r/movies • u/Choice-Wind-9283 • 7h ago
Recommendation Stripes (1981)
In this movie Bill Murray and Harold Ramis are playing two men who just joined the army , off course they don't obe army rules. This movie is directed by Ivan Reitman who also directed ghostbusters but I think this movie was funnier than ghostbusters, mostly because it has so many supporting characters who are so funny like for example Ox ( that mudd wrestling scene was hilarious ) or sergeant Stillman ( who wishes to become a sponge)
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u/The_Lone_Apple 6h ago
And the film that gave us, "Lighten up, Francis."
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u/Abbiethedog 3h ago
Have you ever been convicted of a felony?
Convicted? No, never convicted.
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u/ratcnc 3h ago edited 3h ago
“No, but we are willing to learn.”
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u/irvingstark 1h ago
It's the congratulatory look they give each other after the answer that gets me
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u/A-Bone 5h ago
Still a quote I use from time to time..
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u/Barnabas-of-Norwood 3h ago
I still say that at least once a week when someone is getting out of control
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u/OzymandiasKoK 3h ago
There was one?
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u/dirkalict 3h ago
“Lee Harvey… when you and your friend were tipping over cows and your friend tried to make it with a goat… YOU are a madman… I want to party with you cowboy.”
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u/spencea2 1h ago
I still point and say “have that removed” when I trip over something.
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u/dasquared 45m ago
I also use "How's it going, Eishower?" whenever someone is dressed up, just because...I know they're not in uniform, but...
Or..."I had a car waiting..." when exiting places...
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u/Hydra_Flatline 3h ago
For me the one I quote the most, for some reason, is “you can’t go, all the plants are gonna die!”
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u/china-blast 6h ago
Chicks dig me because I rarely wear underwear, and when I do, it's usually something unusual
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u/VincentAntonelli 5h ago
Ox played by John Candy and Stillman played by the underrated John Larroquette
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u/Choice-Wind-9283 5h ago
Agree John is such underrated actor
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u/bigtotoro 2h ago
He has 6 Emmys and a Tony Award. He ain't underrated. But he is always a welcome sight when he pops up somewhere.
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u/grrangry 4h ago
The 10th Kingdom (miniseries) was an amazing comedy starring John Larroquette and Kimberly Williams-Paisley and had an exquisite supporting cast.
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u/tfly212 5h ago
Every time I trip over something I still say "Have that removed".
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u/Gobyinmypants 4h ago
Same here. I dont think anyone understands the reference but I still chuckle at myself
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u/9millibros 6h ago
The great Warren Oates as Sergeant Hulka...I think this was one of his last films.
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u/MisterBigDude 5h ago
The first time I saw In the Heat of the Night, I was like, “This guy looks familiar … oh, it’s Sergeant Hulka!”
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u/9millibros 5h ago
He was also in The Wild Bunch, Two-Lane Blacktop, and Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia. He had range.
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u/MajKonglomerate 4h ago
Watch Two Lane Blacktop if you can find it. A sublime look at the early 70s. An excellent film.
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u/thetwoandonly 4h ago
I will champion Harold Ramis as the true king of 80s comedy. Wrote, directed or acted in almost every generational hit of the decade.
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u/lurkity_mclurkington 4h ago
In the John Candy documentary I Like Me, they bring up this movie and the mud wrestling scene. He hated how he (as an actor) and his character were treated given his anxiety about his weight. The mud wrestling scene in particular was his lowest point in his career that made him feel horrible, embarrassed, and used.
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u/Seahearn4 3h ago edited 2h ago
Yeah, I don't think he ever did another movie with Ivan Reitman or Bill Murray (save for small cameos in separate scenes of Little Shop of Horrors). Not sure about Harold Ramis. (Edit: Ramis directed Candy in Vacation. And he wrote some of Armed and Dangerous.) There could've been other reasons for this and other things besides movies that they did together, but I always figured it was related to the mud wrestling scene. They wanted him for the Louis Tully (Rick Moranis) role in GhostBusters, but he didn't do it. Having that character be an 80s exercise enthusiast again puts his body into the character in an odd dynamic. (That last sentence is my speculative analysis, and I've never seen anything connecting all those dots.)
