It’s 10:15 on a Saturday evening and I find myself in a darkened room with a couple of hundred other people. As house lights fade up, I look down and notice, for the first time, I am shaking.

Steven Spielberg’s outstanding World War II drama starts out in 1944, at the outset of the Normandy Invasion. After 25 disturbing minutes of bullet-riddled bodies, disemboweled soldiers and severed limbs, the Allied troops take Omaha Beach.

Following the invasion, American army brass learns of the deaths of Sean, Patrick, and Daniel Ryan:three brothers that have all died in combat. As an act of good will on the whims of a sympathetic general, a unit is ordered to find the fourth Ryan brother, James, who is lost somewhere in German occupied France, and bring him back.

The unit, led by Tom Hanks, is made up of the remnants of a platoon plus an outside interpreter. The unit wanders around the countryside of France following any clues as to the whereabouts of Private Ryan while griping about risking seven good men to save one.

The characters that make up the unit are, for the most part, pretty flat and stereotypical, which is more than made up for by the excellent and diverse cast, including Tom Sizemore and Ed Burns. But the characters are not the focus of Robert Radat’s tight script. His goal is to show war for what it is hell. His depiction of war is not only bloody and brutal, but apparently truthful. (There have been several reports of this film causing flashbacks for WWII veterans.)

Spielberg shows us the carnage of war with a relentless honesty, because war is relentless. He starts early with a group of soldiers mowed down by machine gun fire within the first few minutes, and he doesn’t let go for most of the film’s three-hour running time.

What results is a film that has caused me to look at the violence in our society be it in films or in reality and see it in a new light. I am no longer passive and numb when a gunmen kills two innocent police officers or even if some gang leader gets shot. I can see their pain through Spielberg’s eye, Radat’s writing, and Janusz Kaminski’s original and breathtaking cinematography.

I know a lot of people that have their criticisms of Spielberg. The most common one concerns his place as a Hollywood icon. He’s the father of the blockbuster. But, that is what makes him one of the most gifted filmmakers ever.

The fact that he can make both great entertainment, such as “Jurassic Park” or “Raiders of the Lost Ark,” and poignant drama, such as “Saving Private Ryan,” proves that he can ably play both sides of the fence. He can make anything and make it well. He is master of storytelling and a genius of filmmaking.

There are only two films in all of history that have kept me up at night and then managed to invade my dreams. Only two films have not only inspired me as a potential filmmaker, but as a human being as well. One of them is “Saving Private Ryan,” the other is “Schindler’s List.”

RATED R for graphic, intense war violence and language.