Biloxi Blues is a 1988 American comedy film

Comedy film

Comedy film is a genre of film in which the main emphasis is on humour. They are designed to elicit laughter from the audience. Comedies are mostly light-hearted dramas and are made to amuse and entertain the audiences...

 directed by Mike Nichols

Mike Nichols

Mike Nichols is a German-born American television, stage and film director, writer, producer and comedian. He began his career in the 1950s as one half of the comedy duo Nichols and May, along with Elaine May. In 1968 he won the Academy Award for Best Director for the film The Graduate...

 and starring Matthew Broderick

Matthew Broderick

Matthew Broderick is an American film and stage actor who, among other roles, played the title character in Ferris Bueller's Day Off, Adult Simba in The Lion King film series, and Leo Bloom in the film and Broadway productions of The Producers.He has won two Tony Awards, one in 1983 for his...

. The screenplay

Screenplay

A screenplay or script is a written work that is made especially for a film or television program. Screenplays can be original works or adaptations from existing pieces of writing. In them, the movement, actions, expression, and dialogues of the characters are also narrated...

 by Neil Simon

Neil Simon

Neil Simon is an American playwright and screenwriter. He has written numerous Broadway plays, including Brighton Beach Memoirs, Biloxi Blues, and The Odd Couple. He won the 1991 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for his play Lost In Yonkers. He has written the screenplays for several of his plays that...

 is based on his semi-autobiographical

Autobiography

An autobiography is a book about the life of a person, written by that person.-Origin of the term:...

 1985 play of the same title.

Plot

The second chapter in what is known as Simon's Eugene trilogy

Eugene Trilogy

The Eugene Trilogy refers to three plays written by Neil Simon: the first being Brighton Beach Memoirs, the second is Biloxi Blues, and the third being Broadway Bound...

(the first being Brighton Beach Memoirs

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.-Characters:*Eugene Morris Jerome, almost 15...

and the third being Broadway Bound

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....

), the story centers around Eugene Morris Jerome, a 20-year-old Jewish Brooklyn

Brooklyn

Brooklyn is the most populous of New York City's five boroughs, with nearly 2.6 million residents, and the second-largest in area. Since 1896, Brooklyn has had the same boundaries as Kings County, which is now the most populous county in New York State and the second-most densely populated...

ite who is drafted into the United States Army

United States Army

The United States Army is the main branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for land-based military operations. It is the largest and oldest established branch of the U.S. military, and is one of seven U.S. uniformed services...

 during the last year of World War II and is sent to Biloxi, Mississippi

Biloxi, Mississippi

Biloxi is a city in Harrison County, Mississippi, in the United States. The 2010 census recorded the population as 44,054. Along with Gulfport, Biloxi is a county seat of Harrison County....

 for basic training. While there he learns to cope with fellow soldiers from all walks of life, falls in love, and loses his virginity in less than ideal circumstances, all while having to cope with an eccentric drill instructor.

Production notes

Period songs heard on the soundtrack include "How High the Moon

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....

" by Morgan Lewis

Morgan Lewis

Morgan Lewis may refer to:*Morgan Lewis , Governor of New York State, U.S.A.*Morgan Lewis *Morganics, hip hop artist Morgan Lewis-See also:*Morgan, Lewis & Bockius, law firm*Lewis Morgan...

 and Nancy Hamilton, "Blue Moon

Blue Moon (song)

"Blue Moon"'s first crossover recording to rock and roll came from Elvis Presley in 1956. His cover version of the song was included on his self-titled debut album Elvis Presley....

" by Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart, "Marie" by Irving Berlin

Irving Berlin

Irving Berlin was an American composer and lyricist of Jewish heritage, widely considered one of the greatest songwriters in American history.His first hit song, "Alexander's Ragtime Band", became world famous...

, "Solitude" by Duke Ellington

Duke Ellington

Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington was an American composer, pianist, and big band leader. Ellington wrote over 1,000 compositions...

, Irving Mills

Irving Mills

Irving Mills was a jazz music publisher, also known by the name of "Joe Primrose."Mills was born to Jewish parents in the Lower East Side of Manhattan in New York City. He founded Mills Music with his brother Jack in 1919...

