Comparing Camera Angles In The Hangover, Dumb And Dumber, And Saving Private Ryan

The Hangover is about some middle aged people waking up in a large hotel room, with the weirdest things going on, with no recollection of what had happened the previous night.

Dumb And Dumber begins off with a man who appears to be driven in a limousine, he then asks a woman where she is from, she reply's 'Austria', he then speaks in a Australian accent, and then continues. He then jumps into the front seat and put on his hat, revealing to the audience that he is the driver.

Saving Private Ryan Introduces us to many soldiers looking worried, and trembling, with fear and cold. It then goes on to show us the massacre, that killed so many of the troops. 

Dumb, and Dumber Establishing shot

The Hangover establishing shot

Both Dumb And Dumber, and The Hangover start with a establishing shot (above). The establishing shot allows us to, see where the scene will take place. Whilst in Saving Private Ryan all we see is a view of the sea with all the metal pieces (below). This image is powerful because there is no violence yet, and everything seems, calm which is a contrast to the rest of the scene.

Saving Private Ryan

The Hangover has a dolly shot, this reveals the carnage that has happened. Whilst in Dumb And Dumber, there is a medium shot. Saving Private Ryan, has a extreme closeup of a canteen of water, this is powerful, because you can seethe mud, and pain he is in.

Both The Hangover, and Dumb and Dumber use close up shots, this allows us to feel close to the character, and allows the audience to feel as if they were in their shoes. Both The Hangover, and Saving Private Ryan use handheld shots, this is to make the audience feel sickness, in The Hangover the character is feeling hungover, and there is a shot that appears to be in a fixed position in accordance to his body, but the whole background is moving, this makes us feel unwell. In Saving Private Ryan many people are throwing up, their are camera shakes, the shakes makes the audience feel the boat crashing up upon the waves, and allows them to feel empathy for the men.

Saving Private Ryan, camera shakes to stimulate sea sickness.

The Hangover, fixed camera with shakes, to stimulate the feeling of a hangover

Close up view on Dumber, and Dumber.

From the font that is used in each film we can see the mood of the film, Dumb And Dumber, uses a childish and playful font. Both The Hangover, and Saving Private Ryan wait long until the first scene to use the opening credits, but they are in a more serious font, portraying that the rest of the film us going to have a more formal look to it. 

Dumber and Dumber

If you would like to have a look at the opening scenes for yourself, the videos are below.