Biloxi Blues

This is a great movie that wonderfully entertaining. First of all, a great cast with Matthew Broderick and Christopher Walken. Good Scenes are with Sgt Toomy (Walken) torturing and making fun of the platoon as the anally retentive commanding officer. Another great scene is where all the boys are on a weekend leave to Gulfport where they go to a whorehouse. This is where Eugene (Broderick) loses his virginity, and it is a scary scence that reminds us of our first time. Did we know what to do and how to act? This movie also shows how people behaved towards homosexuals back in the 1940's. This is where a soldier named James Hennessy was found in the washroom with another soldier and they both got court martialed. For homosexuality, they spend time in Leavenworth Prison! Then was the part where Eugene met his love Daisy Hannigan, a sweet young Magnolia Mississippi girl. It is based on a true story and is very entertaining. It is not a blood and guts war movie, but a clean simple comedy for all to enjoy.

I thought this movie was good, for the most part, although I found the scene where Eugene loses his virginity just plain painful and not particularly funny (hmmm... much like real life). But it was for the most part enjoyable and effective for what it is meant to be, a story about characters. Some people seem to be under the impression that this is a war movie, but it's not; like I said, it's a story about characters. And since this film, as well as Brighton Beach Memoirs and Broadway Bound in the same series, are based quite a bit on Neil Simon's own life, as I understand it, it would be hard for this movie to be about the war since he never went, being only 18 at the time WWII ended. If you are looking for a movie where tanks roll and people die, this movie is not for you. If you are looking for a movie where tanks roll, people die, and the characters are important (like Saving Private Ryan), this movie is also not going to fulfill all those requirements. If, however, you are looking for a coming-of-age, character-based film, then this movie is an excellent choice.

THIS MOVIE RULES!!!! IT'S FUNNY AND SAD BUT STILL IT'S AWESOME!! MATTHEW BRODERICK PLAYS EUGENE JEROME WHO WANTS TO LOSE HIS VIRGINITY AND FALL IN LOVE WITH THE PERFECT GIRL. CHRISTOPHER WALKEN WAS BY FAR THE BEST IN THIS MOVIE AS SGT. TOOMEY AS FOR THE REST THEY DID GREAT TOO!! THIS IS ONE OF THE BEST FILMS OF ALL TIME!!!

The timing for my catching of this flick couldn't have been more appropriate. I caught it with a few of my squadmates on a 72-hour pass at the post theater on Ft. Benning, in the middle of my 12-weeks of basic training and infantry school. It was the summer of 1988, "Biloxi" had just hit the screens, and it was the hottest summer on record in 25-years in the already quite sultry city of Columbus, Georgia (about two hours south of Atlanta). Just imagine, an army base theater -- that had changed very little from its WW2 days -- filled with 200+ Army recruits in uniform, on pass, watching a movie about Army recruits on pass! It was a hilarious deja vu, although I suspect that such irony was lost on the majority of the individuals present that night. Anyways, my favorite scenes in the movie include the following: Matthew Broderick (as Pvt. Eugene Jerome) moving through the chow line at breakfast for the first time, when the army cook slings some unmentionable godforsaken gloop on his stainless steel G.I. mess tray. The look on Eugene's face is worth its weight in gold as it was almost as if he had been insulted and violated at the same time. (This is especially funny for anyone who has ever stood in a messhall chowline and eaten army "food" before.) My next favorite scene was when Eugene makes up a game with his bunkmates one night, about what they would do with the last 72 hours of their lives. What every man reveals about himself is not only telling, but an ominous harbinger of what is to come. Hennesey, for example, asks to be with his family. The others scoff. Little do they know, however, that soon enough, even that modest hope will seem like a pipedream to the starcrossed Hennesey. The funniest aspects of Neil Simon's mostly autobiographically inspired play though, is his comedic depiction of the inevitable culture clash that invariably occurs when the New York quasi-intellectualism and Jewish urbane sensibility that Eugene Jerome and Arnold Epstein are products of, confronts head on the southern white-redneck military subculture that Sgt. Toomey represents. This theme especially struck a chord with me, having come down to Georgia for boot camp from Chicago that summer. It was quite a culture shock for me upon my first visit to the south. when I stepped off the bus at Ft. Benning, as I quickly had to get myself accustomed to the almost incomprehensible southern accents, idiosyncratic differences in attitude and weird regional expressions employed by our mostly colorful, yet totally profane and predominantly redneck drill sergeants at Ft. Benning. Another aspect about this film that touched me personally is the fact that it was filmed filmed almost entirely at Ft. Chaffee in Ft. Smith Arkansas, where I had trained extensively when I was in the U.S. Army. From WW1 to the early 1990s, Ft. Chaffee was an active U.S. Army reservation that has since been mothballed. Being able to see scenes of Ft. Chaffee, especially the exterior and interior shots of Chaffee's vintage WW2-era barracks on my very rare DVD version which I am most fortunate to have, always brings back some rather fond -- and not so fond memories -- of the times I spent at Chaffee. This movie mostly reminds me of all those days and nights I spent training in those chigger and tick-ridden forests, doing PT around post, and living in those godforsaken WW2-era barracks. Hats off to a great five-star WW2 coming-of-age flick!

