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A film based on the second play in Neil Simon's "Eugene trilogy," Biloxi Blues is set during the later half of World War II, and follows the story of Eugene Jerome (Matthew Broderick) as he heads to the film's eponymous town for basic army training. There, he comes face-to-face with the kooky drill sergeant by the name of Merwin J. Toomey (Christopher Walken), and tries to get along with other soldiers in his platoon.
Tropes used in Biloxi Blues include:
- A Man Is Not a Virgin: Eugene makes losing his virginity one of the goals of his Army tenure.
- Character Development
- Dawson Casting
- Deadpan Snarker: It's a Neil Simon play, so pretty much everyone really.
- Drill Sergeant Nasty
- Enforced Method Acting
- Future Badass: In the film's Where Are They Now? Epilogue, Eugene states in the narration that Epstein became a lawyer whom the mob called "The most feared man in Manhattan."
- Gallows Humor: Toomey talks about the steel plate in his head.
- Informed Judaism
- I Should Write a Book About This
- "Just Joking" Justification
- Large Ham
- Mistaken for Gay: Epstein, when it turnes out to be Hennessey who's gay.
- Physical Fitness Punishment: The entire platoon is made to do two hundred pushups for some soldier's impertinent comment.
- Inverted in the end when Toomey is forced by the other men to undergo the same punishment.
- Potty Emergency: Epstein is forced to do the two hundred pushups while having to pee the entire time.
- Ragtag Bunch of Misfits
- Sex as Rite-of-Passage
- Something Blues
- Where Are They Now? Epilogue
- World War II