Comparing The Media Techniques Used to Present the D-Day Landings in the Longest Day and Saving Private Ryan
The heroism and bravery of those who took part in the D-Day has been
brought to the big screen from several perspectives. 1939-1945 were
some of the most horrific times in the broad spectrum of human
conflict ever seen by mankind with unmatched weapons of devastation
and the senseless slaughter of millions of lives both on and off the
fields of battle. The Longest Day (1962) is a brilliant rendition of
the famous D-Day invasion of Normandy. The film is quite accurate,
depicting the perspectives of all sides of the war involved in the
event. Multiple viewpoints give the film an objective feel, as opposed
to the over-glorified subjective view of Saving Private Ryan. However
the Longest Day lacks character development whereas Saving Private
Ryan (1998) follows the "plight of the hero". Zanuck's film still
manages to draw the viewer into the events that surround D-Day. The
Longest Day was released in an era where the public were still
grieving over the number of men they had lost, and so the film gives
the viewer the impression that the soldiers had a jolly good time
stepping off the landing craft and walking knee-deep to shore. The
Longest Day intentionally left out the brutality whereas in Saving
Private Ryan, the opening scenes on OmahaBeachclearly indicate the
brutality. Zanuck's film also lacked the deafening roar of artillery
and machine gun fire. In one case a general didn't even have any
armour or a gun, just a cane. At another point, a general makes a
crack at a soldier forgetting his gun. It neglected to show blood and
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...are highly successful. The purpose of
The Longest Day is not to invoke a strong emotional response from the
viewer. The intention of this film is to inform its audience of one of
the most significant events of World War II from an impartial view.
Zanuck's film succeeds in its ability to portray four different points
of view. The film seems to make war seem more fragile as if it's
giving respect to the soldiers. Saving Private Ryan, also gives
respect to those who died and fought, but in a different way, showing
what they lived through, and what they experienced. The objective of
Saving Private Ryan is to show what the situation during D-Day was
really like, and to actually move people with emotions and a
fascinating storyline. Both Zanuck and Spielberg have produced
fantastic films using various effects and techniques.
Films are necessary in our time period because the human eye can articulate the message intended through sight allowing visual imagination to occur. In the book, world 2 by Max Brooks, he creates a character by the name Roy Elliot who was a former movie director. Roy Elliot manages to make a movie titled “Victory at Avalon: The Battle of the Five Colleges” and some how it goes viral. Similarly, Frank Capra’s film, “Why we Fight” expresses a sense of understanding the meaning of wars. Films do not inevitably portray truth because they display what the film director views as important and beneficial for people to know.
The battle between Journalist Edward R. Murrow and Senator Joseph McCarthy is a fight that went beyond limits on television in 1954 (http://www.theguardian.com/film/filmblog/2015/mar/30/ggod-night-and-good-luck-george-clooney-edward-murrow-reel-history). Edward R. Murrow earned his fame from his career with CBS News that began in 1935 (SITE MOVIE). Following World War II, Murrow worked with a fellow reporter, Fred Friendly on a program called Hear It Now. Both were successful in the sense that the program was popular and showed on television, which was later called See It Now. Although Murrow and Friendly televised many new reports in their careers, the most recognized and historically remembered contribution was the battle they had with Senator McCarthy on See It Now (http://www.coldwar.org/articles/50s/Murrowvs.McCarthyism.asp). Murrow used his career in
Have you ever been a part of something big? Maybe a it was a big game or
In cinema, lighting, blocking and panning drastically influence what an audience will notice and take away from a scene. Orson Welles’s 1941 Citizen Kane has numerous examples of effectively using these aspects within mise-en-scène, cinematography and editing to portray the importance of specific events and items in the film. The scene where Kane writes and then publishes his “Declaration of Principles” (37:42-39:42) in the New York Daily Inquirer after buying them focuses on important elements of the film, aiding the audience by combining lighting, blocking and panning to define significant roles and objects that further the movie as a whole.
