''Biloxi Blues'' is a 1988 American

military A military, also known collectively as armed forces, is a heavily armed, highly organized force primarily intended for warfare. It is typically authorized and maintained by a sovereign state, with its members identifiable by their distinct ...

comedy-drama Comedy drama, also known by the portmanteau ''dramedy'', is a genre of dramatic works that combines elements of comedy and drama. The modern, scripted-television examples tend to have more humorous bits than simple comic relief seen in a typical ...

film directed by

Mike Nichols Mike Nichols (born Michael Igor Peschkowsky; November 6, 1931 – November 19, 2014) was an American film and theater director, producer, actor, and comedian. He was noted for his ability to work across a range of genres and for his aptitude fo ...

, written by

Neil Simon Marvin Neil Simon (July 4, 1927 – August 26, 2018) was an American playwright, screenwriter and author. He wrote more than 30 plays and nearly the same number of movie screenplays, mostly film adaptations of his plays. He has received mo ...

, and starring

Matthew Broderick Matthew Broderick (born March 21, 1962) is an American actor. His roles include the Golden Globe-nominated portrayal of the title character in '' Ferris Bueller's Day Off'' (1986), the voice of adult Simba in Disney's ''The Lion King'' (1994) ...

and

Christopher Walken Christopher Walken (born Ronald Walken; March 31, 1943) is an American actor. Prolific in film, television and on stage, Walken is the recipient of numerous accolades including an Academy Award, a BAFTA Award, and a Screen Actors Guild Awa ...

. Simon adapted his semi-autobiographical 1984 play of the same title, the second chapter in what is known as the ''

Eugene trilogy __NOTOC__ The Eugene Trilogy refers to three plays written by Neil Simon, the "quasi-autobiographical trilogy" ''Brighton Beach Memoirs'', ''Biloxi Blues'' and ''Broadway Bound''. History The trilogy tells the story of Eugene Jerome from his adoles ...

'', the first being ''

Brighton Beach Memoirs ''Brighton Beach Memoirs'' is a semi-autobiographical play by Neil Simon, the first chapter in what is known as his Eugene trilogy. It precedes ''Biloxi Blues'' and ''Broadway Bound''. Productions ''Brighton Beach Memoirs'' had a pre-Broadway e ...

'' and the third being ''

Broadway Bound ''Broadway Bound'' is a semi-autobiographical play by Neil Simon. It is the last chapter in his Eugene trilogy, following ''Brighton Beach Memoirs'' and ''Biloxi Blues''. Plot overview The play is about Eugene and his older brother, Stanley, dea ...

''.

Plot

During

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

teenager Eugene Jerome of

Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

is drafted into the

United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, ...

. Jerome sets three goals—lose his virginity, survive the war, and become a writer. He is sent to basic training at Keesler Field near

Biloxi, Mississippi Biloxi ( ; ) is a city in and one of two county seats of Harrison County, Mississippi, United States (the other being the adjacent city of Gulfport). The 2010 United States Census recorded the population as 44,054 and in 2019 the estimated popu ...

. Jerome keeps a journal to record his impressions of his fellow draftees. The new privates are trained by Sergeant Toomey, a wounded veteran with a steel plate in his head. Toomey imposes arbitrary rules and metes out harsh punishments. Epstein refuses to accept Toomey's authority. Toomey imposes increasingly harsh punishments in an effort to break him, but Epstein refuses to compromise. While the other privates try to avoid Toomey's ire, they admire Epstein's determination. Toomey also eventually comes to respect Epstein's refusal to submit. One evening, Jerome proposes that each man share his fantasy of how he would spend his final days if he had only a week to live. They each pay five dollars, and Jerome agrees to judge the stories and pick a winner. Jerome chooses Epstein's fantasy of making Toomey do 200 push-ups. The men argue about Jerome's selection and Wykowski makes Anti-Semitic remarks, which leads to a confrontation between him and Epstein. Toomey ends it, but Jerome feels badly for not defending Epstein. When the soldiers are about to go on a two-day leave, Wykowski reports that his money has been stolen. Toomey demands that the thief step forward and Epstein places money on Wykowski's footlocker. Toomey then reveals that he took Wykowski's money to teach Wykowski a lesson about securing his valuables. Epstein is confined to the barracks for having falsely confessed and tells Jerome that he did it because he was sure to be punished anyway, since Toomey wants to break him. Jerome accomplishes one goal when he has sex with Rowena, a prostitute. The platoon arrives back at the barracks before Jerome, where they discover his journal, take turns reading it aloud, and learn Jerome's private thoughts about them. When Jerome arrives, he realizes the journal is missing and Wykowski resumes reading from it. Epstein discovers that Jerome believes Epstein is gay. Toomey enters the barracks in the middle of the night and reports that two soldiers were caught having sex in the latrine, but one escaped. Toomey wants the guilty party to step forward. When no one does, he suspends everyone's privileges and weekend leave. The soldiers believe the man who got away was Epstein, giving Jerome a lesson in the power of the written word. The next morning, Toomey reports that the man who escaped was Hennesey, whom everyone likes, but no one suspected was gay. The platoon later learns that Hennesey was sentenced to three months confinement, followed by a dishonorable discharge. Jerome meets Daisy Hannigan, a beautiful, smart Catholic girl from Gulfport. He leaves camp whenever he can so they can see each other, and he confesses his love right before leaving Camp Shelby for his first duty assignment. Jerome admits to the audience that the chances of seeing Daisy again after the war are slim, but that knowing he has a girl waiting back home motivates him to survive the war. Near the end of the platoon's training, Toomey gets drunk because he has an upcoming appointment at a veterans hospital and believes he will be discharged for disability. Preferring prison to being discharged, he calls for Epstein, whom he holds at gunpoint in a final effort to compel him to follow orders by making Epstein turn him in for his misdeeds. Epstein calls in the rest of the platoon to serve as witnesses. Toomey is aware of the story contest Epstein won and accepts Epstein's offer not to press charges in exchange for Toomey completing 200 push-ups. As his fellow privates sleep on a train while ''en route'' to their next duty stations, Jerome informs the audience of the destiny of each. He concludes by telling the audience that he accomplished his second goal of surviving the war and his third goal of becoming an author, although his path to success was different than what he expected.

