The movie improved on the play but the play is excellent, for me better than Brighton Beach Memoirs because it is stronger dramatically and funnier. Maybe I just found WW2 more interesting than Jewish families.
Simon's skill never more apparent than in two showpieces scenes - the troops talking about their last five days, and the reading of the journal.
Female characters aren't much - the hooker was funny but Daisy was dull. This is compensated by some superb characters - the wishy washy soldier, the drill sergeant with a steel plate in his head and most of all Epstein, Eugene's fellow Jew, smart, Talmudic and full of trouble... he's really the protagonist as much as Eugene.
It is a serious comedy too about Jewishness and homosexuality and the importance of participation in the army. This deserves to rank among Simon's masterpieces.
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