Stripes (1981)

Stripes (1981)

Stripes is everything I want from a movie involving the director/actor tandem of Ivan Reitman and Bill Murray. The movie is raucous, irreverent, and just a silly movie in general. Towards the end, the movie loses some steam, but I cannot deny how involved I was for the first hour or so. As a movie that pokes fun of the military and basic training, I was reminded of 1980’s Private Benjamin which I was lukewarm on. That particular movie featured some fine comedic moments but Goldie Hawn’s romance sidetracked the film. This film, however, stays true to the military from start to finish as it antes up the comedy level. It’s not every movie that features explosive weapons where we can find hilarious, albeit questionable uses of kitchen utensils!

If you went into this movie blind, you would be forgiven if you thought this was a National Lampoon movie. The same kind of raucousness you might have seen in Animal House is seen here. The writer behind that film, Harold Ramis happens to be one of the writers for Stripes. He took his experience from Animal House and Caddyshack and made it work here. When the film is at its best, the jokes are a hoot! The tandem of Ivan Reitman and Bill Murray return after the success of Meatballs (which I still need to see given the talent involved). A bigger budget allowed them to do bigger things here. Maybe the money could have been spent more wisely considering the third act of the movie.

John Winger (Bill Murray) is having a horrible day. Within a few hours, he lost his girlfriend, job, car, and home. Having enough with his miserable life, he enlists in the army. He convinces his best friend, Russell (Harold Ramis) to do the same. They are clearly going to be the misfits of the military. When they begin basic training, they are paired with other misfits. The class is led by the hard-headed Sgt. Hulka (Warren Oates). As basic training moves forward, Winger and Russell keep finding themselves bailed out of sticky situations by Stella (P.J Soles) and Louise (Sean Young). After training ends, the men find themselves in Italy to test a new urban assault vehicle. When they take a test drive with the vehicle to visit the women, who were stationed in Germany, the rest of the platoon and Sgt. Hulka finds themselves in communist territory.

Bill Murray excels at comedy to say the least. He was funny in Caddyshack, but he was even better here. My favorite scene with him is when he goes on a rant about “Old Yeller.” Prior to this film, Harold Ramis was known only as a comedy writer and not as an actor because of his unconventional looks. Murray and Reitman made Columbia allow him to act on the project, as the studio did not like his audition video. It was an excellent idea to bring a veteran like Warren Oates to the cast. He traditionally acted in many Westerns and Reitman wanted to bring those strong sensitivities to the movie. There was a fine dramatic scene between him and Murray that worked well because of that and it allowed Murray to get his feet in the realm of drama. PJ Soles from Halloween and Sean Young have great chemistry. The supporting cast is loaded with talent. John Candy, John Larroquete, Judge Reinhold. A great list of household names!

The movie does not completely derail in the end, but it is a small disappointment what happens. The movie has a very strong first half with the basic training and character moments. By some golden rule, every movie must have an extravagant third act. There is nothing wrong with that, but not every movie needs it. Stripes is a prime example of that. While the production was well-made, I did not think the whole communist part of the story worked well with the rest. I just wanted my basic training farce, which thankfully the movie spent a good hour plus on. Speaking of character moment, the one scene I loved took place in the beginning. This dude named Psycho is telling everyone that they would die if they touched his belongings. Sgt. Hulka’s response? “Lighten up.”

Overall, Stripes is a good comedy that could have been better if the third act was changed. Bill Murray and his merry gang definitely had a great time making the movie as they know how to be funny! I loved the basic training material and although I was lukewarm on Private Benjamin, these two would make a good double feature. The movie was a great success for Ivan Reitman, Murray, and Ramis. The trio would reunite three years later to create one of the most successful movies of all time, Ghostbusters.

My Grade: B