Some messages ago, "Ed O'Neill" wrote about "Saving Private Ryan" >Could this add new meaning to the film's use of *hand*-held >camera? I agree with you, Ed. A film director's artistic/aesthetic competence is measured by how adequate are the choices he or she does to tell the story. In "Ryan", Spielberg clearly uses the hand held documentary style camera to set us apart from the common clean and fluid steadicam shots abundant in other films and "pull us into the action". His choices go further, including the color processing of the film (in a subtler range of colors), lighting (many outdoors, a preference for natural lighting) and the fidelity to the original WWII materials in art direction. In humble opinion, the patriotic bias of the film is overwhelmed by the horror and insanity of the war it depicts. As an audience, you soon notice that war is NOT PRETTY! It is something you wouldn't wish to ANYONE! Spielberg makes great choices as a director to visually prove this to the audiences worldwide. Thank you for your attention, Roberto. ------------------------------------------------------------- Roberto Tietzmann http://www.geocities.com/TelevisionCity/Set/3445/roberto.html email: [log in to unmask] ------------------------------------------------------------- ---- Online resources for film/TV studies may be found at ScreenSite http://www.tcf.ua.edu/screensite