On this Veteran’s Day, I was remembering the opening scene from the movie Saving Private Ryan.
I want to comment on this opening. I remember seeing this in the theater and sensed that this was not going to be your typical “John Wayne” style of a WWII movie. The flag is shown with the sun backlighting it. The music is very mellow compared to the old war movies where the music is more of an upbeat “March to Battle”. The Old Man walking and you can tell he may have survived the war but time still has taken its toll on him. Also notice how the color of the scene is neutral. Where the older movies tended to make the “heroes” bright and the “enemy” darker. This scene shows how you can convey emotion without the need for dialogue or narration. And you really do not have to put images “right in the face” of the viewer to make them feel an emotion.
The song was composed by John Williams and was titled “Hymn to the Fallen”.
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