Steven Spielberg’s “Saving Private Ryan” is widely regarded as one of the best war movies of all time, and that’s often thanks to its astoundingly visceral 24-minute opening. Recreating the events taking place at Omaha Beach on June 6, 1944, the opening is an extended sequence so authentically brutal and deeply immersive that it has resonated deeply ever since.
Putting the sequence at the very beginning of the film drops the viewer right in the heart of war, letting them experience a traumatic moment without warning and that will leave them on edge for the rest of the film and maybe stick with them forever. It’s a classic example of cinematic contradictions played brilliantly, as explored richly in “Saving Private Ryan: How Spielberg Constructs a Battle Sequence,” a video essay from YouTube’s Nerdwriter1.
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In order for the sequence to work, Spielberg had to produce a scene that was fundamentally chaotic and cinematically coherent at the same time. It needed to be structurally unhinged, in the sense that you have to feel bewildered and shocked, yet must still understand what’s happening in every moment. With so little existing footage of the actual battle, Spielberg studied Louis Hayward’s “With the Marines at Tarawa,” John Huston’s ‘The Battle For San Pietro” and John Ford’s “The Battle of Midway,” each of which inspired the shaky, disorientating battle presentation that was incorporated in his narrative depiction.
But what amplified this approach was Spielberg’s use of various techniques, including switching perspectives frequently. Incorporating the viewpoints of three different people, including Tom Hanks’ lead character, the scene is invested with a 360-degree feel without losing any of its immediacy. This intensity is what accounts for the film’s 200 shots in these 24 minutes, with the average shot lasting 7.2 seconds. It allows your brain to absorb more information through pans, tilts and shifts, whereas many other directors would simply cut. Though the sequence has been revisited and explored numerous times, Nerdwriter continues to prove how this scene remains so incredible.
Maybe the most incredible fact about Spielberg’s work in the scene is that he apparently did not storyboard, which meant he had it all in his head.