Hulka retires from the Army and opens a fast food restaurant; John, Russell, Stella, and Louise are featured on magazine covers; and Stillman is reassigned to a weather station in Nome, Alaska.

Cast

Production

Development

En route to the premiere of Meatballs, Ivan Reitman conceived an idea for a film: "Cheech and Chong join the army". He pitched Stripes to Paramount Pictures, who immediately greenlit the film. Len Blum and Dan Goldberg wrote the screenplay in Toronto and read it to Reitman, who was in Los Angeles, over the phone, who in turn would give the writers notes. Cheech and Chong's manager thought the script was very funny; however, the comedy duo wanted complete creative control. Reitman then suggested to Goldberg that they change the two main characters to ones suited for Bill Murray and Harold Ramis, figuring that if they could interest Ramis and let him tailor the script for the two of them, he could convince Murray to do it. Columbia Pictures did not like Ramis's audition but Reitman told the studio that he was hiring the comedian anyway.

Casting director Karen Rea saw Conrad Dunn on the stage and asked him to read for the role of Francis "Psycho" Soyer in New York. Judge Reinhold played Elmo, who was given the best jokes from the Cheech and Chong draft of the screenplay. Sean Young was cast based on her looks, and Reitman felt that her "sweetness" would go well with Ramis. Three-hundred actresses were also considered for the role. P. J. Soles tested with Murray and they got along well together. John Diehl had never auditioned before and won his first paying job as an actor. Goldberg knew John Candy from Toronto and told Reitman that he should be in the film; he was not required to audition.

Soles said that the scene where Stella and Winger share their first kiss was supposed to be outdoors but it started raining.

The EM-50 Urban Assault Vehicle "was built from a 1973-1978-era GMC Motorhome,". It was designed to resemble "a family Winnebago — with a nice color scheme and user-friendly interior — but came with bulletproof shields and flamethrowers."

Reception

Box office

Stripes was released on June 26, 1981, and grossed $1,892,000 in 1,074 screens on opening day. It placed fifth overall for the weekend with $6,152,166. It eventually grossed $85,297,000 in North America, making it the fifth most popular 1981 film at the US and Canadian box office.

Critical response

Stripes was well received by critics and audiences. On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 88% based on 41 reviews, with a rating average of 6.8/10. The website's critical consensus reads: "A raucous military comedy that features Bill Murray and his merry cohorts approaching the peak of their talents." On Metacritic the film has a weighted average score of 68 out of 100 based on 14 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".

In his Chicago Sun-Times review, Roger Ebert 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".

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." Time wrote, "Stripes will keep potential felons off the streets for two hours. Few people seem to be asking, these days, that movies do more."

Home media

The film was released on DVD on June 7, 2005, a release which includes both the original theatrical cut and an extended cut that runs about 18 minutes longer than the theatrical cut. Extra features include six deleted scenes; audio commentary by Reitman and Goldberg; an hour-long documentary titled "Stars & Stripes" that includes the reminiscences of the screenwriters, Reitman, Diehl, Laroquette, Murray, Reinhold, Soles and Young; and the original trailer.

The extended cut expands on several scenes and includes an excised subplot in which Winger and Ziskey (who takes six hits of Elmo's LSD under the impression that it is Dramamine) go AWOL by stowing away on a special forces paratrooper mission. They become lost in a jungle and are captured by Spanish-speaking guerrillas. They are taken to camp and nearly shot before Winger saves the day by singing the chorus of Tito Rodriguez's "Quando, Quando, Quando", effectively winning over their captors. Winger and Ziskey then leave and rejoin the special forces unit as it is re-boarding the plane. Other deleted scenes include a longer sequence of Winger talking Ziskey into joining the Army with him; Captain Stillman being called out as a liar by Winger when he blames another officer for his neglect in the mortar incident that injured Sgt. Hulka; Hulka giving everyone but John and Russell the weekend off in Italy while assigning them to guard and clean the EM-50, explaining cheerfully that his only reason for doing so is that he doesn't like John; and Russell saying he won't go rescue the platoon because he doesn't want to kill OR die while John warms up to the idea of mounting a rescue via the EM-50. The last two deleted scenes notably have John Winger being told that the platoon members dislike him (indirectly by Hulka, and directly by Russell when he tells John that the platoon hates his guts) which is in contrast to the positive reactions to Winger in the final act of the theatrically released film.

In January 2012, the extended cut of the film was released on Blu-ray.

Soundtrack

The soundtrack for the film was released by Varèse Sarabande on July 19, 2005. The musical score was composed and conducted by Elmer Bernstein, and performed by the Hollywood Studio Symphony. the 40th anniversary edition was released by La-La-Land Records on September 28, 2021. The popular track "The March from Stripes" (or "Stripes March"), composed by Bernstein, is one of the greatest military marches in war film music.

2005 Varèse Sarabande release

2021 La-La-Land Records 40th anniversary edition release

Re-release

For the 40th anniversary of the film's release, Stripes re-opened in theaters on August 29 to September 2, 2021, with a special introduction from Bill Murray and Ivan Reitman.

See also

  • Ghostbusters – A later 1984 comedy film also directed by Reitman, starring Murray and Ramis, and scored by Bernstein

Notes

References

  • Stripes at the AFI Catalog of Feature Films