Movie recommendation – Biloxi Blues (1988)

As the quizzing goes on simultaneously, let’s divert our energies a bit and talk about a good movie. Well, this in no way is intended to be your quintessential expert movie review. Neither will I be reviewing any recent release critically nor will I be giving any star rating in the end. No. Rather, I would like to use this blog to talk a little about some not-so-popular movies which I liked a lot and think you’ll would do so. These movies could be of any language and Googling on their names might fetch you some bogus links. But that’s the idea – talk about some rare but good movies.

Today’s recommendation is actually a reasonably well known movie in certain circles, but again, not mainstream. I love world war movies. Heck, I love anything to do with world wars. Especially, World War 2. So a lot of my favorite movies, books, series etc. tend to be based on WW2. This movie is one of those WW2 movies, if you will. But it’s not your typical war movie with bodies of soldiers flying around and platoon leaders going bonkers over the radio. The movie Biloxi Blues is more about the lives of soldiers in the barracks and the little incidents and stories that go on between them as they prepare to go the battlefield.

The story revolves around that of new army recruit Eugene Jerome (Matthew Broderick) and his fellow soldiers in his platoon which is led by Sergeant Toomey. As Eugene learns the ropes of fighting, he matures to be a man and observes the various eccentricities of his fellow soldiers and records them in his personal diary. Really, one of the things I liked the most about this movie were the characters played by unknown actors. There is the God fearing Epstein (Corey Parker) who despises anything wordly, then the flamboyant Joseph Wykowski (Matt Mulhern) who thinks of himself as the most dashing man around. Then Don Carney (Casey Siemaszko), who’s the best mate of Eugene and finds solace in the fact that Eugene, like himself, is also a virgin and he’s not alone in his attempts to losing it.

But of course, the man who takes the movie to a different level is the veteran, Christopher Walken, who plays the character of Sgt. Toomey to perfection. Toomey is your typical strict sarge who has seen the worst of wars and is a man toughened by those many years seeing bloodshed and deaths around. He doesn’t tolerate any indiscipline nor any weak hearted soldiers. He’s tough and doesn’t mind making his men pee their pants to make them tough. But he also doesn’t like smart alecs and soldiers being too perfect for his comfort. He wants a reason to thrash his men and wants to be a hated man himself. He puts his men under the test by openly abusing them and wants them to face it tough ‘coz there ain’t any room for any mother loving pansy. In all this tough play, Toomey gets into some knotty situations with his men and finds himself getting a taste of his own medicine.

The movie ends with Toomey making his pet-hate, Epstein, punish Toomey himself. The best moment comes when Epstein orders to Toomey to “count off”. It’s these small incidents and characters which make the movie memorable. It kind of reminds one of the Beetle Bailey or MASH series. I’m not saying it’s the greatest movie you’re ever gonna watch. In fact, it’s far from that. But it is a nice, feel-good Sunday watch and if you are a war movie fan like me, you would want to watch this to see the world war from a lighter perspective.

How to get the movie – You’d be really lucky if you get hold of it’s rented CD/DVD or even torrent. At least I could not find it. But you might want to check out the listings of HBO or Sony Pix which have shown this movie a few times. Also, in case you find this in a store, buy it. Youtube will give you a few clippings.