BILOXI BLUES
US, 1988, 102 minutes, Colour.
Matthew Broderick, Christopher Walken, Penelope Ann Miller.
Directed by Mike Nichols.
Biloxi Blues is the second play in Neil Simon's autobiographical trilogy: Brighton Beach Memoirs (film directed by Gene Saks), Biloxi Blues and Broadway Bound. Matthew Broderick re-creates his role from Broadway for the screen. Broderick had appeared in the film version of Simon's Max Dugan Returns. Director of this film is Mike Nicholls, first time film director for a Neil Simon play. Nicholls brings his skills from the theatre and from cinema (Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf, The Graduate, Carnal Knowledge, Silkwood).
The film is familiar material: young man drafted into the army, undergoing training, eccentric officer, clashes between young soldiers. However, it is done with Simon's wit and humanity. The audience gets a vivid impression of this group of men, life in the Mississippi camp, tensions between the men -as well as a film about an adolescent's rites of passage. Christopher Walken is good playing, low-key, the eccentric and sometimes manic officer.
Brighton Beach Memoirs is rather low-key in its presentation of Eugene Jerome (the stage name for Simon) and his home years. The use of Panavision, the opening out of the play and Matthew Broderick's presence make Biloxi Blues an effective Neil Simon film.
1. The popularity of Neil Simon and his plays? Wit? His autobiography? American material with universal appeal?
2. The opening up of the play, Mike Nicholls and the use of Panavision, the train, the camp, Biloxi? The bridge at the opening and the ending? Musical score, the songs of the period and played blues-style?
3. Neil Simon and his writing skill, creation of characters and situations, wit? Jewish background, Brooklyn? The aspiring author, success? The film as a memoir - his voice-over? Matthew Broderick playing the role?
4. The title: Mississippi, army camp, 1945? Blues in the South for the man from the North?
5. The introduction: the train, the group in the train, the army, drafted, young men? Wykowski and his boorish manner, Arnold and his illness, the food, sleeping, talking jokes? One-liners? Introducing the characters? Audiences sharing Eugene's view of them?
6. The arrival at camp, Sergeant Twomey, picking on Eugene and making him the scapegoat, his use of push-ups as punishment, dormitory sequences, finishing their food, the forced marches, wading the river, the usual drill and training?
7. The group working together, their effect on each other, friendship and hostility? Talk? The long sequence of their telling their fantasies about their last week on earth - revelation of each's character? Overheard by Twomey? The Jewish prejudice? Getting Eugene's diary and reading it? The question of the stealing of the money and the accusations of Arnold? Eugene revealing his attitudes towards the others? Heroism or not, Arnold and homosexuality? The effect on him of their reading his work? His wanting to destroy it but Arnold telling him that lie had a right to his own thoughts?
8. Their going on leave, Arnold and the stealing of the money, the discussion about homosexuality, the sequence with the two men and one escaping through the window? Audience response to Hennessey, his being found out? The effect on him? - and the fantasy of his spending his last time with his family? Going to town, following the girls, the brothel, the men's nervousness, Wykowski and the other man and their brashness, Rowena as the mother-earth type, helping Eugene, the reactions, shyness?
9. Rowena and Eugene, her encouragement? Meeting Daisy at the dance, the nun supervising, friendship with Daisy, falling in love with her, their meetings, her place in his memoir?
10. Wykowski and his brutishness, the friends following him, anger and hurting each other? Hennessey and his supporting both Eugene and Arnold? Arnold and his differences? The challenge about Jewish prejudice? Humour?
11. Twomey and his manner, the plate in his head, background in the war, drilling and harshness, making Eugene the scapegoat, taking the money to teach Wykowski the lesson, Arnold owning up to it, the homosexuality incident and his point about the men? His being drunk, the gun, being reprimanded by the book? His disappearance - and their longing for his eccentricity?
12. The morale of the men, the war, the prospect of going to Europe or the Pacific, their training, watching the Abbott and Costello film, the contrast with the Movietone News and the visualising of death?
13. The end of the war and its effect on them? Eugene's comments about what happened to each of them - predictable or not? His memoir of those who had died in the war?
14. The glimpses into Neil Simon's life, insight into him, his experiences, the value of the diary and its helping him write this play and his understanding of human nature?
