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This is a radical good-for-nothing movie, a
celebration of everything that is disrespectful, reckless, foolish,
undisciplined, and occasionally scatological. It’s a lot of fun. Roger Ebert
noted in his review, “It comes from some of the same people involved in
“National Lampoon’s Animal House,” and could have been titled National
Lampoon's Animal Army with little loss of accuracy. As a comedy about a couple
of misfits who find themselves in the U.S. Army's basic training program, it
obviously resembles Goldie Hawn's “Private Benjamin.” But it doesn't duplicate
that wonderful movie; they could play on the same double feature. “Stripes” has
the added advantage of being a whole movie about the Army, rather than half a
movie (“Private Benjamin” got sidetracked with Hawn's love affair).”
The movie is not only a victory for its stars (Bill
Murray and Harold Ramis) and its director (Ivan Reitman), but a type of evidence.
Ebert mentioned, “To explain: Reitman directed, and Murray starred in, the
enormously successful “Meatballs,” which was an entertaining enough comedy but
awfully ragged. No wonder. It was shot on a shoestring with Canadian
tax-shelter money. What Murray and Reitman prove this time is that, given a
decent budget, they can do superior work--certainly superior to “Meatballs,”
for starters. For Harold Ramis, who plays Murray's grave-eyed, flat-voiced,
terminally detached partner in “Stripes,” this is a chance, at last, to come
out from behind the camera.” Ramis and Murray are both former Second City
actors, but in Hollywood, Ramis has been typecast as a writer, maybe because he
sometimes looks too goofy for Hollywood’s unimaginative thoughts.
In “Stripes,” Murray and Ramis make a wonderful team.
Their big strength is restraint. Given the tendency of movies like this to corrupt
into disobedient slapstick, they smartly choose to play their characters as modest,
laid-back rebels. Murray joins the Army in a why-not mood after his girlfriend,
played by Roberta Leighton, kicks him out, and Ramis joins because one stupid
gesture deserves another. They’re older than the usual Army recruit, less
easily impressed with crazy marketing, and quietly amazed at their drill
instructor, Sergeant Hulka, who is played by Warren Oates with a strict
insanity.
The movie has especially good writing in several
scenes. Ebert admitted, “My favorite comes near the beginning, during a session
when recruits in the new platoon get to know one another. One obviously psycho
draftee, who looks like Robert De Niro, quietly announces that if his fellow
soldiers touch him, touch his stuff, or interfere in any way with his person or
his privacy, he will quite simply be forced to kill them.” Sergeant Hulka
replies: “Lighten up!” the movie’s plot follows basic training, more or less,
during its first hour. Then a romance enters. Murray and Ramis meet a couple of
cute young military policewomen, played by P.J. Soles and Sean Young, and they
happily violate every rule in the book. One funny scene: Murray and Soles sneak
into the kitchen of the base commander’s house and do extraordinary things with
kitchen utensils.
There is not rule that says the last half hour of
these movies has to involve some type of extraordinary development. Ebert
noted, “In “Animal House,” it was the homecoming parade.” In “Stripes,” the
climax has the Army’s secret weapon, which is a computerized, armored, nuclear
weapons carrier disguised as a recreational vehicle. Murray’s platoon is tasked
to go to Europe and test it. Murray, Ramis, and their girls decide to test it during
a weekend holiday getaway through the Alps. After they cross the Iron Curtain,
insanity starts happening.
“Stripes” is a complete success on its planned level –
it’s great, disrespectful entertainment – but it was successful, too, as a breakthrough
for Ramis, Reitman, and Murray, on their way to “Ghostbusters.” Comedy is one
of the hardest film genres to work in. Nobody knows all its secrets, not even Woody
Allen and Mel Brooks. Here’s a comedy from people who know some of the secrets
most of the time.
I had seen posters to this movie before. Maybe I must
have glossed over it when I looked at the library when I was trying to find a
film to watch, but when I saw it on Netflix, I decided to check it out while I
was exercising. This is one of the funniest movies ever made. If you have not
seen this and you’re a fan of Ramis, Murray, and Reitman, check this out. This
is currently available to stream on Paramount+, Showtime, and Hulu. See it and
have a great time laughing at it.
Look out next week when I look at a film that is about
a director that has been criticized harshly in “Bill Murray Month.”
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