, and Edgar DeLange, "Chattanooga Choo Choo

Chattanooga Choo Choo

"Chattanooga Choo Choo" is a song by Harry Warren and Mack Gordon . It was recorded in a big-band/swing manner by Glenn Miller and his orchestra and featured in the 1941 movie Sun Valley Serenade, which starred Sonja Henie, John Payne, Glenn Miller and his orchestra, The Modernaires, Milton Berle...

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

Don't Sit Under the Apple Tree (With Anyone Else but Me)

"Don't Sit Under the Apple Tree " is a popular song that was made famous by Glenn Miller and by the Andrews Sisters during World War II. Its lyrics are the words of two young lovers who pledge their fidelity while one of them is away serving in the war.Originally titled "Anywhere the Bluebird...

" by Sam H. Stept, Charles Tobias, and Lew Brown..

Cast

• Matthew Broderick
  Matthew Broderick
  Matthew Broderick is an American film and stage actor who, among other roles, played the title character in Ferris Bueller's Day Off, Adult Simba in The Lion King film series, and Leo Bloom in the film and Broadway productions of The Producers.He has won two Tony Awards, one in 1983 for his...
  
   ..... Eugene Morris Jerome
• Christopher Walken
  Christopher Walken
  Christopher Walken is an American stage and screen actor. He has appeared in more than 100 movies and television shows, including Joe Dirt, Annie Hall, The Deer Hunter, The Prophecy trilogy, The Dogs of War, Sleepy Hollow, Brainstorm, The Dead Zone, A View to a Kill, At Close Range, King of New...
  
   ..... Sergeant First Class Merwin J. Toomey
• Michael Dolan
  Michael Dolan
  Michael Dolan, born June 21, 1965, in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, USA, is an American theatre and film actor, director and educator.-Acting career:...
  
   ..... James J. Hennesey
• Matt Mulhern
  Matt Mulhern
  Matt Mulhern is an American actor 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....
  
   ..... Joseph Wykowski
• Corey Parker
  Corey Parker (actor)
  Corey Parker is an American actor and acting coach.-Biography:Corey Parker was born in New York City, the son of acting coach Rochelle "Rocky" Parker...
  
   ..... Arnold B. Epstein
• Casey Siemaszko
  Casey Siemaszko
  Casey Siemaszko is an American actor and the brother of actress Nina Siemaszko. He was born in Chicago, Illinois on March 17, 1961 to a Polish American father, a fighter in the Polish Underground who survived the Sachsenhausen concentration camp and an English mother.Siemaszko's best known film...
  
   ..... Don Carney
• Markus Flanagan
  Markus Flanagan
  -Life and career:Flanagan was born in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania. He co-starred in the Nickelodeon series Unfabulous as Jeff Singer, the father of Emma Roberts' character, from 2004 to 2007. Other television credits include CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, CSI: Miami, Judging Amy, and Northern Exposure...
  
  ..... Roy Selridge
• Penelope Ann Miller
  Penelope Ann Miller
  Penelope Ann Miller , sometimes credited as Penelope Miller, is an American actress...
  
   ..... Daisy
• Park Overall ..... Rowena

Critical reception

Vincent Canby

Vincent Canby

Vincent Canby was an American film critic who became the chief film critic for The New York Times in 1969 and reviewed more than 1000 films during his tenure there.-Life and career:...

 of the New York Times 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."

Roger Ebert

Roger Ebert

Roger Joseph Ebert is an American film critic and screenwriter. He is the first film critic to win a Pulitzer Prize for Criticism.Ebert is known for his film review column and for the television programs Sneak Previews, At the Movies with Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert, and Siskel and Ebert and The...

 of the Chicago Sun-Times

Chicago Sun-Times

The Chicago Sun-Times is an American daily newspaper published in Chicago, Illinois. It is the flagship paper of the Sun-Times Media Group.-History:The Chicago Sun-Times is the oldest continuously published daily newspaper in the city...

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."

Rita Kempley of the Washington Post 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 (magazine)

Variety is an American weekly entertainment-trade magazine founded in New York City, New York, in 1905 by Sime Silverman. With the rise of the importance of the motion-picture industry, Daily Variety, a daily edition based in Los Angeles, California, was founded by Silverman in 1933. In 1998, the...

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

Box office

The film opened on 1,239 screens in the US and earned $7,093,325 on its opening weekend, ranking #1 at the box office. It eventually grossed $43,184,798 in the US and $8,500,000 in foreign markets for a total worldwide box office of $51,684,798 .