SAVING PRIVATE RYAN OPENING SEQUENCE ANALYSIS

The opening sequence of ‘Saving Private Ryan’ establishes the genre, ideology, representation, narrative and the institution of the film. ‘Saving Private Ryan’ is an action-war film. The film begins with an American family walking around the Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial, an elderly man in the family then walks over to one specific grave and breaks down crying. The shot then zooms into his face and then cuts to a mid shot of the beach defences used during the Normandy Landings, a text fades into the shot reading, ‘June 6^th 1944.’ The audience then realise that this opening sequence is all about the Normandy Landings.
In this opening sequence the institution of the film is established straight away, the company who made the film is shown to be ‘Paramount’ this is a huge film corporation who are famous for making many high quality films such as, ‘Forrest Gump’, ‘Titanic’, and ‘The Curious Case of Benjamin Button’ this shows the audience that this film will be of a very high standard. The paramount logo at the beginning shows the audience that the film will be as authentic and realistic as possible; the institution has produced the film to, primarily, make money from the film.

The genre is established when you see the elderly man walk through the cemetery. The audience immediately know that the genre of the film is based upon WW2 when the first gravestone is shown, the iconography establishes genre as the WW2 gravestones are well known so the audience will know that the film is based upon war. Other iconography has been used to establish genre, when the scene cuts to the Normandy Landings scene, the beach defences shown at the beginning of this scene show the audience that this is a war film as theses beach defences are also well known and closely related to the Second World War. Another genre is established during the beginning of this scene as well. The genre of ‘action’ is established at the beginning of the Normandy Landing scene; when the text appears, and the audience become aware of the date they immediately think about the fighting the occurred during these landings and the audience create a sense of danger as they know that many American soldiers were critically injured and killed during these landings.
The ideology is not very well established in the opening scene, as the main character is not established very much in the opening scene, so the audience cannot get an idea as to who the protagonist or antagonist are. However, when the main character is introduced the audience know that he is in fact a soldier about to land on one of the Normandy beaches so the audience would usually immediately identify him as the protagonist.
The narrative of the story is established in the opening scene as the film begins during the modern day, the audience know this as the characters are wearing clothes that are quite modern and the characters have modern hairstyles and are using modern technology/equipment (the father is using a camera at the cemetery). The scene then cuts to the Normandy Landings, the audience know this is in the past as the text reads ‘June 6^th 1944.’ The audience know this is in the past as the props and costume used at the beginning of the film are more associated with modern day.
The representation of soldiers is established in the opening sequence when the audience see the soldiers in the armoured vehicle going towards the beaches. The soldiers are shown as being young men who look incredibly frightened; you know this by the way they behave: the soldiers are shown shaking, being sick and looking very vigilant. The director has represented them in this way to show the audience that soldiers during WW2 were not the stereotype that most people perhaps believed them to be, but normal, innocent young men. The director has perhaps done this to make the Normandy Landings more life-like and believable for the audience.

IN WHAT WAYS IS ‘DIRTY HARRY’ EFFECTIVE AS AN OPENING SEQUENCE?

The opening sequence to the 1971 film, ‘Dirty Harry’ is effective in many different ways: The film starts with the image of the ‘San Francisco Police’ badge, this straight away establishes the genre of the film because of the iconography used. The shot then begins scrolling down various names on a memorial; this shows the audience that this is a memorial and that this film involves policemen being killed. The dates next to the names also show the audience what time period this film is set in. There is also church bells heard in the background, these bells are slow and sound quite sincere as though they were being rang at a funeral, this portrays the feeling of sadness and shows the audience that policemen have been killed and perhaps more policemen will be killed throughout the film. The scene then jump cuts to a low-angle shot of the front of a rifle, this is an effective opening to the new scene for two reasons; the first is because low angle shots are often used to present a character as strong and powerful, so this makes the introduced antagonist seem powerful, the second reason is because the rifle pointing at the camera can be quite shocking for viewers as it is unexpected and draws them in as straight away the film begins with a murder. The scene the cuts to a point of view shot of a woman in a swimming costume through the lens of the rifle. This is effective because the audience knows for certain that the woman will be murdered. It is also effective as the woman can be seen as a ‘sex’ symbol, this makes the audience disappointed, particularly the male audience, because the character who is about to be killed is appealing to the audience. The identity of the antagonist also contributes to the effectiveness of the opening sequence as he is concealed behind the rifle, this is effective because the audience want to know who this character is and they also want to know why the woman is about to be killed; this grabs the audience’s attention because they are curious as to who the murderer is, and makes them want to watch the film. When the woman is shot, this enhances the effect as the action in the film has started straight away and the audience get excited as there is much more action to come throughout the film.

When the protagonist of the film is introduced to us, the audience’s first reaction is that he is quite an intimidating character. We know this because, as he is walking onto the scene of the crime all the other characters seem to ’shy away’ from him, this is effective because this makes the audience think about the character’s mannerism; as this film is called ‘Dirty Harry’ the audience pay special attention to the ‘Dirty’ this might lead the audience to believe that perhaps the hero of the film is perhaps corrupt. And that perhaps the Clint Eastwood character is an anti hero. The part of the scene establishes the location of the film, as the protagonist is walking onto the set you can see out onto the San Francisco beaches and the Bay Bridge, knowing the location of the film adds effect as San Francisco is the location for many action films such as: ‘Bullitt’ and ‘The Towering Inferno’ this is effective as this establishes the genre even further. When the main character is looking over the body of the murdered woman the title of the film appears where the character is kneeling, the ‘Harry’ is coloured yellow which is usually associated with something that’s ‘good’ so this leads to the audience to believe that this character is the protagonist; however, the ‘Dirty’ is coloured a deep red, the audience will associate this colour with blood, so this leads them to think that there will be a lot of action in the film and will also enhance their suspicions that this character is an ’anti-hero.’
Whilst the Clint Eastwood character is investigating the area from where the woman was shot there is another point of view shot of the protagonist looking around the area. This is effective as the audience assume that this is from the murderers perspective and the audience feel a sense of danger as the ‘good guy’ is being watched; the shot is also from a low angle of the protagonist which gives the impression that the Clint Eastwood character is even stronger and more powerful than the antagonist as the first shot of the villain was also a low angle shot.
Towards the end of the sequence the protagonist notices a note that has presumably been left by the murderer, the audience do not see the note but understand what the content might be as Harry responds to it by saying ‘Jesus’, this is effective as this leads the audience to feel a sense of danger as this is a shocking response to have to a letter, and especially to this character as he did not respond in any way whilst investigating the scene of the murder, this leads to the audience to believe that the contents of the letter is far more worrying than the actual murder itself.
In conclusion, the opening sequence to ‘Dirty Harry’ is effective in the way that it makes the audience feel. Throughout the opening scene the audience feel a great sense of danger as all the aspects of the opening sequence are associated with some form of danger. For example, the first aspect of the sequence, the memorial, can relate to danger as you see the names of police officers who ‘gave their lives in the line of duty’ this is related to danger as the audience think that there will be deaths. Another aspect of the sequence is the investigation on the rooftop, the audience feel a sense of danger because the character is being ‘watched’ and it makes the audience fear for the main character’s life. Danger is effective in any opening sequence because it makes the audience want to carry on watching to see what happens to certain characters, danger grabs the audience’s attention because they are curious as to what happens next.