Stripes (film)

Infobox Film
name = Stripes


image_size =
caption = Theatrical release poster
director = Ivan Reitman
producer = Daniel Goldberg
Ivan Reitman
writer = Len Blum
Harold Ramis
Daniel Goldberg
narrator =
starring = Bill Murray
Harold Ramis
Warren Oates
music = Elmer Bernstein
cinematography = Bill Butler
editing = Harry Keller
Michael Luciano
Eva Ruggiero
distributor = Columbia Pictures
released = June 26, 1981
runtime = 106 minutes
country = USA
language = English/Czech
budget = $10,000,000 (estimated)
gross = $85,297,000 (USA)
preceded_by =
followed_by =
website =
amg_id = 1:47404
imdb_id = 0083131

"Stripes" is a 1981 American comedy film starring Bill Murray, Harold Ramis, Warren Oates, and P.J. Soles. The director was Ivan Reitman. "Stripes" also featured several noted actors in their first significant movie roles, including John Larroquette, Sean Young, and Judge Reinhold. It was one of Canadian comedian John Candy's early breakthrough film appearances. Dave Thomas, Bill Paxton and Timothy Busfield are also in one scene apiece. The film was among Oates's last films, as he died of a sudden heart attack the year after it was released.

Plot summary

John Winger (Bill Murray) is a cab driver in his late 20s who experiences the worst day of his life. In the span of just a few hours, he loses his job, his car is repossessed, he drops his pizza on the street, and his girlfriend dumps him. Realizing that his life is a failure, he decides he needs a new direction. At that moment, a recruiting ad for the U.S. Army plays on the television, and he decides that is just what he needs to get in shape (and meet girls). Talking his best friend, English-as-a-second-language teacher Russell Ziskey (Harold Ramis), whose own life is not doing too well either, into joining, they quickly drive to the nearest recruiting office and are soon off to basic training.

Upon arrival at basic training at "Fort Arnold" (filmed at Fort Knox), they meet their fellow recruits. Moments after arriving, Winger has already offended their drill sergeant, Sergeant Hulka (Warren Oates), and stands out as a misfit throughout basic training. Their commanding officer is Captain Stillman (John Larroquette), a blowhard incompetent and suck-up. As basic training progresses, Ziskey and Winger become closer to a pair of attractive female MPs named Stella and Louise (P.J. Soles and Sean Young) on the base, and quickly become friends with the rest of their platoon. However, not long before graduation, Sergeant Hulka is injured in a freak mortar accident caused by Captain Stillman's incompetence.

On their first leave, the men go out to a seamy mud wrestling bar. When the club is raided by MPs, Stella and Louise cover for Winger and Ziskey, while the rest of the platoon is hauled back to base to face Captain Stillman. Stillman threatens to force them to repeat the entire course of Basic Training, as they are unlikely to pass muster at the graduation ceremony scheduled for the next day.

The situation looks bleak until Winger and Ziskey return (after having sex with their girlfriends in General Barnicke's home while he was away). Winger manages to motivate his platoon with a rousing speech, and begins to get them in shape for graduation. However, after a long night of drilling, they oversleep and almost miss the ceremony. Without time to even get dressed properly, they run to the parade grounds thoroughly out of uniform and give a highly unconventional, but nevertheless impressive, drill display led by Winger. When General Barnicke finds out that they had to complete training without a drill sergeant, he decides they are just the kind of "go-getters" he wants working on a secret project in Italy.

Once in Italy, their mission is to guard the EM-50 Urban Assault Vehicle (disguised to look like a large recreational vehicle, specifically, a late 70s GMC motorhome). What would seem to be an easy assignment gets a little harsher when a recovered Sgt. Hulka arrives, but it remains fairly cushy. Bored with sitting around an empty hangar, John and Russell steal the top-secret EM-50 (by telling the MP guard they're taking it "to get it washed") to visit their MP girlfriends Stella and Louise, now stationed in West Germany. When Stillman finds the EM-50 missing (he was taking his date to show it off to "her"), he launches a questionable mission to get the vehicle back without his superiors knowing it was gone.

On a dark and stormy night, Stillman deliberately leads his platoon across the border into the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic (where the director was born). Sgt. Hulka, who accompanied Stillman and the platoon and repeatedly warned Stillman not to proceed, jumps out of their truck before it is captured, having realized where they are and what has happened. When Hulka makes a Mayday radio broadcast explaining the situation, Winger and Ziskey in the EM-50 realize that their platoon came looking for them and that the U.S. Department of Defense will deny everything — their buddies are in big trouble behind the Iron Curtain. With no hope for rescue other than them, Winger, Ziskey, and their two MP girlfriends take the Urban Assault Vehicle and, with occasional help from the stealthy Sgt. Hulka, manage to break everyone out and trash the Soviet base (surprisingly, without killing anybody). In the end, Winger, Ziskey, Stella, Louise, and Hulka are each awarded the Distinguished Service Cross, Sgt. Hulka retires with honor and begins the HulkaBurger franchise, Stella appears on the cover of "Penthouse" and Captain Stillman is reassigned to a weather station near Nome, Alaska; a promise made him by commanding officer Colonel Glass if he screwed up the mission.

