of waves crashing foreshadowing the deafening explosions constantly being pounded at them; thus, the waves’ sound signifies an …show more content…
The director engaged in no storyboarding before shooting, and mostly filmed shots using hand-held video cameras. He claims that this way, he could hit the movie sets just like a news film cameraman who follows soldiers into the war. For achieving a quality and tone true to his story, as well as reflecting the era it was set in, the director worked in collaboration with Janusz Kaminski, the cinematographer. Spielberg states that early on into working on the movie, both were agreed on the idea that they didn’t wish to make a techni-color WWII extravaganza; rather, their aim was for a low-tech, desaturated color news footage picked right out of the 1940s