LOFTER-网易轻博

War is a destructive force which taints the spirits of people and draws out their worst parts. However, even in these times of anarchy, hope still exists: hope about the future, hope about life, and hope that someone will stand up against injustice. In these times of anarchy, and the individual is faced with an option to give up or uphold principles. These are the central themes the distinct auteur and director, Steven Spielberg, discusses in his films Schindler's List (1993, Steven Spielberg) and Saving Private Ryan (1998, Steven Spielberg). The two films, both set mainly during the Second World War, documents the horrors of war. The characters portrayed in each of the two narratives, the use of sound, and the cinematography in which the vivid images of war are all ways in which the director highlights this and establishes himself as the distinct auteur in his films.

"There are no good and bad movies, there are only good and bad directors". The auteur theory was one begun by François Truffaut in 1954 in his essay, "A Certain Tendency in French Cinema", proposing that directors were the most central part of a film, and said to be the true author. He claims that"... either someone has something to say, or someone has certain ideas, about life, or cinema or the world. So everything he does is interesting, even if some films are more so than others..." and that "there are no plays, only authors" 1. The auteur theory shows the directors as the true authors of film, and their personal visions are what makes the films interesting, using the four formal elements of film. 2. Steven Spielberg is no doubt one of the leading auteurs of Hollywood, his vision and technique creating many of the leading "classics" of the film industry.

Evils are commonplace in Schindler's List, which takes place in wartime Germany. Spielberg, himself a Jew, created this film at a time when the last of those who witnessed the horror first hand began to pass away, taking with them the memories of the Holocaust. The first striking feature of the film is that it is shot in black and white. This reflects the memory-like state that Spielberg uses to narrate the story that occurred in the Second World War. Furthermore, it is also effective as most clips we see from the Second World War are of black and white, and that adds a degree of realism to the film. 

Another formal element used is mise-en-scene, where a little girl in red coat, one of the only sources of color found in the movie, is seen hurrying away from all the slaughter and killings, presumably prompting Schindler's conscience to save Jews. She stands out among the black and white background, her confusion at the killings around her clear. The next time the red coat is seen is on a cart carrying dead bodies, to be burnt for removal of evidence. This all the more reinforces the destructiveness of war. The mise-en-scene found throughout the film clearly brings the horrors of the Holocaust directly to the viewer. For example, Amon Goeth executes a kneeling man in a medium shot. Two other officers are on screen observing, and Goeth stands tall and fires his pistol. There are no other subjects within the shot. Thus, each character is in focus and the execution is brutally fast and without emotion.

Cinematography, another formal element, is also at play here in the shots involving the girl in the little red coat. As Kaminiski, the cinematographer of the film, explains the shot "...The sequences featuring the little girl with the red dress, which were shot in color emulsion and then painstakingly desaturated in a process called rotoscoping," 3 which he describes as "an old version of CGI, except each frame was done by hand." This was an impressive work, especially at its time, using the girl to symbolise the human purity and innocence that was destroyed during the Holocaust. Furthermore, the use of hand held cameras during the liquidation of the ghetto scene has the effect of bringing the audience into the scene, letting them experience the extermination of the Jews almost first hand. It also creates a sense of disorientation, highlighting the inexplicable nature of civilised Germany's uncivilised killing of the Jews. 

Another formal element is editing. Spielberg's use of parallel editing in two scenes depict the downfall of the Jews juxtaposed against the rise of the Nazis. A rich Jewish couple were moved to a rundown ghetto building. The scene then cuts to Schindler walking into the room where the couple was only just thrown out, proclaiming "it couldn't possibly be better" juxtaposed with another cut back to the Jewish family looking at their cramped, vile room saying "how could it be worse?" The rise of Schindler's status contrasts starkly with the outraged family's downfall. Additionally, Schindler's birthday juxtaposes with Goeth's advances on his Jewish servant, Helen. Once again, Jewish submission forms the basis of German joy. However, worked into the scene are also cuts of the Jewish marriage, signifying hope in the black times.  