Cast

as Private Eugene Morris Jerome *

as Technical Sergeant Merwin J. Toomey *

Markus Flanagan Markus Flanagan (born August 20, 1964) is an American actor. Career In 1990, he starred in the short-lived ABC police drama ''Sunset Beat'' alongside George Clooney, Michael Deluise and Erik King. He was a series regular on NBC's ''Nurses'' fo ...

as Private Roy W. Selridge *

Matt Mulhern Matt Mulhern (born July 21, 1960) is an American actor and historian who has starred in such films as ''One Crazy Summer'' and ''Biloxi Blues'', and such television series such as ''Major Dad'', '' JAG'', and '' Rescue Me'' (playing Lt. John Sta ...

as Private Joseph T. Wykowski * Corey Parker as Private Arnold B. Epstein *

Casey Siemaszko Kazimierz Andrew "Casey" Siemaszko (; born March 17, 1961) is an American actor. Personal life Siemaszko was born in Chicago and grew up on the city's northwest side. He attended Saint Ignatius College Preparatory School and graduated from the ...

as Private Donald J. Carney *

Michael Dolan Michael Dolan (born June 21, 1965) is an American theatre and film actor, director and educator. Acting career Michael Dolan was born in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. His interest in cinema started at the age of 10, when he filmed a remake of ''Summ ...

as Private James J. Hennesey *

Penelope Ann Miller Penelope Ann Miller (born Penelope Andrea Miller; January 13, 1964), sometimes credited as Penelope Miller, is an American actress. She began her career on Broadway in the 1985 original production of ''Biloxi Blues'' and received a Tony Award no ...

as Daisy Hannigan * Park Overall as Rowena Reprising their stage roles in the movie were Broderick, Miller, Mulhern, and Overall.

Soundtrack

Period songs heard on the soundtrack include: * "

How High the Moon "How High the Moon" is a jazz standard with lyrics by Nancy Hamilton and music by Morgan Lewis. It was first featured in the 1940 Broadway revue '' Two for the Show'', where it was sung by Alfred Drake and Frances Comstock. In ''Two for the S ...

" by Morgan Lewis and

Nancy Hamilton Nancy Hamilton (July 27, 1908 - February 18, 1985) was an American actress, playwright, lyricist, director and producer. Early life and education Nancy Hamilton was born in Sewickley, Pennsylvania on July 27, 1908, daughter of Charles Lee Hamil ...

* "

Blue Moon A blue moon is an additional full moon that appears in a subdivision of a year: the third of four full moons in a season. The phrase in modern usage has nothing to do with the actual color of the Moon, although a visually blue Moon (the Moon ...

" by

Richard Rodgers Richard Charles Rodgers (June 28, 1902 – December 30, 1979) was an American composer who worked primarily in musical theater. With 43 Broadway musicals and over 900 songs to his credit, Rodgers was one of the most well-known American ...

and

Lorenz Hart Lorenz Milton Hart (May 2, 1895 – November 22, 1943) was an American lyricist and half of the Broadway songwriting team Rodgers and Hart. Some of his more famous lyrics include "Blue Moon", " The Lady Is a Tramp", "Manhattan", " Bewitched, B ...

* "Marie" by

Irving Berlin Irving Berlin (born Israel Beilin; yi, ישראל ביילין; May 11, 1888 – September 22, 1989) was a Russian-American composer, songwriter and lyricist. His music forms a large part of the Great American Songbook. Born in Imperial Russ ...

