Biloxi blues character descriptions

BILOXI BLUES
Biloxi Blues is the second play of Neil Simon’s autobiographical trilogy that includes Brighton Beach Memoirs (1984), Biloxi Blues (1985) and Broadway Bound (1986).

Neil Simon wrote both the play and the screenplay. I heard him interviewed on public radio where he made the comparison of writing for the stage and for the screen. Basically, he said that for the stage the dialogue keeps evolving as he hears the actors speak it, and it becomes a very intimate experience between him and the actor; whereas in a film, he must edit the dialogue to suit a committee.

When a play is adapted to a film, most of the time we’ve found that the screenwriter edits, deletes or combines dialogue or even characters in the attempt to condense the material in order to allow the medium of film to tell the story. There are many examples in Biloxi Blues of the many differences inherent in adapting from film to screen.

Let’s start with the physicality of the compactness of a stage presentation versus the expansiveness of the screenplay. Basically, the play and screenplay open with the same scene. The main characters are on a train heading to Biloxi, Mississippi. In the play the scene is not true to reality, but is described on page 7 of the play script as: “All set pieces are representational, stylized and free-flowing”. In the movie we see the actual train, etc.

The play then goes on to introduce all the main characters. The major difference between the play and screenplay lies in the description of some of the characters. The playwright usually will describe his characters in more detail than the screenwriter will. In the play, so much of the story development and how we come to visualize the characters are through the playwright’s “painting” them through his descriptions. In the screenplay, the descriptions are briefer, broader, and allow for many different actors to play the various parts. For example, the description of Roy as smelling like a tuna fish sandwich is omitted from the actual screenplay.

(1) In the play, the transition from the first scene on the train to the second scene in the barracks is done with Carney’s singing. In the screenplay, the next scene occurs with the men arriving at the base. Because this is a movie, the writer takes advantage of the visual element of the film by taking the scene outdoors. This change fits nicely with Jerome’s line: “This is like Africa hot. Tarzan couldn’t take this kind of hot” (Simon, 1988, p.12).

Theatre 383-Drama Into Film Instructor, Carole Wyand pg.2

BILOXI BLUES
The line is more effective in the movie because we can actually see how hot it is in Mississippi.

In the next scene when we meet Toomey, the eccentric drill sergeant, Neil Simon has edited the speech he gives to the men. It’s basically the same except that certain sections have been omitted (page 14).

The tendency in adaptation is to condense. Another example is the backstory on Toomey, which is condensed for the screenplay. Long pieces of dialogue that work in the play need to be cut to work in the screenplay; this allows for a faster pace to hold the audience’s attention.

In this same scene, the dialogue between Toomey and Eugene is edited or condensed. Here’s a good example on page 15 of the play. When Toomey questions Eugene he says," In my twelve years in the army, I never met one goddamn dog face who came from 1427 Pulaski Ave. Why is that Jerome?” Eugene answers, “Because it’s my home, only my family lives there. I’m sorry, I meant I live in Brighton Beach, Brooklyn New York”. This exchange is interesting back-story, but it would only slow down the action of the screenplay. Backstory on Wykowsi being a furniture mover is also omitted, as well as Toomey’s reply, “That’s just what they need in the South Pacific, Wykowski. Someone who knows how to move furniture around in the jungle” (Simon, 1988 pg. 17). A very funny line I would have had a hard time deleting if I were the playwright. The back-story on Carney and the shoe store is also omitted.

As mentioned earlier, sometimes characters are combined, but in this case we see an interesting change from play to screenplay when Simon switches the man Toomey singles out to pick the men to do punishment from Private Carney to Eugene. This serves to immediately intensify Eugene’s role and problems as the protagonist. In the stage and screenplay, Neil Simon presents Eugene as the main protagonist and Toomey as the main antagonist; therefore, we have conflict! But how this is presented has been adapted for the screen. When the antagonist, Toomey, focuses on Jerome as the cause of the Platoons’ problem, the approach to presenting this situation differs from the play to screenplay. In the play, Toomey uses dialogue to single Jerome out: “As the sweat pours off your brows and your puny muscles strain to lift your flabby, chubby, jellied bodies, think of Private Jerome of Brighton Beach...Fate always chooses someone to get a free ride” (Simon, 1988 pg. 21).