For 23 minutes, Steven Spielberg’s “Saving Private Ryan” drops audiences into the D-Day landings at Omaha Beach. Handheld cameras and low angles follow Captain John Miller (Tom Hanks) and his squadron as they come under intense fire from German soldiers. The epic opening sequence sets the tone for the film and its brutal depiction of war, making it one of the most harrowing and realistic portrayals audiences had ever seen.
“The Creator” cinematographer Oren Soffer recalls seeing “Saving Private Ryan” when he was 13 years old in school. “They showed this film to our entire middle school class for history, and we were learning about World War II.”
Whether it’s the carnage on the beach or seeing a man’s face being blown off, the film’s realistic violence was powerful and impactful.
Soffer spoke at the Variety 120 Screening Series, presented by Barco, a summer-long program hosted by Jazz Tangcay that celebrates Variety‘s 120th anniversary by showing iconic films such as “Psycho” and “It’s a Wonderful Life.”
“It’s a great gateway to learn about this chapter of history,” Soffer said of “Saving Private Ryan.” “It was also a great eye-opening experience from a cinematography standpoint, and directing to realize and understand the power of the different tools and techniques despite the traumatizing imagery.”
Soffer explains how Spielberg and his go-to cinematographer, Janusz Kaminski, really influenced cinematography with that powerful opening. “They wanted to place the audience on the beach employing all of these techniques, handheld cinematography, long lenses, shaky cam and the shutter angle.”
The authenticity of how Spielberg and Kaminski immersed audiences in the action would forever change Hollywood. Soffer credited Spielberg for “paving the way” for films such as “The Bourne Identity” and even “The Creator.”
The Gareth Edwards film “The Creator” is a futuristic sci-fi film depicting AI robots and humans in conflict. A giant tank battle scene was influenced by “Saving Private Ryan.” Soffer said, “Tactileness was the key to the whole thing, because it was this elevated sci-fi world. For it to feel real and believable, he needed it to feel like you were in it. And so, all of the same techniques that they employed to make us feel like we were landing on the beach in Normandy — we were using the same bag of tricks: the handheld cinematography, the long lenses, the shaky camera — it’s all in there.”
Countless body horror, slasher and even action films relentlessly show blood splatter on camera lenses. Spielberg “did that first” in this film — pushing gore to show the very realistic horrors of the battlefield.
Elaborating on Spielberg’s visual style, Soffer explained how the director would approach scenes without shotlisting, a practice he had started on “Schindler’s List.” “They would arrive on the set block with the actors, and they would start intuiting the shots based on what was happening. And you get this visual style that’s loose, and it’s a lot more intuitive and reactive.” Soffer went on to say Edwards “directs in a very similar way. I don’t know if that was intentionally inspired by Spielberg directly, or if they just think similarly.”
Kaminski’s use of desaturation was another technique that was ahead of its time. “This film was photochemical, and this was before digital color grading,” Soffer said. “This creates this kind of bleak world, a little bit of darkness, a little bit of texture and grit that you really feel the grime. You feel the textures, you feel the rain, you feel the mud. It’s not pretty.”
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