Now admittedly I am an avid fan of Matthew Broderick and his name is enought to get me to consider a movie, however Biloxi Blues, producted in 1988 is worth seeing in its own right. It is basically a "coming of age" (including first love, first sexual encounter featureing a wonderfully played "sweet heartened prostitute named Rowena) movies of several new recruits to the army from the northeast (principally New York and New Jersey, but an occasional guy from Connecticut) showcasting Matthew Broderick as a writer looking back on his experience being in boot camp in the wilds of Biloxi Ms.
These guys are very dissimilar, and have issues with one another, but as Matthew's characters says at the end, while at the time he didnt like some of those guys, now in retrospect he loves them very much. This is, of course due to their youth and what they learned from each other about love, respect and honor. Not "honor" in any heroically public way, but simply the honor of being true to who they were as well as maintaining the code of the army.
There are several very interesting characters in this movie, all good in their own right. The rought and tough guy who can "eat anything" but in later years, we learn, ends up with an ulcer and overweight, the gay man who ends up "disappearing" who the writer realizes is the only one of the bunch willing to stand up for the underdogs amoung, and the super intelluectual and somewhat strange "sensitive guy". We truely see a cross section of human socieity in this movie. .
Christopher Walken plays a really good role of slightly eccentric non-com, trying to teach the new recruits what the army is all about. Altought one's first impression is to hate his character, on further review, it can be seen that he is honestly trying to get the guys to be who they are..with intregrity while forcing them to learn to survive in "this man's army". I found his characterization compellingly touching in final analysis.
For those not able to find the movie in their local video store or on the cable service they have in their homes, here is a link to a possible resource http://www.amazon.com/Biloxi-Blues-Matthew-Broderick/dp/B0000VV508 and btw in case you havent realized yet, I do recommend this movie for anyone interested in a true "coming of age" movie featuring how people from different walks of life and wildly variant viewpoints manage to find common ground when necessary.
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