This theme of hope is continued in Saving Private Ryan. Five years after his film which won seven Academy Awards including Best Picture and Best Director, Spielberg creates a film set in the same time frame – a story of a squad's mission after D-Day and the American entrance into the Second World War.  It is similar to Schindler's List where lives do not seem to matter, and soldiers are shot, mown down by machine guns, blown to pieces or brutally gutted with knives. In such a dangerous environment, courage and duty is shown by soldiers who are unwillingly selected for a "fubar" mission, one which is against all odds, based on ill-logic and almost impossible. Spielberg illustrates complex themes in a film that works perfectly in tandem with his style of Hollywood blockbusting action, heroism and a tale that can be remembered.

In terms of formal film elements, the most striking parts of the film can be said to be the opening scene, the famous invasion of Normandy. Of that scene, to me, the most notable formal element was the cinematography. There are point of view shots of the Germans mowing down the Allied troops, and hand held camera shots from the perspective of the American troops. These shots give the audience a first-hand experience of the total chaos that occurred on June the 6th, 1944. The audience feels the effects of the war almost in person – the cameras and microphones following soldiers as they are shot out of their boats and slowly bob in and out of the ocean, drowning.

Furthermore, the close ups of many of the soldiers in the calm before the storm are detailed and clear – we are able to see the soldiers down to each wrinkle and facial expression. Soon after, they are pitched into battle, and become merely a statistic and casualty. The close ups switch to a long shot of the battlefield to medium shots of soldiers advancing and falling, dying. This shocks us – those who have previously been full of emotions and life mere seconds ago are now lifeless forms lying on the beach, or ghouls, writhing, with their kidneys in their hands. One final point of cinematography was the desaturation used in the entire scene, stripping the scene of color, and life. The style is similar to those employed by the war documentary photographers in the Second World War. Cinematography played a massive role in the creation of what has been hailed with as the best scene for all time – a veteran hotline was set up soon after the launch of the film in case veterans found the film too realistic. Cinematography played a large part of this achievement.

Another formal element present throughout the film was Spielberg's wonderful use of both diegetic and non-diegetic sound. The film is fast paced, never too far away from the next burst of machine gun fire or explosion. The opening scene is a alive with noise - there are men screaming, mortar shells and grenades exploding, the ocean waves, the wind, radio transmissions, gunfire, all amounting to an effect of confusing the audience (or rather, bringing a snippet of confusion and destruction seen on the frontlines to the audience). At the height of this confusion Spielberg masterfully climaxes the audio part of the scene with a mute, represented by Captain Miller's shell shock on Omaha beach. The scene goes from bombarding the audience with sounds of war to being deathly silent, as Miller is dumbed out momentarily, only to be shocked back into reality with more explosions and screams of fellow soldiers. The diegetic sound in this sequence pull the audience into the bloody scene in which the Allies suffered 10,000 casualties.

On the non-diegetic side of sound, what makes the battle scenes special, as Gary Rydstrom, the sound designer puts it,"was Steve Spielberg's choice.... Not to put music in the battle scenes" 4. "Steven Spielberg, from the very beginning... [Told him] "I don't want the sound to be Hollywood" 5. Music reminds the audience from moment to moment that they in fact sitting in cinemas watching a film, and the lack of sound thus made the film more realistic, and pulls the audience into the scene.

Also notice how Spielberg was the one who made the choice of the lack of sound, reinforcing the auteur theory that the director is the true author of a film, directing the film with a central focus and idea. It takes a different approach from The Longest Day (1962, Ken Annakin) a film about Normandy landings. In this film, Annakin uses major chords, and trumpets to create a sense of triumph and heroism. This contrasts with the lack of music in Saving Private Ryan's Normandy landing scenes, or the sombre music by John Walker that ran throughout the film. The contrast is clear, Spielberg's directing of his film made the same scene seem more realistic than its counter part. Valerie Orpen claimed in 2003 that "non-diegetic music can reinforce the meaning of image editing or distort it" 6. Spielberg, as the distinct auteur of his film manages sound effectively.

The third formal element to be employed by the distinct auteurism of Spielberg in this film is the use of editing. At the beginning of the scene, Spielberg employs a long cut. The audience is able to see Miller and his soldiers, before a sequence of consecutive, quick cuts increase the pace and speed of the scene. The cuts jump to officers giving orders, further gripping the audience and creating tension. Cuts from the German perspective and a cut back to Allied soldiers shows explicitly the destruction metal does to human flesh and blood. Quick cuts of individual soldiers meeting their ends on Omaha beach illustrate the cruelty found in war.

