Stripes (film)

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Stripes

The movie poster for Stripes.
Directed by Ivan Reitman
Produced by Ivan Reitman
Written by Len Blum
Harold Ramis
Daniel Goldberg
Starring Bill Murray
Harold Ramis
John Candy
Music by Elmer Bernstein
Distributed by Columbia Pictures
Release date(s) June 26, 1981
Running time 106 min.
Language English
Budget $10,000,000 (estimated)
IMDb profile

Stripes is a 1981 American comedy film starring Bill Murray, Harold Ramis, and Warren Oates. 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 John Candy's earliest appearances. Bill Paxton and Timothy Busfield are also in one scene apiece. It was also among Oates's last films, as he died of a sudden heart attack the year after it was released.

This film is number 18 on Bravo's "100 Funniest Movies".

Contents

[edit] Plot summary

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

John Winger (Bill Murray) is a 30ish cab driver 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, and his girlfriend dumps him. Realizing that his life is a failure, he decides he needs a new direction in life. At that moment a recruiting ad for the United States 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, Russell Ziskey (Harold Ramis), whose own life is not doing too well either, into joining, they quickly drive to the nearest recruiting office and head off to basic training.

Upon arrival at Basic Training at "Fort Arnold" (actually filmed at Fort Knox), they meet their fellow recruits, and only 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. As Basic Training progresses, Ziskey and Winger become closer to a pair of attractive female M.P.'s named Stella and Louise (P.J. Soles and Sean Young) on the base, and quickly become friends with the rest of their platoon. However, the day before graduation, Sergeant Hulka is injured in a freak mortar accident as a shell from the artillery range hits a training course elsewhere in the camp (an accident caused by Stillman's incompetence).

That night, the men go out to a mud wrestling bar on leave. When the club is raided by M.P.'s, 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, and it is clear that only a good performance in front of the General at graduation tomorrow can save them.

Everything looks gloomy, until Winger and Ziskey return (after having made out with their girlfriends in the General's home while he was away). Winger manages to motivate his platoon, and begins to get them in shape for graduation. However, after a long night of studying, they oversleep and almost sleep through graduation. Without time to 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 the General finds out that they had to complete their Basic Training before their injured Drill Sergeant could be replaced (and developed this routine on their own), he decides they are just the kind of "go-getters" he wants working on a special project in Italy.

Once in Italy, their mission is to guard the EM-50 Urban Assault Vehicle (which looks from the outside like a large motorhome). Bored with sitting around an empty hangar, John and Russel take the EM-50 (they tell the guard they're taking it "to get it washed") to visit Stella and Louise, who are now stationed in West Germany. However, when Captain Stillman finds the EM-50 missing (as he was taking his date to show it off to her), he launches a secret mission to get the vehicle back (not wanting to make the mission official, for fear of how it'd look to his superiors). Along the way, Stillman accidentally leads them across the border into Soviet-allied Czechoslovakia. Sgt. Hulka, who accompanied Stillman and the platoon and had repeatedly warned Stillman not to proceed, jumps out of the truck before it is captured, having realized where they are and what has happened. When Hulka makes a Mayday radio broadcast explaining what happened, Winger and Ziskey realize that their platoon came looking for them and that the U.S. Defense Department will deny having any troops there - thus, they'll be trapped behind the Iron Curtain. With no chance for rescue other than them, Winger, Ziskey, and their two M.P. girlfriends take the EM-50 and, with some unseen help from Sgt. Hulka, manage to break everyone out. 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.

[edit] Reaction

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." 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."

[edit] Box Office

Stripes holds a 88 percent "fresh" rating at Rotten Tomatoes and a 6.7 rating at the Internet Movie Database with 10,373 votes. As of December 5, 2006, the movie has grossed $85,297,000 domestically. On its opening weekend, it made $6,130,197 playing in 1,074 theaters.

[edit] Trivia

  • The movie was filmed in Fort Knox (military base scenes), Louisville, Kentucky (city scenes), and the Jim Beam distillery (Czechoslovakia scenes).
  • The film's military-march instrumental theme was used in a TV commercial for Nissan trucks in December 2005 - January 2006.
  • Bill Murray filmed his interview for the special edition DVD while filming Lost In Translation in Japan. This is evident as he is wearing the unusual combo of a blazer and an inside-out orange camo t-shirt (the same his character Bob Harris wears in the film).
  • Continuity Mistakes: The scene where Bill Murray is attempting to go AWOL and Ramis tackles him in the parking lot. The conversation between Murray/Ramis and Soles/Cooper is highlighted by Murrays "magic" duffel bag. When the scene starts, it's been tossed to the side of Murray's head. When the camera shifts to the MPs talking, the bag jumps under Murray's head. As the conversation continues, the bag jumps back and forth from pillow to prop.
  • Pop Culture /Favorite Lines: There are several lines from this movie that have become regularly used in American pop culture.
  • "That's the fact Jack!" — Bill Murray to reviewing senior officers
  • "Czechoslovakia? That's like going to Wisconsin" — Bill Murray to Harold Ramis
  • "Lighten up, Francis!" — Warren Oates to Conrad Dunn (misfit recruit who insists he be called "Psycho")
  • "You're a lean mean fighting machine" — Bill Murray to John Candy in mud wrestling scene

[edit] Selected cast

[edit] External links

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