Saving Private Ryan: The Effects of Sounds
Sounds are an extremely important factor when creating movies. Without sound, a movie wouldn’t have near the effect on the audience as movies with sound do. There are three basic categories to sound in movies. Those three are dialogue, sound effects, and music. Dialogue is a conversation which contains any number of memorable lines and helps to advance the plot. One of the major dialogues of this movie was when Private James Ryan was informed all of his brothers were killed.
Captain Miller: James Francis Ryan of Iowa?
Private Ryan: Yes, sir. Paton, Iowa, that’s correct. What is this about?
Captain Miller: Your brothers were killed in combat.
Private Ryan: Which – Which ones?
Captain Miller: All of them.
This conversation between Private Ryan and Captain Miller is a great example of the movie’s dialogue. Sound effects are artificially made noises that add an emphasis on certain things in movies. For example, the sounds of the bombs going off, airplane sounds, even the gunfire in Saving Private Ryan are all examples of sound effects. Goodykoontz & Jacobs stated that sound effects are used to “enhance the action.” (Goodykoontz & Jacobs, 2014). Last but not least is music. Music adds emotion to movies. Also, music can be added to help fill certain parts of movies where a narrator speaks to add more emotion in the scene. For example, the scene below adds music to the narrators voice as the narrator reads a letter written to James Ryan’s mother.
The theme song used in Saving Private Ryan is called Hymn to the Fallen by John Williams. This song begins with military drums and then goes into a symphony. The symphony is a mellow, light sounding symphony with light military drums playing in the background. This song is perfect for a touching war movie.
The use of sound has a major impact on Saving Private Ryan. There are a lot of explosions in the movie which puts the audience on edge and makes the scenes a lot more interesting. All of the gunfire, tank sounds, and bombs exploding make for a very exciting action based movie. Another sound that adds to the suspense of the movie is when you can hear the footsteps of the enemy going up the stairs. I believe all of the sounds effects in Saving Private Ryan were realistic and expected sounds. The movie would not be the same if the explosions weren’t as loud and big as they were. Also, if the gunfire in the movie would have sounded like BB guns or airsoft guns, then of course the movie’s special effects would be lacking and it would take away from the intense action that this movie portrays.
References:
frit bat (2013, October 03) Saving Private Ryan Final Scene. Retrieved from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9CARuMPsfGA
masaki@TV ( 2008, January 07) Saving Private Ryan Hymn to the Fallen. Retrieved from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Ejg-lPcFxU
American Film Institute (2014). Movie Cover Photo. Retrieved from:http://www.afi.com/10top10/moviedetail.aspx?id=24&thumb=1
Goodykoontz, B., & Jacobs, C. P. (2014). Film: From Watching to Seeing (2nd ed.). San Diego, CA: Bridgepoint Education, Inc.
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