I'd like to explore the first 3 minutes of Saving Private Ryan, which I believe are very telling of the brilliancy of technique used by the editors throughout the rest of the film. Starting with a fixed camera tilting to reveal the gentle sound of waves, albeit crashing into tank traps, on a seemingly desolate coastline, the juxtoposition of image and sound immediately puts the viewer into a calm state.
However, abruptly cross-cutting into the American barge crashing thunderously against the water, and then again cutting into a wider side shot of 5, 6 or infinitely more barges of soldiers roaring toward the beach shows us the enormity of power with which the Americans are approaching the beach. This scene also reminds me of the rhythmically fast-paced feeling of motion in the opening "Train" sequence of "Berlin- Symphony of a Great City, 1927".
Next, we are thrown into a quiet cross-cut showing the uncontrollable shaking of Tom Hanks' hand, which he finally subdues when he slaps the cold metal of his flask, raising it to his mouth, and quickly emptying its stomach-numbing contents into his body. The camera stays on his face, revealing eyes that seem to look over us, before zooming out slowly, showing us the other soldiers on board throwing up onto each other.
Here, we are WITHIN the barge, part of the sequence, and arguably, of the mindsets of the soldiers themselves, and we feel the same anxiety and uncertainty, and are downright gut-wrenchingly terrified of what awaits us at the beach.
Another crosscut into the loud drone of a smaller barge shows a soldier giving us a 30 second warning, and we are cross-cut once again to a quiet scene with Hanks, giving us his speech, warning us to avoid the "murder-holes", as a second soldier orders us to save our ammo. We are facing the backs of the other soldiers, so the viewer has the same perspective of the soldier, heightening the sense of uncertainty.
And then, loud bangs that sound like bombs explode against the walls of the barge, and the camera position is low, well under the tops of the barges, again, making us unsure of what is upon us.
At 1:50, the door rolls down and a thundering of bullets and grenades is sprayed all over the barge, hitting each and every soldier before the door opens all the way. Another cross-cut shows the soldiers' backs, being shot-dead from the front, so again, we assume the perspective of the soldier and we are left feeling hopeless, with the only certainty looming being that of inevitably being shot like everybody else before us.
At 2:00, we finally see the enemy's perspective, high, covered, and safely nestled far from the coastline, but we never see their faces, and are far enough where we don't hear the Americans. The scene quickly scrolls right to reveal a multitude of enemies each loudly spraying their machine guns away at the American barges, efficiently killing everything they points towards.Another cut brings us back to the soldiers screaming, all discombobulated, and gorily losing their limbs, blood and lives, and we get a shot in the distance of the enemy's machine gun nest, tall, immense, and frightening, with blasts of fire from their weapons, but we never see their faces or bodies. More soldiers are shot, making them fall lifelessly into the water, and the camera drops with them, transitioning back and forth from loud machine gun blasts to quiet muffled water.
For a brief moment, it seems safe down here, and even suggests that drowning might be the "better" way to die. But immediately, we see bullets piercing through the water, killing whatever lays in its path. This tells us there's really nowhere safe at all, so we might as well get out of the water and at least try to fight back. The soldiers do. Those that aren't shot underwater quickly swim up and a lucky few advance towards the tank traps, the midway point between water and enemy and they find refuge behind their thick protective metal bodies.
This cut foreshadows a turn of events, for the very thing the enemies placed to protect themselves against an invasion of tanks is now protecting the Americans.
