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Corey Parker, right, as Epstein, receives some stern advice from Sgt.
Toomey, portrayed by Christopher Walken, in "Biloxi Blues."
Simon's 'Biloxi Blues'
Focuses On Jews' Roles
MICHAEL ELKIN
Special to The Jewish News
A
rnold Epstein, a Jew-
ish intellectual dis-
dainful of the
mindless instructions drilled
into him by his army drill
sergeant, gets no kick from
boot camp.
But the war he encounters
is on a different battlefield
from the one he had expected.
His basic training is as a
target for Jew-baiting.
"You're in the army now," he
is told, and Epstein must
marshal up an arsenal of in-
tellect to battle the bias buf-
feting him about.
Epstein is one of the core
characters of Neil Simon's
"Biloxi Blues," a fine film
adaptation of the
playwright's Tony Award-
winning Broadway hit (1985),
one in a trilogy of plays about
growing up Jewish.
Corey Parker grew up
Jewish, too. And, as Eptein he
brings a nicely defined sen-
sitivity to a role that might
have the actor biting his nails
in the audience next year at
the Academy Award
ceremonies.
The intellectual Epstein
smarts at the way he is
treated by the others, in-
cluding his friend Eugene
(Matthew Broderick), another
Jewish recruit, who sits out
the war of words and anti-
Semitism swirling around
Epstein.
"I always hated what I con-
sidered the stupidity of the
Army," says playwright
Simon, "and that's where the
character of Epstein came
from. I think he is, in a sense,
the alter ego of Eugene.
"It's Eugene split down in
half; it's the part of him that's
the renegade and the part of
him that's somewhat of a
conformist.
"I didn't know that when I
was writing it; it was only
when I was through with it
that I realized that Epstein
was in a sense the other side
of Eugene."
But nobody sides with Eps-
tein. And left alone to his own
devices, he stands out as a
moral marauder, marching to
his own civilized tune.
"I admire him quite a bit,"
says Parker. "He's so strong-
willed, so committed. I've
never met anyone like that."
Maybe the actor has only to
look in a mirror. Parker
reflects on his own
background, growing up in
Woodstock, N.Y., in a .family
committed to honest values —
honest Jewish values.
"I get passionate about
things that I believe in," just
like Epstein, says Parker, 23.
"I get passionate if we're talk-
ing about South Africa, civil
rights, things done to animals
in laboratories, about people
abusing power."
There is an undercurrent of
urgency, a subtle power that
energizes Parker's Epstein.
Maybe it's what he experienc-
ed himself while the crew
shot in and around Arkansas.
"The whole experience
there mirrored the script,"
rcalls Parker, an accomplish-
ed actor whose film credits in-
clude "91/2 Weeks" and
"Angel Heart" and who has
guest-starred on television's
"Bronx Zoo" and "As the
World Turns."
Arkansas was a world apart
from woodsy Woodstock,
where Epstein grew up in an
environmental "blending of
the Me Generation and
rebellion."
"There were actually some
people there in Arkansas who
said, 'I've never seen a Jew
before.' "
And what they saw they
didn't necessarily like. "They
made lots of negative com-
ments about Jews."
May the New Year Bring
Health, Happiness and
Prosperity to all our Friends
and Family
garlietirr in pact
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