Film Review: Biloxi Blues (1988)

If current geopolitical trends continue, children and teenagers in many of today’s Western countries are likely to go through something experienced by their ancestors in less fortunate periods of history – having to spend first year or two of their adulthood in obligatory military service. Some of those experiences, however, can serve as an inspiration for successful theatrical works, at least judging by the source for Biloxi Blues, 1988 comedy directed by Mike Nichols.

The film is based on the eponymous Tony-awarded Broadway play by famed author Neil Simon, partially inspired by his experiences during Second World War. The plot begins in 1945 and the author’s alter ego, narrator and protagonist, played by Matthew Broderick, is Private Eugene Morris Jerome, Jewish teenager from Brooklyn who has been drafted into US Army and now must travel to Biloxi, Misssissippi to spend ten weeks of basic training before being shipped to battlefields of Europe or Pacific. For Jerome this is initially unpleasant experience, because he must deal with issues his middle class upbringing didn’t prepare him for – unbearable heat, terrible food, lack of privacy and presence of other young men with less education, less intelligence and less life ambitions than him, with some showing anti-Semitic bias. But the greatest challenge appears to be Sergeant Merwin J. Toomey (played by Christopher Walken), combat veteran and platoon’s drill instructor who uses some unusual methods of instilling discipline, which include practical jokes and psychological manipulation. While trying to endure all that, Jerome finds a time to lose virginity with local prostitute (played by Park Overall) while falling in love with local Catholic girl Daisy Hannigan (played by Penelope Ann Miller).

Film was directed by Mike Nichols, one of America’s most overrated film makers who was always more comfortable working on stage rather than big screen. Nichols makes solid job in Biloxi Blues, turning into an adequate but not particularly remarkable combination of very mild comedy and semi-nostalgic drama. There is some humour in the film, but it is drowned with scenes that use military drama cliches and some that take more serious approach while occasionally dealing with issues like ethnic prejudice, homosexuality and PTSD. The cast is very good, partly because some members, like Broderick, were recycled from original Broadway production. Broderick is good, but overshadowed by his colleagues which play much more fleshed out, interesting and more active characters, unlike Jerome, who is strangely passive for most of the film. This can’t be said of Christopher Walken, who used a lot of talent to deliver rather unusual portrayal of tough drill instructor who is at the same time intelligent and soft-spoken man. Musical score was written by famous French composer Georges Delerue, but it is not particularly memorable, unlike some 1940s pop hits that serve as much better soundtrack. The main problem for Biloxi Blues is lack of proper plot with almost nobody, including protagonist, going through some life-altering events; even the war, which should serve that purpose, ends before Jerome could actually take part in it, allowing him to keep nostalgic view of something that claimed the lives of tens of millions of people. We can only hope that whoever nowadays goes through same experiences as protagonist of Biloxi Blues, won’t have to mix nostalgia towards military service with that level of irony.

RATING: 5/10 (++)

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