On the narrative aspect of the film, the personal ideas of Spielberg show through: That even in the blackest moments, there is hope. Found throughout his movies, the protagonist is thrust into a situation where he is faced with challenges, but finds a way to achieve his objective and leave behind a legacy worth remembering. (Indiana Jones, Lincoln, Amistad, Schindler's List, Jurassic Park, E.T. etc) In Schindler's List some Jews choose to believe that being relocated to the ghettos is good for them, a marriage is completed in the concentration camp, and more than a thousand lives are saved by Oskar Schindler. In Saving Private Ryan, even though morale is low, they at first hope to complete their mission, but with their numbers being slowly whittled down, this hope changes. Miller says to his squad: "The man means nothing to me... You know if... finding him... earns me the right to get back to my wife, then that's my mission." His sergeant, in the end, hopes that their lives have created a legacy in Private Ryan: "saving Private Ryan was the one decent thing we were able to pull out of this whole godawful, shitty mess." Hope, even in the darkest of times, will exist.

Another theme that is normally central to the Spielberg films is the importance of the individual, and that even when faced with a world of unfairness and random brutality, the individual should choose the just path. Spielberg's idea cuts across many of his notable films Amistad (1997, Steven Spielberg), Lincoln (2012, Steven Spielberg), Munich (2005 Spielberg), etc. In Schindler's List Oskar Schindler finds a conscience and begins his venture to rescue as many Jews as possible. He is one of few in a nation who have, under Hitler's reign, learned to hate and abandon civility and morality. In Saving Private Ryan, Miller has ample opportunity to take the easy way out and give up on his orders, which both he and the squad agreed on as being "fubar" and illogical. Yet he does not. Under pressure of losing his men, and the moral dilemma between letting his men off what he thinks is a suicide mission or completing his duty and honouring his rank. Another case where Miller takes the hard or moral way is when he frees the German prisoner of war, who later comes back to kill members of his squad. It wasn't the most easy way, but it was the just decision. Keeping morality and principle is also another one of the auteur Spielberg's features.  

While it is true that a film is a joint work by many different professionals, the making of the film relies heavily on the director. The auteur theory recognises the director as the true author of the film as giving the film its message and life. Steven Spielberg, one of the most accomplished American auteurs, shows us through Schindler's List and Saving Private Ryan the terrors and destructiveness of war, and the idea of hope despite these times. Hope in the individuals who are able to fight against immorality and weakness to uphold principles and morality which are the foundations of humanity.

- Summer Li

Bibliography

Thompson, Kristin, and Bordwell, David Film History: An Introduction New York: McGraw-Hill, 2010

Original Auteur. Criterion. https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/3051-francois-truffaut-original-auteur Accessed March 10, 2016.

How Steven Spielberg's Cinematographer Got These Eleven Shots. Vulture. https://www.vulture.com/2012/11/how-steven-spielberg-cinematographer-janusz-kaminski-got-these-shots.html Accessed March 10, 2016.

Music and sound of Saving Private Ryan. Youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4UqJrfmDlJ0 Accessed March 10, 2016.

Saving Private Ryan Music and Sound Analysis Documentary. Youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2164O_TeQIg. Accessed March 10, 2016.

Orpen, Valerie. Film Editing: The Art of the Expressive. London: Wallflower, 2003. 
 
1 Original Auteur. Criterion. https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/3051-francois-truffaut-original-auteur Accessed March 10, 2016.
2 Thompson, Kristin, and Bordwell, David Film History: An Introduction New York: McGraw-Hill, 2010, 381-383

3 How Steven Spielberg’s Cinematographer Got These Eleven Shots. Vulture. https://www.vulture.com/2012/11/how-steven-spielberg-cinematographer-janusz-kaminski-got-these-shots.html

4 Saving Private Ryan Music and Sound Analysis Documentary. Youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2164O_TeQIg. Accessed March 10, 2016.

5 Ibid.

6 Orpen, Valerie. Film Editing: The Art of the Expressive. London: Wallflower, 2003.