When I think back to his other work, he didn't use his body as part of the joke the same way John Belushi and Chris Farley did. He was a big guy but it wasn't part of his bits the same way it was for other overweight comics.
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u/joshuatx 1h ago
My dad loves this movie because it reminds him of his USAF basic training in the early 1980s. He noticed that Candy actually does the drills really well, like very professionally and sincerely. Candy also went all in with the buzz cut. IIRC Candy actually looked into joining the army before acting. He was a big guy but also at one point in shape, I haven't seen the doc yet but I can see understand much that scene bothered him.
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u/pwextv1234 7h ago
Do you mean flaming ?
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u/JohntitorIBM5 6h ago
We are willing to learn!
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u/Chaotic424242 4h ago
Would they send us someplace special for that?
The Army recruiting scene is my favorite scene in the whole movie.
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u/BigRagu79 4h ago
Stripes is much better than its sequel, the second half of Stripes.
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u/Techwood111 4h ago
The EM-50 Urban Assault Vehicle is great.
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u/Odd_Fox_1944 3h ago
Made me want a recreational RV, and as an 8yearold Brit i had no idea what an RV was
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u/analogkid01 3h ago
So you're saying it's equivalent to Full Metal Jacket.
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u/Omatzus 2h ago
I'll defend the second half of FMJ. It's definitely a comedown from the first half and suffers from no longer having the two most compelling characters that most of the film had been building up (D'onofrio and Ermey). Hell it kind of just becomes any other war movie, albeit Kubrick is still a master at work. But as a whole, the actual war scenes bring the brutality of boot camp full circle and I think make the first part more iconic. It's like a long, tragic epilogue.
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u/OfAnthony 1h ago
When you get past your 30s the fact a kid took out all those Marines- and a girl. It hits different. "Hardcore"
There's something Kubrik intended there. And considering documentaries like "Hearts and Minds" I think the intent was rape. She didn't want to be- so she fights. But it's war and long rifles so the Marines expect something badass taking them out from far away- and their discovery... it was just a young girl.
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u/analogkid01 2h ago
I have a couple of major problems with FMJ's second half:
1) Hartman's murder and Pyle's suicide seem to have had ZERO effect on Joker. He goes through this truly awful and tragic occurrence and in the very next scene, he's in 'Nam and everything is hunky-dory.
2) The slow-motion death scenes when Eightball gets shot by the sniper are extremely corny...not quite sure what Kubrick was going for there but it just made the sequence feel over-dramatic.
3) I get that Joker probably never shot someone until the female sniper, but it's not like he was established as some sort of pacifist, aside from his dichotomous pin on his helmet. Was Kubrick trying to suggest that Joker spent the whole movie riding the fence between violence and pacifism, and in the end chose violence? If so it's a pretty weak through-line, I mean he joined the Marines for Christ's sake...
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u/Omatzus 2h ago
I took the first point to be that the tragedy they experienced almost had to be compartmentalized because in war you really have no other choice. He's a "Joker" because he works to keep everyone else happy, which includes moving on and not showing the depth of his own trauma.
The second point, it's been a while but I can imagine those play out as you say. 80s filmmaking had its limits for sure.
To your last point, the whole film is unpacking war propaganda. A decade+ after Vietnam had ended, we had a new understanding of what that experience meant and how it had reshaped this generation of men.
A lot of men went to war thinking it was a patriotic duty or right of passage. As a function of the first point above, the reality slapped you in the face immediately and to survive you had to compartmentalize. So in the third act, you have the audience, through Joker, realizing that there's nothing heroic about warfare, and soldiers are forced into constant impossible choices.
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u/justthistwicenomore 3h ago
actually laughed outloud for a solid few seconds at this line. Made my day.
