Genre theory helps to not only classify films into different groups such as action, comedy, drama, and so forth, but it also gives the audience a recognizable idea of what they will be watching. These are able to be recognized by the audience with the use of familiar story formulas, character types, settings, and iconography that provides visual imagery with symbolic implications (Goodykoontz & Jacobs, 2014, sec. 3.1, para.l). Seeing and understanding the classification of films, which works similar to a glossary, allows the audience to engage and gain an attraction for certain types of genre. A film will typically fall under one broader genre and then have other sub-genres that categorizes the film more specifically. For example, the epic film genre can have several subgenres such as historical drama, science-fiction, war, religious, and others. This paper will focus on the epic film genre, specifically the 1998 historical WW2 war movie, Saving Private Ryan, to gain insight into the elements of the film in addition to the conventions of the epic genre to get a better understanding overall of how the film expands the boundaries of this genre.

Daniel Dercksen (2015), in his article, "Genre and Genre Conventions," conveys that epic genre films typically feature vast panoramas with hundreds of extras, and the struggle of the main character is usually heroic, but realistic. It is typically related to a historical or biblical large-scale film story with the main appeal being the ethical or moral dilemma that the main character is tested against with a larger panorama such as war or colonialism. Furthermore, there is a depiction of the real world under some historical crisis where the main character is tested several ways and must pursue some course of action (para. 28). These same genre elements can be seen in the movie, Saving Private Ryan, which stars Torn Hanks (Captain Miller), Matt Damon (Private Ryan), Torn Sizemore (Sergeant Horvath), and Vin Diesel (Private Caparzo).

Although, most of the movie focuses on Captain Miller and Private Ryan. On June 6, 1944, during World War 2, the second range battalion and Cpt. Miller fight to secure the beach during the Normandy invasion. While US soldiers invade the beaches of Normandy, two brothers are killed in the line of duty while the third brother died shortly before somewhere in New Guinea. The United States Army Chief of Staff, General Marshall, is informed of this and knows that the mother is bound to receive the telegrams notifying her that all three of her sons have passed.

When he finds out the fourth son, Private James Ryan, is unaccounted for somewhere in France, he makes a dire effort to locate and retrieve him in order to get him home to his mother. To accomplish this, he assigns Captain Miller and the second range battalion consisting of eight total men to look for him and bring him back safely while behind dangerous enemy territory.

Saving Private Ryan shares that convention or expectation from the audience of epic film genres in a sense that it shows realistic carnage on an open battlefield especially during the lengthy Omaha Beach sequence that depicts the sheer violence and inhumanity of war. Cpt.

Miller and those seven other men then have to face the antagonist, which is the war, in order to locate and save one man, Private Ryan, whose brothers had already been killed. The theme of the movie is presented through the tragedies and moral struggles that Cpt. Miller and the rest of the crew face while going behind enemy lines to save one life while sacrificing six of their own with only two managing to make it to Ryan. It puts morality into question, as explained by John Biguenet (2014), in the article, "The Profound Contradiction of Saving Private Ryan ," as General Marshall orders the eight soldiers to rescue and save one while sending them eloquent words and heroic sentiments, but it turns out that the letter is nothing but empty rhetoric and six of them ultimately become victims (para. 11). The main goal of the mission, at least according to Captain Miller, is simply public relations. In epic film genres, there's usually a blend of two stories, which consist of the personal story of the central character and the historical incident (Dercksen, 2015, para.28). This is seen from the start of the Normandy beach invasion to when the men are ordered to locate and save Private Ryan.

This film has the ability to connect to many genre elements as explained. Steven Spielberg, the director, expands the boundaries of the particular elements that consist in this genre by asking us to think about and ask ourselves where we are headed in the future with putting in question whether or not the sacrifice is worth it without really addressing the point of their heroism. In the movie, Private Ryan asks his wife in the beginning if he's worth it after still not corning to grips with why lives in order to just save him. This adds to the overall unusual story format that has the soldiers question their leadership and the point of their mission. This too expands the epic genre to this movie alone with their really being no real main hero involved as the audience can see many throughout the film that all fought for something greater than themselves even if that something didn't completely come to light within the movie.

Conclusively, many look at genres as a way to identify certain types of movies and to better categorize movies based on the elements that they have an affinity for such as drama, comedy, horror, and so on. Steven Spielberg's film, Saving Private Ryan, depicts war in such an accurate and detailed way from the props, low-key lighting to add to the overall gloom and terror, character development, camera angles, and suspenseful story line that draws the audience into intense combat scenes. Men are faced with the antagonist of a large-scaled war while not only fighting on the beaches of Normandy during D-day, but also faced with having to rescue one man trapped behind enemy lines.