Upham
The first character I have chosen is Upham as he is the odd character out in the sense he has a sense of moral about him – making decisions which creates the audience emotional response of anger and hatred for the character when really the decisions Upham makes are most likely to be the decisions any ‘normal’ viewer would make. An example of this is when he makes the unfavourable vote of letting Steamboat Willie walk away and not killing him, this in my own opinion gave me a strong emotional response of anger and disagreement towards Upham based on the events we saw on the beach scene where hundreds of men had gotten slaughtered by the Nazi’s.
As a forced American sided audience member we would feel obligated to have relatable opinions with the other characters of the group to kill Steamboat Willie. Upham is seen as a coward many parts throughout the film such as in the ending sequence as we see him hiding many of a time and almost in tears at one point. His performance of being such a contrast of character compared to the other characters makes his actions a powerful trigger of audience emotional response, an example of this is when we see him sobbing on the staircase as a Nazi in the room at the top is in a long winded fist and knife fight with one of the main beloved characters, Melish; leaving the audience to get stressed and screaming in their heads ‘WALK UP THE STAIRCASE UPHAM’. Followed by a wave of negative emotions towards his character. To top it all off as the German who killed the much loved character in the room just moments ago walks down the stairs, Upham freezes (this being the one time we actually want the Nazi’s to kill someone he lets him go to pain the audiences emotions for another day).
After the medic is shot, Upham can be seem communicating and smoking with Steamboat Willie who now at this point was their prisoner of war and everyone’s blame on who killed their medic. As the audience are forced to take sides of the main characters and the actors characters (Tom Hank’s character because he is a familiar face) we instantly take great emotional response to the actions of Upham; this obviously keeps us tied in the storyline as the greater the emotional response an audience member has for a character the most focused and in-depth with the narrative they are.
Speaking as a individual audience member I feel other emotional responses aside from the anger and frustration towards Upham, such as sorrow and in more than one situation I feel he is a very relatable character. An example of this is through all the decisions he had to make and morals he stuck by were most likely the same decisions and morals anyone from the target audience of the film would also stick by. I think this is unfair that Upham is portrayed as the weakest character even though his character is most like the one of the films main target audience. He might leave the biggest emotional response to the audience such as anger and frustration but he also the most similar character to a stereotypical audience member, who hasn’t shot anyone and are likely to have none or next to little experience in a war such as the D-Day landings.
Steamboat Willie
Most of the Nazi’s seen so far in the film are generic and looked mainly similar in the film so it portrays them as being one thing and not to think of them as characters, this is until we meet Steamboat Willie after the death of them units beloved medic. So from that point onward Steamboat Willie is the face and example of the entire Nazi army. Seeing him first and after the accusations that blamed Steamboat as the killer of the medic we are faced with emotional response of pure hatred and disgust for him; above the foundation responses already associated with the Nazi’s. A strong emotional response towards the pathetic and childish acts of Steamboat Willie such as anger and sadness would be triggered when he begs for his life and begins to sing the American national anthem and even tries to show how much he wanted life by saying ‘F*** Hitler’. Personally I didn’t feel sorry for him in this situation because he put himself there.
As we see Steamboat walk away, blindfolded into the distance into what we hope are where he will be taken in by an American unit and be kept as a prisoner of war, the audience generate a large amount of emotional response of regret and a sense of responsibly (in which they blame Upham for). Each step Steamboat takes further away from the characters create a deeper enigma footprint such as ‘Is this the last we see of the Nazi man?’ ‘Will he actually do what Cpt. Miller says when he said to walk a thousand steps before removing his blindfold?’.
Later when we see Steamboat Willie again in the ending sequence fight scene emotional response is issued again through obviously hatred for Upham as the return of Steamboat was entirely his fault but also a extremely intense burst of enigma as to how his return could affect our characters – this unlocking the emotional responses of mystery and shock when Steamboat appears.
In conclusion the most common emotional response generated by Steamboat Willie, I think is enigma as he is the first Nazi we speak too which must mean he has some relevance to the narrative structure of the film – also Steamboat walking off into one direct opens up a wide range of questions as to the moments which followed in his life and the biggest of questions if we ever see him again – which we do which means the audience get a sense of fulfilment as there are no split ends in Steamboat Willie’s story.
Captain Miller
Due to following the events which happen around Captain Miller mainly we are struck with many different emotional responses, first being enigma as to if Miller is the man we see at the start in the graveyard, this is quickly accepted as the truth though which makes it one of the biggest shockers in the entire film when in the ending sequence we find out he dies; this for me was definitely the point which triggered the most audience emotional response just because of how sudden it had happened and how sure we were that he was going to live, especially as Tom Hanks being a famous actor he was the last person we’d expect to end up dead.
Enigma is shown again when we hear the other characters trying to find out his career and what kind of a man he was back home – their enigma become out enigma. Miller appears in the first 2 sequences as a character in which we don’t know a lot about; this is probably mainly due to having no back story to Tom Hank’s character when we first see him on the landing boat.
Enigma isn’t the only emotional response felt by the audience, but also acceptance with the decisions made by his character as we find him more relatable as the story progresses, this could be linked with the fact we know (think) he is the old man at the graveyard seen at the start of the film so his decisions must lead him into going back home and living on. Tom Hanks performance of Miller creates emotional response in the sense that he is the only character we see when he’s alone, an example of this is when he is crying behind some rubble and his hands are shaking, although others may disagree I think all of the audience can feel sad for his character at that point.
Sympathy is another emotional response created by the events and happens about what happens to Capt. Miller and I believe Steamboat Willie’s main purpose is to force that sympathy for characters such as Miller onto the audience, this is turn helps us create a stronger attachment to Miller and understand and relate to the situations he is faced with, the decisions he has to face and the thoughts and feelings he is left with.
In conclusion Tom Hank’s character Captain Miller is represented as a character we were made to have faith and trust in so the director, Steven Spielberg could use this against us by causing strong emotional response through the events which happen to Captain Miller and the feelings he is portrayed to have. The entire film narrative is to create an emotional attachment to the main characters in the film and through enigma keeping us entertained and drawn deeper into the story, our emotions can be easily played with in ways such as the death of loved characters, the hatred of ‘good’ characters, feeling sympathy and relating to situations and characters morals within the film.
A2 Film Studies 