Stripes (1981)

Ah! The uneven talent of Ivan Reitman. But he was never better than in the 80's and Stripes surely offers a lot of the best comedians of the decade

This movie has all the necessary features of a comedy of its time. Losers finding strength, titties (even mud-wrestling), women as props and some guns to boot.

Having used up and coming Bill Murray two years earlier in "Meatballs", Reitman knew he could depend on the young comedian. Teaming the misanthropic and impulsive Murray with the smart, careful Harold Ramis, was such a smart move, he did it with even greater success when producing Ghostbusters three years later. 


It's quite obvious that "Police Academy" has stolen its entire first third from this flick, as most elements from the enrollment are similar. There are also, particularly in the early stages, huge similiarities between Murray's Winger and Gutenberg's Mahoney (even the many push-ups in the rain as punishment). Though naturally, Murray has more strengths to play to. His misanthropy, opportunism, shameless flirting and bottomless insolence really is enough for any comedy to survive with honors. He is very nicely flanked by Harold Ramis, John Candy, John Larroquette and Warren Oates (he died only six months later at the age of 53) who all add laughs, smirks and snickers. And some extra credit to Sean Young who really has a dazzling smile to charm everyone present.

The music by Bernstein is brilliant, and the two themes perfectly fitted for the two main phases of the film. Firstly "all goes to hell" at the beginning and later the military phase. Elmer Bernstein certainly was the king of comedies.

The first hour or so is quite funny, and the characters are good. Ramis is a bit more on offence than he was allowed later in his career, so look for his mimics and facial expressions a lot of the time. They seemed to have two scripts and didn't do a good job editing. Hence, the movie is half an hour too long and the last part of it isn't particularly interesting nor funny. The prospect of a war-Winnebago is of course not without promise, but the gags are spent earlier and it adds litle to the whole. If anything. Generally Stripes feels like a lot of good ideas and fun for all involved, but a lack of discipline and structure strips it of status as a classic. It still is a good representative for comedy of its time.

7/10