* "Solitude" by

Duke Ellington Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington (April 29, 1899 – May 24, 1974) was an American jazz pianist, composer, and leader of his eponymous jazz orchestra from 1923 through the rest of his life. Born and raised in Washington, D.C., Ellington was bas ...

Irving Mills Irving Harold Mills (born Isadore Minsky; January 16, 1894 – April 21, 1985) was an American music publisher, musician, lyricist, and jazz artist promoter. He sometimes used the pseudonyms Goody Goodwin and Joe Primrose. Personal Mills was ...

, and Edgar DeLange, * "

Chattanooga Choo Choo "Chattanooga Choo Choo" is a 1941 song written by Mack Gordon and composed by Harry Warren. It was originally recorded as a big band/swing tune by Glenn Miller and His Orchestra and featured in the 1941 movie '' Sun Valley Serenade''. It was ...

" by

Harry Warren Harry Warren (born Salvatore Antonio Guaragna; December 24, 1893 – September 22, 1981) was an American composer and the first major American songwriter to write primarily for film. He was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Song ...

and Mack Gordon * " Don't Sit Under the Apple Tree (With Anyone Else but Me)" by

Sam H. Stept Samuel Howard Stept (aka Sammy Stept; 18 September 1897 – 1 December 1964) was an American songwriter who wrote for Broadway, Hollywood and the big bands. He became known simply as Sam Stept or Sam H. Stept – he rarely used his full middle n ...

Charles Tobias Charles Tobias (August 15, 1898 – July 7, 1970) was an American songwriter. Biography Born in New York City, United States, Tobias grew up in Worcester, Massachusetts with brothers Harry Tobias and Henry Tobias, also songwriters. He started h ...

, and

Lew Brown Lew Brown (born Louis Brownstein; December 10, 1893 – February 5, 1958) was a lyricist for popular songs in the United States. During World War I and the Roaring Twenties, he wrote lyrics for several of the top Tin Pan Alley composers, esp ...

. * "Goodbye Dear, I'll Be Back in a Year" by Mack Kay * " Memories of You" performed by

Benny Goodman Benjamin David Goodman (May 30, 1909 – June 13, 1986) was an American clarinetist and bandleader known as the "King of Swing". From 1936 until the mid-1940s, Goodman led one of the most popular swing big bands in the United States. His conc ...

Reception

Critical response

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wan ...

the film has an approval rating of 75% based on reviews from 28 critics. On

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

the film has a score of 61% based on reviews from 15 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".

Vincent Canby Vincent Canby (July 27, 1924 – October 15, 2000) was an American film and theatre critic who served as the chief film critic for ''The New York Times'' from 1969 until the early 1990s, then its chief theatre critic from 1994 until his death in ...

of ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' called the film "a very classy movie, directed and toned up by Mike Nichols so there's not an ounce of fat in it." He added, "Mr. Nichols keeps the comedy small, precise and spare. Further, the humor is never flattened by the complex logistics of movie making, nor inflated to justify them." Rita Kempley of ''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large n ...

' thought the film was "an endearing adaptation" and "overall Nichols, Simon and especially Broderick find fresh threads in the old fatigues" despite some "fallow spells and sugary interludes." ''

Variety Variety may refer to: Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats * Variety (radio) * Variety show, in theater and television Films * ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont * ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...

'' called it "an agreeable but hardly inspired film" and added, "Even with high-powered talents Mike Nichols and Matthew Broderick aboard, heWorld War II barracks comedy provokes just mild laughs and smiles rather than the guffaws Simon's work often elicits in the theater."

Roger Ebert Roger Joseph Ebert (; June 18, 1942 – April 4, 2013) was an American film critic, film historian, journalist, screenwriter, and author. He was a film critic for the ''Chicago Sun-Times'' from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, Ebert beca ...

of the ''

Chicago Sun-Times The ''Chicago Sun-Times'' is a daily newspaper published in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Since 2022, it is the flagship paper of Chicago Public Media, and has the second largest circulation among Chicago newspapers, after the '' Chicago ...

'' called the film "pale, shallow, unconvincing and predictable" and added, "nothing in this movie seems fresh, well-observed, deeply felt or even much thought about ... It's just a series of setups and camera moves and limp dialogue and stock characters who are dragged on to do their business."

Box office

The film opened on 1,239 screens in the US and earned $7,093,325 on its opening weekend, ranking No.1 at the box office. It eventually grossed $43,184,798 in the US and $8,500,000 in other markets for a total worldwide box office of $51,684,798.

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Biloxi Blues (film) 1988 films 1988 comedy-drama films 1988 LGBT-related films American comedy-drama films American films based on plays Films about Jews and Judaism Films about the United States Army Films about virginity Films based on works by Neil Simon Films directed by Mike Nichols Films scored by Georges Delerue Films set in the 1940s Films set in Mississippi Films set on the home front during World War II Films shot in Arkansas Films shot in Kansas Military humor in film Films with screenplays by Neil Simon Universal Pictures films Works about Mississippi 1980s English-language films 1980s American films