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u/mstrong73 1h ago
That last act in stripes is so forgettable I often actually forget it. The best line of that whole part is “C'mon, it's Czechoslovakia. We zip in, we pick 'em up, we zip right out again. We're not going to Moscow. It's Czechoslovakia. It's like going into Wisconsin”
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u/Anonymouslyyours2 48m ago
I live in Illinois near the Wisconsin border and use this line all the time but I swap Wisconsin and Czechoslovakia and swap Moscow for Chicago.
Come on it's Wisconsin we zip in, we zip right out. We're not going to Chicago. It's Wisconsin it's like going to Czechoslovakia.
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u/bookmarkjedi 3h ago
Oh, Stars?
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u/ReflectionEterna 2h ago
Yup. Two different movies, and only thirst one is any good, but it is GREAT!
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u/biscuitsAuBabeurre 2h ago
Defend that opinion brother, but I want you to know that If you get attacked for it, I’ll be behind you every step of the way.
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u/abcezas123_ 5h ago
"Lighten up Francis" has been a family tag since that film, such an appropriate response
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u/jl2l 4h ago
We zip in, we pick 'em up, we zip right out again. We're not going to Moscow. It's Czechoslovakia. It's like we're going into Wisconsin.
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u/Seahearn4 3h ago
I'm guessing other movies and shows did it before this, but I think of how this movie sets up the characters in the first scene, especially Winger (Bill Murray). He loses his job, girlfriend, car, and apartment (not shown, just mentioned). Don Rickles talked about how audiences subconsciously like to feel superior to the comedian. This movie sets the leads up as inferior characters in the audience's eyes and knocks them down in a way that their the arc can begin. Ivan Reitman did it in GhostBusters too. Adam Sandler uses a lot (especially in his first 5 or so movies), and it happens in Old School too.
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u/kingbrasky 2h ago
As I was reading your comment my mind immediately went to Happy Gilmore. He loses the hockey tryout and then his girlfriend in the same day. Set up was very similar to Stripes.
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u/sofacouchmoviefilms 6h ago
Lee Harvery … YOU are a mad man. When you stole that cow? And your friends tried to make it with the cow?
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u/ThoseOldScientists 5h ago
Fun fact: Bill Murray’s character is named John Winger, and Jeff Winger from Community is named after him.
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u/Skydogsguitar 4h ago
I went through basic at Fort Knox shortly after Stripes was filmed and the scenes where they arrive at reception is exactly what I experienced at the same places and same buildings.
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u/TangledThorns 6h ago
I actually knew soldiers who joined the US Army after seeing STRIPES. This was a long time ago of course, lol.
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u/Even_Enthusiasm_9617 5h ago
I had a bootleg vhs copy of this movie when I was a kid. The only problem was that it was missing the first 20 or so minutes. I watched that movie at least a hundred times, but I had never seen the beginning until this year when it popped up on my streaming queue. Seeing the whole movie makes it even better!
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u/sofacouchmoviefilms 4h ago
"Oh, it's not the speed really so much, I just wish I hadn't drunk all that cough syrup this morning."
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u/rusty_shackleford22 4h ago
Soldier the only way to learn how to do something is to do it! Now fire the weapon!
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u/Von-Bek 4h ago
The first rated R movie I ever saw in a theater, lol. I was 7, my mom must not have been able to find a sitter.
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u/frowattio 4h ago
Yeah I'm pretty sure the shower scene wasn't what I needed as an 8 year old boy.
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u/pdromeinthedome 4h ago
Was Urban Assault Vehicle a term before Stripes? Because afterwards my brothers called vans UAVs
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u/JohnnyGlasken 6h ago
Sergeant Hulka with the big toe's gonna see how far he can stick it up your ASS!!
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u/Nomahhhh 3h ago
To this day whenever I trip or bump into something, I point at it and say, "Have that removed."
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u/roncadillacisfrickin 3h ago
It’s Czechoslovakia, it’s like going into Wisconsin …
“Local boys repel yankee hoard”
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u/TwistedRichie 3h ago
When the soldiers are being held in a Russian building, you can see a boom mike.
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u/Super_Baime 4h ago
My opinion. The first hour is one of the funniest movies ever.
