I had a good friend many years ago who served as an officer in the U.S. Navy. He liked to joke that NAVY stands for Never Again Volunteer Yourself. He joined up by choice, of course. We were the generation that didn’t have to worry about the military draft. It had been scrapped in 1973 as the Vietnam War was winding down. The idea of entering the armed forces was so alienating to most young men during the 1970s that the military was forced to spend millions on TV ad campaigns to try and make it attractive.
But once the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan in 1979, President Jimmy Carter revived the requirement that 18-to-26-year-olds register for the draft – and the way things began to go once Ronald Reagan got into office, serving in a conflict felt more and more plausible every day. Maybe we weren’t out of the woods after all.
Stripes, a comedy released in 1981, came just a few months into the Reagan presidency and just as America was beginning to get over its Vietnam hangover. It serves as a bridge between the anti-establishment vibe of the ‘70s and the more patriotic ‘80s, between Animal House and Top Gun. For a comedy, it’s fairly schizophrenic. It starts out as another “slobs against the suits” movie and then ends with our heroes spraying Soviet soldiers with machine gun fire and fighting their way out of Czechoslovakia. That’s some serious narrative whiplash.
The idea of the “service comedy” had been a mainstay of the 1950s and early ‘60s. After all, with the draft and the wars in Europe and Asia, just about every man in the audience could relate to some aspects of being in the military. In theaters, there were films such as Mister Roberts and Operation Petticoat. At home on TV, you had “Sgt. Bilko,” “McHale’s Navy” and “Hogan’s Heroes” (a situation comedy set in a Nazi prison camp). But as kids began dying in Vietnam, somehow things stopped being so funny. The humor, such as it was, was dark and anti-authoritarian, as in M*A*S*H.
Oddly enough, as Reagan was ascending to the presidency, evoking a certain nostalgia for a bygone era, the service comedy made a comeback. First with Private Benjamin, starting Goldie Hawn, in 1980, followed by Stripes. Director Ivan Reitman, who came up with the concept of two down-and-outers joining the Army, originally envisioned it as a stoner film, perhaps with Cheech & Chong. That would have been a more ‘70s approach to the whole thing. I can’t see those mellow dudes strafing the Soviets.
Once Bill Murray and Harold Ramis (at Murray’s insistence) came aboard, the film changed. The first hour is early Murray at his best: the deadpan delivery, the ironic cool, the narcissism. (“You can’t leave! All the plants are gonna die!” he screams at his departing girlfriend.)Born of “Saturday Night Live” in the late ‘70s, Murray was a better fit in the ‘80s with his post-modern smirk and fake sincerity.
That’s the thing about Bill Murray though. He made the uncool cool. So, in Bill Murray’s Army – as the movie develops—the trainees go from idiot slobs to the most disciplined platoon of all overnight, albeit in their own hipster, boom-shakalaka way. Murray the anarchist becomes the de facto drill sergeant, the leader. Stripes then suffers from the same problem a lot of high-concept comedies do: Now what? You’ve developed this story to its natural ending point, but there’s still a final act to go. Hence an action sequence that takes the platoon on a mission behind enemy lines after Murray makes off in the RV assault vehicle behind the Iron Curtain that feels, well, tonally off.
Maybe the error was in casting screen legend Warren Oates as Sgt. Hulka. Oates, a veteran of down-and-dirty Sam Peckinpah films such as The Wild Bunch and Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia. Oates was cast for the gravitas he brought to the role. But the problem was, Oates brought so much of it that Hulka ended up being a sympathetic character, not a figure to rebel against. That was a sure sign Vietnam was over. Instead, the movie’s villain, if it has one, is vain martinet and pretend-soldier John Larroquette in his pre- “Night Court” days who gets saddled with a scene where he spies on women taking showers – an ‘80s comedy staple.
Look, let’s not get carried away here. For its first hour, Stripes is on par with any recent comedy ever made. The quotable lines come fast and furious – many of them delivered by the incomparable John Candy. (“Excuse me, stewardess. Is there a movie on this flight?) To that end, take a moment to salute the comedic genius not of Murray, but of his co-star, Ramis. He was in the midst of a hell of a comedy hot streak then.He had co-written the scripts for Meatballs and Caddyshack and had directed the latter. He co-wrote Stripes and then would go on to write and star in Ghostbusters and later would write and direct Groundhog Day. That is a Hall of Fame resume, especially when you think of how many people those movies have entertained over the years.
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As an actor in Stripes, Ramis makes for a valuable comedy partner for Murray, who has always been better when he doesn’t have to carry a film and can instead roam the sidelines a bit, commenting on the action.
Later in his career, Murray said he had qualms about making a movie where he carried a machine gun. But that was the ‘80s for you: machine guns, gratuitous nudity and Soviet baddies. The Pentagon gave its seal of approval to Stripes; it cooperated with the making of the film. Military recruiting reportedly jumped 10% after its release. Murray and Ramis had done what seemed to be nearly impossible: made an anti-establishment film that Ronald Reagan could love.
That’s a fact, Jack.
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WHERE CAN I WATCH IT: Stripes is rentable on all major platforms such as Prime Video and VUDU.
HEY ISN’T THAT: For a breezy comedy, the movie has a tremendously deep roster of talent. Beyond Murray, Ramis, Oates, Candy and Larroquette, the cast includes Judge Reinhold (Beverly Hills Cop), John Diehl (“Miami Vice”) and Sean Young, who would go on to bigger things in movies such as Blade Runner and No Way Out. Also look for cameos from SCTV alums Joe Flaherty and Dave Thomas. Murray, Ramis and Candy were part of the storied comedy troupe.
ARMAGEDDON INDEX: 3/10. Not inconceivable that Bill Murray could have started World War III.
DUST CLOUDS: The competence of the military was a major issue in the 1980 election that helped spell doom for Carter. In April 1980, Carter signed off on a plan to rescue the 52 American hostages that had been held in the U.S. embassy in Iran since November 1979. The operation, termed Desert Claw, was a disaster from the start. After Carter decided to abort the mission amid a howling sandstorm, a helicopter collided with a refueling vehicle, killing eight servicemembers. Once in office, Reagan dramatically escalated the Defense Department’s budget, including funds for operational preparedness.
WHAT ELSE I’M WATCHING: TV: “Sugar” (S1, Apple TV), “Resident Alien” (S3, Peaco*ck), “The Gentlemen” (S1, Netflix); Movies: The Big Knife (Aldrich, 1956), Goodbye Mr. Chips (Ross, 1969), Bunny Lake is Missing (Preminger, 1965)
LAST ENTRY: Kiss Me Deadly (1955)
NEXT ENTRY: Munich (2005)
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