Both Black Hawk Down and Saving Private Ryan have dark themes dealing with war –destruction of humanity. Also, both convey different stories of war. While Black Hawk Down pertains to D-Day during WWII, the other pertains to stopping genocide in Somalia. With the war being the back drop of two trailers, the generalized theme of “hope” is displayed.
“Black Hawk Down” starts with the phrase, “Based on an Actual Event”. By stating this, the viewer is emotional affected. It makes the viewer feel as if they can connect in some level due to the “realness” to the movie. It also starts with a blue, gloomy background that gives off a mysterious outlook of the movie. The “gloominess” makes the viewer feel eerie and uncomfortable. It makes the viewers ask, why? Lots of flashes of different scenes in the trailer show that things are moving fast, and that the movie itself is filled with lots of action. For example, the bomb scenes from the trailer create a sense of insecurity and franticness. In one of the scenes in the trailer, the men are driving off of their military base, and at the background, there is an American flag. The American flag connects the viewers and movie together by showing patriotism. Patriotism = to fight for the sake of humanity. Patriotism also connected with the viewers in a way that was personal. This movie came out a year after the 9/11 attack –at this time, we were in the Iraqi War. In the last scene of the trailer, the blue, gloomy scene is shown again –but this time, the soldiers are running with Somalia kids; connecting the fact that there is hope for everyone.
“Saving Private Ryan” starts off with a scene where a mother is faced with the tragedy of her son’s death . This scene connects with the viewers in a personal level by using emotional appeal. Any mother who faced a death of her son would relate or anybody who experienced a loss of somebody close in their lives would relate. The overall music of the trailer gives off the vibe of “hope”. The background music is slow at first, and it becomes more dramatic as the trailer goes on. Also, the overall color scheme of the movie is “dull”. There’s no lively color –explaining to the viewers that the war is not pretty. With different camera shots –such as close ups on men’s faces, it shows sadness in their eyes. However, a scene where some actors laugh shows a sign of “hope” –that there could be something more than killing people, and facing death.
Overall, the trailers of “Black Hawk Down” and “Saving Private Ryan” were effective. It affected the viewers with emotional appeal as well as keeping the viewers attracted to the movie trailer. However, “Saving Private Ryan” appealed more to women because it seemed more heart touching while “Black Hawk Down” touched more male viewers because of its intense action scenes.
These are the movie trailers I also chose for my blog. I also mentioned about the genocide situation in Black Hawk Down. You have also related the beginning of the trailer for Saving Private Ryan where the mother falls because of her son's death. I like how you related the American flag to patriotism, in fact I did not even capture that. We also both mentioned about the music in both trailers; how in Saving Private Ryan the music starts of slow but then becomes more dramatic. Both of these trailers dealt with lots of emotional appeal; I also mentioned this in my post.
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