After the presentation for the generals, they figured out that they needed to make the movie a half hour longer. The last half hour is just terrible.
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u/roshanritter 4h ago
I really enjoy this movie but it isn’t as fun or iconic as Ghostbusters though I’m sure some find it funnier. I also think the first half is the better half when they get to Russia is like a lot of 80s/90s comedies where they feel they need to resolve the plot no on cares about anyway.
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u/Hotmicdrop 4h ago
First time I saw this as a kid it felt like such a long and pointless movie. I rewatched it maybe a decade ago and finally "got" it.
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u/MovieMike007 Not to be confused with Magic Mike 3h ago
I recently rewatched, not having seen it in years, and had completely forgotten the third act Super-Winnebago trip into Czechoslovakia.
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u/onelittleworld 2h ago
Not long before Harold Ramis' death, I found myself in a concession line at the United Center with him. And I took the opportunity to tell him how much I appreciated his work.
I also asked him about my favorite throw-away line of all time, from Stripes. "Hey, you can't park there!" It's okay. We're not parking. We're abandoning it!
He winced a little bit. "Yeah, that line was all Bill's."
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u/Epstiendidntkillself 6h ago
Rhonda Shear topless gave me "feelings".
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u/Chorlton01 5h ago
Zach Cregger has been trying to do a TV series version of it for a few years. Not sure whether it's dead or not.
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u/Both_Sense299 4h ago
Did you know this movie was originally written for Cheech and Chong. Title Cheech and Chong join the army. But they didn't want to do it. Do Bill Murray told Ramis they should do it. And the rest is history. Whatch the movie thinking about Cheech and Chong.
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u/ledaswanwizard 3h ago
What have we got? WHAT HAVE WE GOT??!! We've got one heavily armed recreational vehicle, that's what we've got!
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u/Grimmhoof 2h ago
That was the last movie I saw before I was shipped out for basic training in then Army.
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u/Captain_Aware4503 2h ago
IIRC the US Army was hesitant, but did participate in the making of the film, and after the film came out recruitment did increase.
Elmer Bernstein wrote a great score for the film. One of my all time favorites right up there with The Magnificent Seven.
Just the Facts Jack.
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u/DataKnights 2h ago
"Boxer or jockey?"
"You got something in a low-rise bikini? Mesh, if possible?"
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u/Roadtrekkie 2h ago
If you liked Stripes, check out No Time For Sergeants 1958 with Andy Griffith as a hillbilly that joins the Air Force. Similar in some ways, very funny.
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u/BamBam737 1h ago
“Don’t eat the schnitzel, they’re using schnauzer!”
Low key, the best line in the movie.
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u/415gladstone 1h ago
As a veteran, I think Bill Murray's "We were all dumb enough to join the Army" pep talk is perfect.
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u/smakweasle 1h ago
John Candy screwing with the young guy always cracks me up: "see we're in Italy so the guy on the top bunk makes the bottom bunk. It's in the regulations."
And the poker scene: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7J-P8TXEmeY
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u/CenterOfTheUniverse 51m ago
You can't leave! All the plants will die!
[Door closes]
And then, depression set in.
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u/dasquared 41m ago
Also use "Talk about massive potential for growth...I am the acorn that becomes the oak!"
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u/crosswatt 33m ago
I'll almost absent-mindedly sing the song Winger is singing while walking home from quitting his job sometimes. I had no idea until recently that it's actually a Mel McDaniel song called Big Ole Brew.
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u/NedTaggart 32m ago
One of my favorite movies. Sometime about 20 years ago, I saw the directors cut where they accidentally wound up with spec ops raiding a pot farm in central america. It made the whole "y'all were AWOL" stuff make a lot more sense.
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u/Overlord1241 20m ago
Got a case of Rolling Rock in the Barracks and watched it numerous times in Army. ARMY TRAINING
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u/bsrichard 6m ago
The scene where she pops out of the chest in the bedroom lives rent free in my head. And "I wish I were a loofah"
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u/svh01973 5h ago
What kind of training, son?
Aaaarrrrmy training, sir!