elected cast

*Bill Murray as John Winger
*Harold Ramis as Russell Ziskey
*Warren Oates as Sgt. Hulka
*P.J. Soles as MP Stella Hansen
*Sean Young as MP Louise Cooper
*John Candy as Pvt. Dewey "Ox" Oxburger
*John Larroquette as Capt. Stillman
*John Voldstad as Cpl. Tyson
*John Diehl as Pvt. Cruiser
*Lance LeGault as Col. Glass
*Roberta Leighton as Anita
*Conrad Dunn as Pvt. Francis "Psycho" Sawyer
*Judge Reinhold as Pvt. Elmo Blum

Production

On his way to the premiere of "Meatballs", Ivan Reitman thought up the idea for a film: "Cheech and Chong join the army."cite news
last = Gillis
first = Michael
coauthors =
title = Stars and Stripes
work =
pages =
language =
publisher = Columbia Pictures
date = 2006
url =
accessdate = ] He pitched it to Paramount Pictures and they greenlit the film that day. Len Blum and Dan Goldberg wrote the screenplay in Toronto and read it to Reitman, who was in Los Angeles, over the phone. The director, in turn, would give the writers notes. Reitman gave Cheech and Chong's manager the script who read it and thought it was very funny. He gave it to the comedians but they wanted complete control. Reitman then suggested to Goldberg that they change the two main characters to ones suited for Bill Murray and Harold Ramis, figuring if they could get Ramis interested and let him tailor the script for the two of them, he could convince Murray to do it.

Ramis had already co-written "National Lampoon's Animal House" and "Meatballs" but was unknown as an actor. He screen-tested for Columbia Pictures who hated his audition but Reitman told the studio that he was hiring the comedian anyway. Judge Reinhold played Elmo who was a collection of all the best jokes from the Cheech and Chong version of the film. The casting agent picked Sean Young based on how she looked and Reitman felt that her "sweetness" would go well with Ramis. P.J. Soles tested with Ramis and they got along very well together. John Diehl had never auditioned before and this was his first paying job as an actor. Reitman was a fan of the westerns that Warren Oates had been in and wanted someone who was strong and that everyone respected to control the film's misfit platoon. Goldberg knew John Candy from Toronto and told Reitman that he should be in the film. Candy did not have to audition.

Before filming started, Reinhold thought that he had a handle on his character but once filming started, he was "petrified" because this was his first big studio film. Every scene had some element of improvisation and this was due in large part to Murray and Ramis who suggested things for him to say and this spread to other cast members. Reinhold said that during filming, Oates would tell everyone stories about working on films like "The Wild Bunch" and they would be enthralled. Reitman wanted, "a little bit of weight in the center," and had a serious argument between Hulka and Winger. It was not played for laughs and allowed Murray to do something he had not done before. During filming one of the obstacle courses scenes, Reitman told the actors to grab Oates and drag him into the mud without telling the veteran actor about it to see what would happen and get a genuine reaction. Oates' front tooth got chipped in the process and he yelled at Reitman for what he did.

Much of the mud wrestling scene was made up on the spot by Reitman. Candy felt uncomfortable during filming but Reitman talked him through it. The production was allowed to shoot the army base scenes in Fort Knox, the city scenes in Louisville, Kentucky, and the Czechoslovakia scenes in the Jim Beam distillery with a budget of $9-10 million in 42 days. Reitman was amazed that they got the Department of Defense's cooperation. The spatula scene in the General's house was filmed at three in the morning after the cast and crew were up the entire day. Murray improvised the "Aunt Jemima Treatment" sequence and Soles reacted naturally to whatever he said and did.

Reaction

"Stripes" was released on June 26, 1981 and made $6,130,197 in 1,074 theaters on its opening weekend. It eventually grossed $85 million in North America. [cite news
last =
first =
coauthors =
title = "Stripes"
work =
pages =
language =
publisher = Box Office Mojo
date = December 11, 2007
url = http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=stripes.htm
accessdate = 2007-12-11 ]

"Stripes" currently holds a 91 % "fresh" rating at Rotten Tomatoes. Roger Ebert in his "Chicago Sun-Times" review praised it as "an anarchic slob movie, a celebration of all that is irreverent, reckless, foolhardy, undisciplined, and occasionally scatological. It's a lot of fun." [cite news
last = Ebert
first = Roger
coauthors =
title = "Stripes"
work =
pages =
language =
publisher = Chicago Sun-Times
date = January 1, 1981
url = http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/19810101/REVIEWS/101010368/1023
accessdate = 2007-10-09 ] Janet Maslin of the "New York Times" called it "a lazy but amiable comedy" and praised Murray for achieving "a sardonically exaggerated calm that can be very entertaining." [cite news
last = Maslin
first = Janet
coauthors =
title = "Stripes" and the Biggest Wise Guy in the Army
work =
pages =
language =
publisher = New York Times
date = June 26, 1981
url =
accessdate = ] Gary Arnold, in his review for the "Washington Post", wrote, "Stripes" squanders at least an hour belaboring situations contradicted from the outset by Murray's personality. The premise and star remain out of whack until the rambling, diffuse screenplay finally struggles beyond basic training." [cite news
last = Arnold
first = Gary
coauthors =
title = Low-Ranking "Stripes"
work =
pages =
language =
publisher = Washington Post
date = June 26, 1981
url =
accessdate = ]

As a result of its use as such in the movie, the song Do Wah Diddy Diddy has since become a popular cadence in the US military.

References

External links

*imdb title|id=0083131|title=Stripes
*amg movie|id=1:47404|title=Stripes
*rotten-tomatoes|id=stripes|title=Stripes
* [http://www.fast-rewind.com/stripes.htm Stripes at the 80s Movie Gateway]