SAVING PRIVATE RYAN (Dreamworks/Paramount) Directed by Steven Spielberg "Saving Private Ryan" opens and closes with the image of a faded, almost transparent American flag waving in the breeze. It's a vaguely unnerving sight in a movie that has offers plenty of others even more disturbing. Director Steven Spielberg's terrifying evocations of Holocaust atrocities in "Schindler's List" and life in a Japanese prison camp in "Empire of the Sun" were just a warm-up for the vivid, no-holds-barred scenes of war in "Ryan." >From the opening half-hour -- following the preparations for the D-Day landing of American troops on Omaha Beach -- you can tell this is not going to be your standard rah-rah-America war picture. These soldiers are nervous, even nauseous, as they prepare to storm into France. And with good cause, as it turns out: Almost as soon as the ship's ramp drops into the water, bullets and carnage begin flying. Never before has a filmmaker so graphically depicted death on the battlefield, but Spielberg isn't aiming merely for shock value. He's making a blood-chilling statement about the human cost of combat, which is brilliantly delivered with the help of effective hand-held camerawork and outstanding editing by Michael Kahn. It's to the credit of screenwriter Robert Rodat that this harrowing beginning proves to be just the set-up of a largely riveting tale with echoes of "Apocalypse Now." Captain John Miller (Tom Hanks) is assigned to track down Private James Ryan, who parachuted into France and went off-course. It's imperative Ryan be located and brought back home. His three brothers have all been killed in action, and orders have come down from the top that Ryan's tour of duty be curtailed. The search for Ryan exposes Miller and his men to numerous perils and more than a few agonizing moral questions along the way. Hanks is perfectly cast as the sincere Miller, whose take-charge attitude barely conceals his lack of confidence. In one beautiful scene, Miller's men all notice their commander's hand trembling as he talks about the next step in their mission, but no one says a word: They all seem to silently share their hidden terror. Tom Sizemore and Jeremy Davies also cut memorable figures as soldiers with their own agendas. Only Edward Burns rings false, partially because the actor seems capable of only one facial expression, a kind of cynical pout that looks woefully out-of-place. The other major stumbling block in "Ryan" is the title character himself, played by Matt Damon, and it's not Damon's fault that Rodat's script gives Ryan next to no personality and saddles him with a hideous monologue besides. Still, "Ryan" has been made with so much care, right down to the lusterless colors that recall tinted photos of WWII battles, that overlooking its flaws is not difficult. James Sanford
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