WORLD TOUR Day 15 - Biloxi, Mississippi
BEFORE: From Baton Rouge it's just a quick hop over to Biloxi, the setting for the first of 2 films on the tour that are based on Neil Simon plays. Linking from "All the King's Men", Sean Penn was also in "At Close Range" with Christopher Walken (last seen in "Man on Fire").
THE PLOT: A group of young recruits go through boot camp during the Second World War in Biloxi Mississippi.
AFTER: I found this to be a pretty basic soldier film, perhaps I've just seen too many films set in boot camp - and to this film's detriment, it's ONLY set at boot camp. I almost feel like it tells half a story, since we never see these soldiers go off to war. In addition, it relies on stereotypes for most of its humor - the nervous, nebbishy Jews, the hot-headed Polack, the deranged shell-shocked sergeant. Yes, stereotypes save time, but they also sort of cheapen the character development. But hey, an appropriate shout-out tonight to Rosh Hashanah.
Simplicity seems to be the overall goal here - army food sucks, 10-mile hikes are hard, losing one's virginity is awkward. Each element feels like something I've seen in a dozen other films. And the tone is half-comic, half-dramatic, so that places it somewhere midway between "Stripes" and "Full Metal Jacket".
The most interesting and confusing part was probably the last act, when the platoon's sergeant really goes off the deep end, and really, isn't Christopher Walken the go-to guy for that sort of thing? He was drunk and walking around with a loaded gun, and when he pulled one of the men aside, I wasn't sure if he was going to shoot him or kiss him, or possibly both. Sort of reminiscent of the end of "American Beauty".
The main significance of this film is probably the reference to gays in the military. This is set in 1945, when homosexual acts would send an enlisted man to military prison. Yet obviously they still took place, and that seems worth pointing out. Over the last decade, some people mistakenly thought the issue was whether gays should serve in the military, which fails to recognize that they always have been there, just hiding their feelings.
At the end, the voiceover does one of those "Where are they now" descriptions of the men in the unit, and one is described as a teacher who never got married and loves musical theater. With all the stereotyping going on, I wondered if this was also code for gay, and thus maybe the wrong man stood accused.
I've got a personal vendetta against movies that end this way: "And then, I became a writer. And I wrote a play, which became the movie you're watching RIGHT NOW." Any way you slice it, it's a narrative cop-out. Except for maybe in "Adaptation", which was weird enough to get away with it.
DISTANCE TRAVELED TODAY: 131 miles / 212 km (Baton Rouge, LA to Biloxi, MS)
DISTANCE TRAVELED SO FAR: 3,148 miles / 5,076 km
Also starring Matthew Broderick (last heard in "The Lion King 2"), Corey Parker, Casey Siemaszko (last seen in "The Phantom"), Penelope Ann Miller (last seen in "Carlito's Way"), Park Overall (last seen in another Mississippi-set film, "Mississippi Burning").
RATING: 5 out of 10 footlockers
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