A fine piece of work, but rather misunderstood.

Rating: Null/10 (27 August 1999)

I've heard some people talk about the lack of continuity in this movie, the lack of time top billed actors had on-screen, and the incoherence of the movie. These were the three key components of the movie.
Since when was WWII supposed to follow like a script? The war was a winner-take-all escapade in which many a man went in with no real sense of direction or understanding to get the job done. In TRL we can't expect things to follow one after another, because that's not how it was. Seeing this you should expect plot gaps, things left not understood, and many questions becaue to this day that's still how it is.
This movie was set to bring out the high quality acting potential that resided in indie film stars. I can't remember the last movie I saw Elias Koteas in besides Crash. It was a nice change of pace to see very little of the headliners and more of the small actors taking the scene. Sean Penn was a crucial part to the cast however. We needed fairly unfamiliar people to present the monologues so we couldn't affiliate them with any other part than that of the soldier's they were playing. One couldn't look at Travolta in the jungle and not see him even just a little doing disco. The movie took unfamiliars and gave them a part.
Lastly, the film's monologues were incoherent for a reason. While there were scholarly types drafter into the war, the majority of those who fought in WWII and tend to fight in many wars, aren't necessarily the most educated. The movie's primary characters were of great diversity, some well spoken and the others having trouble collecting their thoughts. This only added to the realism of the movie. We hear the thoughts of a man who can't always speak like the poet we wish to hear, he just speaks what's on his mind. We don't always speak like Walt Whitman to ourselves, so why should we expect a man in the heat of battle scared out of his wits to do the same?
Bottom line for me is that this movie was superior. I found Ryan to be a quality film as well, but too Spielbergy and too focused. TRL doesn't centralize on a small group of characters, but covers a broad range of people and gives us insight into both sides of the war both Allied and Japanese. A definite keeper along with Full Metal Jacket, Platoon, and Apocolypse now.