By Richard Winters
My Rating: 5 out of 10
4-Word Review: Losers join the army.
John (Bill Murray) works as a cab driver but is getting tired of putting up with obnoxious passengers. He sees an ad on TV about joining the army and convinces his friend Russell (Harold Ramis), who’s also unhappy with his line of work, to take up the offer. The two though find basic training to be far tougher than they thought particularly under the command of drill instructor Sergeant Hulka (Warren Oates) of which John doesn’t get along with and they end up having a one and one confrontation while inside the toiletries.
It seems amazing while watching this movie now how much things have changed as at the time this was considered a ‘raunchy’ flick, but in retrospect outside of a brief minute of flashing tits, and a mud wrestling segment, is very tame and PG rated material. It also goes very soft on the army aspect. This was shot during the era when there was still simmering discontent with the Vietnam War, which had just ended five years earlier and it was hip in many films of the era to poke fun of the military and yet this film doesn’t really do that. Sure, there are some over-the-top characters like Larroquettes, but overall, it’s surprising balanced portrait where if anything it’s Murray that learns the hard lesson that it’s best to keep your mouth shut, or pay the price, in this case the ever-mounting number of push-ups he’s forced to do when he smarts off. In some ways it’s a good portrait of what happens when differing personalities clash and how the ones that are more disciplined, or those that learn to take it on, ultimately win out.
Murray is as always highly engaging and his smug, party boy persona never seems to get old, but the story was originally intended for Cheech and Chong who could’ve been even funnier. My main complaint with Murray is he doesn’t really change and remains the same glib slacker that he was at the beginning though I did like the moment he gets punched in the stomach by Oates, which for Murray was his very first dramatic bit. The opening segment though in which he drives his cab erratically through the city streets in an effort to ‘get back’ at a crabby passenger (played by Fran Ryan) gets overdone as it put other innocent drivers at risk and would’ve gotten him arrested. Also, he and Ramis should’ve had their hair cut just as short as the other recruits as the army is all about uniformity and no one gets any special break.
Ramis is splendid in support even though director Ivan Reitman didn’t want to hire him due to Harold’s lack of acting experience and that his audition didn’t go well, but with Murray’s insistence he came on board and it’s a good thing. Mainly because he doesn’t compete with Murray for laughs, and in fact isn’t clownish at all and thus making him the most relatable. Oates is solid too though nowhere near the intensity that R. Lee Emery would’ve been, but still I liked his nervous facial tics. However, his character gets injured at one point and then gets seen with bandages around his arms and hands, but then during the third act these all disappear and he’s perfectly fine again, but I felt for the sake of continuity he should’ve remained bandaged.
I enjoyed too that the women here aren’t portrayed as bubble-headed beach blondes, but instead sensible people who aren’t afraid to be in control as evidenced by P.J. Soles and Sean Young, who looks really cute and was apparently cast simply for her looks alone. My only complaint though is that as Military Police they should’ve remained with the upper hand all the way through. Not letting down their guard and ultimately allowing the men to take charge. There still could’ve been the flirting and sex, but with the women calling the shots and the men playing along.
In support it’s fun seeing the young faces of up-and-coming stars including Conrad Dunn, who later became famous for his work in the soap opera ‘Days of Our Lives’, as a guy named Francis who threatens to do violence to anyone who dares call him that as well as Joe Flaherty as an inept border guard, Judge Reinhold as a would be drug smuggler and Timothy Busfield, in his film debut and looking downright boyish, as a soldier who fires a misguided mortar shell.
John Larroquette is quite good too in his first major role, in fact I felt the scene where he’s playing with toy soldiers inside his office to be the funniest moment. Unfortunately, his egotistical personality doesn’t get played up enough as I would’ve liked to have seen a showdown between him and Murray, which never happens. Also, his date looked too much like Murray’s former girlfriend, and I actually thought it was the same women, and they should’ve cast one as a brunette and the other a blonde, so we could’ve told the difference.
Spoiler Alert!
I was ready to give this 7 points, but the third act, which director Reitman later described as ‘an embarrassment’, ruins it. While I’m all for giving the thing some action the way it goes about it is all wrong. Initially I thought it would be the other recruits going to war against Murray and Ramis under the mistaken impression that they were spies after they absconded with the top-secret van, but instead they go up against the Czechoslovakian army, which came off as too easy. These were still amateurs when it came to using weapons and technology and yet they’re able to blow up the bad guys with pinpoint presession until it becomes boring and anti-climactic where if they had been more bumbling about it, it would’ve been both realistic and funnier.
My Rating: 5 out of 10
Released: June 26, 1981
Runtime: 1 Hour 46 Minutes
Rated R
Director: Ivan Reitman
Studio: Columbia Pictures
Available: DVD, Blu-ray, Amazon, YouTube
Scopophilia 