In one of the many looks at days gone by, Neil Simon's alter ego Eugene Morris Jerome (Matthew Broderick) and friends go down to Biloxi, Mississippi, in early 1945 for basic training. Once there, they have to cope with one bad-ass sergeant (Christopher Walken) and a status quo totally unlike the one in New York. But we also see how the experience turns Eugene into a very different person, partially due to his relationship with local babe Daisy (Penelope Ann Miller). "Biloxi Blues", in my opinion, is far from Mike Nichols's best movie. I find it having strength in showing these young men's coming of age and wondering what to do with their future. But still, it's fun to see the environs of the WWII-era South. And I really liked Eugene's fake name when he met that one woman; I couldn't have come up with anything like that! Worth seeing, along with "Brighton Beach Memoirs". When Matthew Broderick played Ferris Bueller, who ever would have guessed that he would later play the guy - or the alter ego thereof - who wrote "The Odd Couple"?

Matthew Broderick plays a Jewish youngster named Eugene Morris Jerome, who goes to the army in 1945.This young intellectual wants to be a writer so he writes some stuff down to his journal about his army buddies.He, for instance, writes about his suspicions about this also Jewish guy Arnold Epstein (Corey Parker) that he might be a homosexual.When Arnold gets to read what Eugene has written about him, Eugene wants to rip and destroy the page.Arnold stops him and delivers this great line; "Once you start compromising your thoughts, you're a candidate for mediocrity."That's very well put.There are many other great lines and this is overall a well written movie.That's not any wonder since it's written by Neil Simon.The great director Mike Nichols directed it in 1988.The movie is full of terrific actors and characters.Christopher Walken is the somewhat obnoxious Sgt. Toomey.Matt Mulhern is the somewhat obnoxious recruit Joseph Wykowski.Michael Dolan is the much more sympathetic recruit Hennesey, who actually turns out to be homosexual and is sent to military prison.Casey Siemaszko is Don Carney, who Eugene can't count on according to his journal.Penelope Ann Miller is Daisy, the girl Eugene fancies.Park Overall is the prostitute Rowena, who delivers the boys some joy.There are lots of scenes to remember in the movie.One of the most memorable ones must be in the end where Arnold makes the drunken sergeant do 200 push-ups.The movie deals with some important themes, like racism, anti-semitism and homophobia.I truly recommend Biloxi Blues for each and every one of you who read this.

Pleasant but slight story, the second part of a trilogy, based on Neil Simon's stint in boot camp during World War II. Good performances by a talented cast, led by Matthew Broderick (the Simon surrogate) and Christopher Walken as a slightly insane drill sergeant. A few very nice scenes stand out: the visit to a prostitute (the jaded yet oddly motherly Park Overall) followed by a very sweet dance with Penelope Ann Miller (filmed in 360°) provided the film's high point. The dialogue is instantly recognizable as Neil Simonesque; often very funny, it nevertheless can be distracting. A lighter hand would've been more effective. Another shortcoming is Corey Parker's performance, both overplayed and overwritten. I enjoyed the film while watching it, but it hasn't had much lasting impact.

This is a fantastic movie that you will want to watch again and again. The story is perfect, the cast is perfect and the acting is perfect. A coming of age story that combines young recruits from all different sections of life that have come together and now have to learn how to live with one another as they go through the rigors of boot camp. Neil Simon always knows how to combine that perfect blend of realism, a comic touch and something you can identify with into everything he writes and makes you feel so comfortable in his story because you feel you're in the story. He makes you want to be become a writer. This is what makes Neil Simon unique. If only every movie could be written this well. This is what great Hollywood film-making is all about.

Biloxi Blues is a wonderful character comedy with strong dramatic scenes as well. Eugene Jerome (Matthew Broderick) is an anti-hero, who is typically concerned with making wisecracks, rebelling against the rigid drill Sergeant (Christopher Walken), and talking about wanting to become a writer. Similar to the dark pathos of characters in Catch-22, Biloxi Blues exposes men in the service who do not want to be there, who are incompetent, and basically as far from battlefield heroism as you can imagine. Mike Nichols directs, and his comedic and dramatic pace is pitched perfectly for the film. The movie has quotable lines throughout. But if you are looking for a typical war movie, this is not for you. There are no heros, at least in the conventional sense, as the story focuses upon the dusty boot camp in Biloxi, Mississippi. The story does deal with sharp internal conflicts, and the cultural topics addressed emerge strongly against the backdrop of one of the US's most traditional institutions: the military. Although it has been over fifteen years since the release of the movie, the conflict in the movie feels timely and relevant for today's world. It's the type of tight, well-written comedy that rarely exists in current cinema.

source: Biloxi Blues