Saving Private Ryan. War and (vs) memory Cover Image

Szeregowiec Ryan, czyli wojna i (a) pamięć
Saving Private Ryan. War and (vs) memory

Author(s): Paweł Stroiński
Subject(s): Recent History (1900 till today), WW II and following years (1940 - 1949), Film / Cinema / Cinematography, Politics of History/Memory
Published by: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Komisji Edukacji Narodowej w Krakowie
Keywords: combat film; Saving Private Ryan; Steven Spielberg; collective memory; representation;

Summary/Abstract: The analysis is concerned with the relations between representation of war in American cinema and its cultural memory based on Steven Spielberg's Saving Private Ryan (USA 1998). Based on concepts such as cultural memory, postmemory, representation and realism, multiple aspects of a film work were analyzed: the plot, image, sound, and John Williams' musical score. Hollywood war films through referencing genre traditions, patriotic musical style and iconic imagery are capable of influencing the ways society remembers and imagines war. In case of Saving Private Ryan filming techniques used for the combat scenes play a particular role. Influenced by the original World War II combat documentaries the filmmakers achieved the viewer's full immersion in depicted combat, as opposed to the older war cinema, where technological means allowed the camera to only observe the events.

  • Issue Year: 2015
  • Issue No: 15
  • Page Range: 140-147
  • Page Count: 8
  • Language: Polish
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