Biloxi Blues **** (1988, Matthew Broderick, Christopher Walken, Matt Mulhern) – Classic Movie Review 1998

Director Mike Nichols films in 1988 the second part of Neil Simon’s semi-autobiographical play trilogy which were such hits on the Broadway stage. Warm, funny and witty, it’s a splendid wise-cracking character- and situation-driven comedy. As usual, Simon writes the screenplay for his 1984 play, which won three Tony Awards.

A keen, young and fresh-faced Matthew Broderick (aged 26) re-creates his winning Broadway stage performance as Eugene Morris Jerome, a 1945 American troop draftee quickly losing both his illusions and his virginity. He’s one of a group of young recruits who undergo 10-week army boot camp during the Second World War in Biloxi, Mississippi. While the Army makes Eugene a man, Daisy (Penelope Ann Miller) gives him basic training.

Director Nichols perfectly captures the mood of the wartime period and is firmly in control of all aspects of the film, apart from co-star Christopher Walken, whom he allows a lot of leeway to romp away with the movie in an extravagantly bizarrely camp and amusing performance as the both friendly and fearful Sergeant Toomey.

You would think that no drill sergeant was ever like this. However, Walken said he gave Toomey an oddly friendly manner after meeting a military consultant who was a tough drill sergeant but at the same time a nice, soft-spoken man whom everyone feared, but didn’t have to sound or look fearful. So he incorporated both sides of the character in his portrayal, very different from the stage character.

Judged either as a stage-to-screen transfer, middle part of a trilogy or simply a stand-alone movie, Biloxi Blues is a success all round.

Also in the cast are Matt Mulhern, Corey Parker, Casey Siemaszko, Markus Flanagan, Michael Dolan, David Kienzle and Park Overall. It’s David Schwimmer’s movie debut. uncredited, playing a soldier on a train.

The opening and closing scenes, of a train crossing a bridge, are the same shot. The closing scene is reversed.

The films of Neil Simon’s stage trilogy begin with Brighton Beach Memoirs. (1986) and conclude with Broadway Bound (1992). Corey Parker, who plays Eugene Jerome’s colleague Arnold Epstein in this film, took over the Eugene role in Broadway Bound. The original Broadway production of Biloxi Blues was directed by Gene Saks who directed Brighton Beach Memoirs. This is the only Neil Simon film that Nichols directed.

The original Broadway production of Biloxi Blues opened at the Neil Simon Theatre on 28 March 1985 and ran for 524 performances until 28 June 1986. Broderick, Miller and Mulhern all reprise their roles in the movie.

Mike Nichols died of a heart attack on November 19 2014, aged 83.

© Derek Winnert 2014 Classic Movie Review 1998

Check out more reviews on http://derekwinnert.com/