Operation Overlord, otherwise known as the D-Day invasion, was planned out far before the actual invasion took place. This means that, unlike Pearl Harbor, American news media had time to prepare for the reporting of the event and was not caught off guard when the attack finally commenced. In 1944, radio remained the fastest way to inform the public of when D-Day had begun and all around the world, citizens of the allied nations waited breathlessly for the broadcast that the liberation of France had begun, for to them, this would mean the end of the war was soon to come. Radio’s role in D-Day does not begin on June 6th (the day of the actual invasion) however, it begins on the 3rd of June. At 4:39 p.m. eastern war time, as many Americans were
Phillips, W. (2002). Thinking about film . In Film an introduction (pp. 403-438). Boston : Bedford/St.Martin's .
Basinger, Jeanine. The World War II Combat Film: Anatomy of a Genre. New York: Columbia University Press, 1986.
Propaganda posters were used by most countries involved in WWII to persuade their citizens to support patriotism and nationalism in their country. Most countries also used propaganda to persuade their citizens to support their cause and join their armed forces. The Allied Powers used propaganda to persuade their individual countries that winning the war was the only “road to justice”. Most of the propaganda posters distributed by the Axis Powers were aimed towards winning the war and supporting the beliefs of the Nazis. Most of the propaganda posters from WWII were used to recruit for the war, support the war, or spread the racial views of their country.
Fyne, Robert. The Hollywood propaganda of World War II. Metuchen, N.J.: Scarecrow Press, 1994. Print.
War has been present since the beginning of human history. Likewise, war movies have been present since the movie industry began. Just like most other genres of film, war films have been created as a form of entertainment to profit a person or organization. More people are willing to spend their money and time on a feeling of action, excitement, heroism, and patriotism than gruesome and horrid images of real and common human destruction. Propaganda has been used by governments for a very long time and when motion pictures came into existence, governments almost immediately saw the new medium as an opportunity to influence the public. Governments such as the United States of America, cooperate with the movie industry to use this influence to promote a positive perception about war in order to gain support for wars. The movie industry portrays war in an exciting, glorified, romanticized, and heroic light and often demonizes the enemies; this causes an unrealistic public perception of war which leads to greater positive public opinion and support of real wars.
Film and Television. 4th ed. Vol. 18. N.p.: Taylor and Francis, n.d. N. pag. Print.
America has come a long way with how people are treated as opposed to how things use to be not so long ago. In the film American History X (1998) we see how some parts of America were not adjusting to change in their towns which resulted in violent outbreaks and many deaths. Although throughout the movie we see the main character, Derek Vinyard (Edward Norton) that at the beginning of the film is in a “white power” gang and later transforms as a character to protect his brother and the rest of his family from being hurt and corrupted by the racist world that they were living in.
Boggs, J. M., Petrie, D. W. (2004). The Art of Watching Films (6 ͭ ͪ ed.). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.
The film Tomorrow When the War Began is a film based on the novel of the same title. John Marsden’s Tomorrow When the War Began is the story of seven teenagers who return from a camping trip to find their home town has been invaded. The producer of the film has excluded several settings from the book and also changed parts of the plot and the character’s characteristics. These differences occur to show the character’s development, to limit the duration of the film and to keep the audience engaged.
Even though Ryan’s book accurately describes many of the things that happened on D-day, he doesn’t describe many of the situations well. The majority of his descriptions are minimal and are not that vivid. When it comes to describing scenes that would be visually amazing, he is very brief and factual. When he describes the scores of paratroopers sent into France, he simply states that “882 planes carrying thirteen thousand men” were sent in. He doesn’t help the reader in visualizing just how that many planes looked in the sky, as well as what it looks like to see hundreds of paratroopers drifting to the ground. The film accomplishes this very well, with visuals that strived to strike awe in the viewer. When the planes fly into France, the viewer is shown hundreds upon hundreds of planes flying in the same formation at many different altitudes. To actually see all those planes was incredible, most people haven’t seen something that stunning in real life, or in a film. The same goes for when the paratroopers actually jump out of their planes. Ryan just states that there were “thirteen thousand men” sent to jump, but to show you a few hundred paratroopers has a different effect on a person. Gerd Oswald and the cinematographers did an amazing job in sho...