Formal Film Study:Act of Valor and Saving Private Ryan

I chose to write about the movie genre war. The movies Saving Private Ryan and Act of Valor are categorized in this genre. They both show real life activity in the war. They show the viewer what war is really like. The camera in Act of Valor follows the soldiers more. In Saving Private Ryan the camera is from a far distance pretty much the whole time. You can see the whole scene in Saving Private Ryan unlike Act of Valor. These films fit into Hollywood very well. The time eras are different but these two films were both great hits when they came out. The special effects in Act of Valor are a lot better than Saving Private Ryan because the technology was more modern. The directors had more to work with. These films show the culture aspects of the different countries we have fought in. Saving Private Ryan is shown during WWII and Act of Valor shows Afghanistan and other middle eastern countries. It shows very poor living conditions. The politics in these two movies show how the economy and government is running the army etc. They are very controlling and strong. The shots in Act of Valor were very quick and strong. They captured the main idea of the scenes and then moved on to another. Saving Private Ryan had long slower scenes. They moved at a slower pace to capture the moment. Both of these films were similar in most scenes. The war genre changed a lot because of new special effects. Both of these movies helped the war genre become more popular. These two films really made an impact on many people. They brought you into the war like you were there. The sound and special effects of both movies helped the viewer out by showing them what was really happening. The imagery in these two movies was magnificent. I can watch these movies all day because it never gets boring. Something is always happening and there are many things going on in one scene. Overall everyone needs to see these two films in order to know what war is all about on the front lines. Tom Hanks did an amazing job handling the lead role in Saving Private Ryan. The thing that made Act of Valor so entertaining was that the cast members were active duty navy seals. They do everything that is shown in the movie on a regular basis. Both of these movies have impacted me greatly.