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Stripes poster

Stripes

year 1981decade 80sdirector Ivan Reitmangenre War comedy

106 minutes

IMDb
Cast

Selected cast credits · Film reference

Stripes | The Rewatchables

host Bill Simmonshost Brian Koppelmanproducer Kyle Crichton format 40th Anniversary
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Roger Ebert's review

Roger Ebert’s stated score is three and a half stars.

In the discussion (2)
Approx. transcript time · 00:24:45Read transcript
  • The stated score is three and a half stars.
  • The quoted review calls the film anarchic, irrelevant, reckless, undisciplined, occasionally scatological, and a lot of fun.

Most Rewatchable Scene

The recruit introductions win, amid praise for the opening, apartment visit, general’s house, graduation, training, return headlines, Stillman introduction, and mud wrestling.

In the discussion (10)
Approx. transcript time · 00:25:41Read transcript
  • The first twelve minutes establish John as a likable loser through the shoeshine, parking ticket, cab fare, repossession, upside-down pizza, and breakup.
  • The apartment visit is praised for indoor basketball, the five bishops, and the ease of the central friendship.
  • The recruit-introduction scene wins for Cruiser, Psycho, Ox, Francis, Lee Harvey, the big-toe speech, and Murray’s escalating improvisational energy.
  • A participant recounts memorizing the unusual-underwear speech and eventually reciting it directly to Bill Murray at Madison Square Garden.
  • The visit to General Barnicke’s house is praised for Murray’s late-night improvisation and rapport with his military-police scene partner.
  • The graduation ceremony and late arrival were a childhood favorite.
  • The first training sequence, including the log obstacle, is another preferred passage.
  • The return-to-America newspaper-headline montage is praised for extending each character’s outcome as a closing gag.
  • Captain Stillman’s first appearance and his shower-sponge line are singled out as a strong character introduction.
  • The mud-wrestling sequence is remembered as a major adolescent fantasy, though the raid and separation from the unit are questioned.

What’s Aged the Best?

The breakup setup, John Candy, Judge Reinhold, throwaway jokes, the women, poker running gag, score, deleted scene, Murray–Ramis friendship, and Warren Oates lead the praise.

In the discussion (11)
Approx. transcript time · 00:36:05Read transcript
  • The wet-blanket girlfriend telling the likable loser he is going nowhere is treated as a comedy setup copied for decades.
  • The first training sequence, especially the log obstacle, is explicitly added as another thing that aged best.
  • John Candy’s first appearance, long hair, cigarette, and Eisenhower greeting still land immediately.
  • Judge Reinhold’s short role is praised as part of a strong early-career run.
  • Lines such as the furs answer, the drug answer, and Ramis’s strip-search head movement reward repeated viewing.
  • Sean Young and the other actress playing a military-police character are praised as charismatic women with agency; the latter’s strong late-1970s run is recalled.
  • Candy repeatedly exploiting the character Cruiser in poker remains an effective running gag.
  • Elmer Bernstein’s score is praised for shifting between jaunty and lower-register military themes.
  • A deleted South American subplot has LSD, an unauthorized paratrooper mission, guerrilla capture, and escape; cutting it is judged correct because it derailed the film.
  • The Harold Ramis and Bill Murray friendship is itself described as something that aged best.
  • Warren Oates and Sergeant Hulka also remain durable strengths.

Picking Nits

Haircuts, the Pom Pom raid, EM-50 promotion and design, an impossible basketball throw, and a missing double-date scene are questioned.

In the discussion (7)
Approx. transcript time · 00:37:01Read transcript
  • Bill Murray and Harold Ramis keeping movie-star hair while other recruits receive crew cuts is questioned.
  • The reason military police raid the Pom Pom mud-wrestling club remains unclear.
  • The late-arriving recruits being promoted to the military-vehicle project is judged implausible.
  • The supposedly advanced vehicle looks too much like a minivan or Winnebago.
  • The indoor-basketball throw through the window follows no plausible shot trajectory.
  • One more double-date scene is requested to deepen the four central characters.
  • The bag underneath his head is there and then not there, but that continuity issue is explicitly dismissed.

What’s Aged the Worst?

Voyeuristic treatment of women and the incoherent final third are the principal answers.

In the discussion (6)
Approx. transcript time · 00:46:21Read transcript
  • The period’s routine use of nudity and men spying on women through binoculars or shower holes is said to play differently now.
  • The final third abruptly crosses into Czechoslovakia, strands the unit, and sends four characters into a bloodless Soviet-base rescue.
  • The Wisconsin exchange survives as a much-quoted line even though the surrounding rescue plot is judged a screenwriting disaster.
  • The two military-police characters retain agency, but Stillman watching women shower is singled out as material that would not be made the same way now.
  • The film is placed in an era when comedies could become incoherent and still succeed because jokes continued landing.
  • The film’s obvious homophobia is explicitly added as material that aged poorly and described as a staple of the period.

Casting What-Ifs

The project began as Cheech and Chong joining the Army; Columbia preferred Dennis Quaid to Harold Ramis, and Kim Basinger was offered the role ultimately played by the actress the transcript calls P. J. Souls.

This discussion recalls a choice from an earlier episode.

In the discussion (5)
Approx. transcript time · 00:50:20Read transcript
  • The initial concept was Cheech and Chong joining the Army, but their demand for creative control ended that version.
  • The characters were rewritten for Bill Murray and Harold Ramis.
  • Columbia preferred Dennis Quaid for Ramis’s role, and participation was made conditional on Ramis remaining in the cast.
  • Kim Basinger was offered the role ultimately played by the actress identified in the transcript as P. J. Souls; the offer fell through because Basinger’s agent requested what the panel calls a crazy amount of money.
  • The panel thinks Basinger’s star power and appearance would have overwhelmed the ensemble.

The Joey Pants “That Guy” Award

Conrad Dunn wins as Francis; Donald Gibb, John Candy, and two actors whose names the transcript renders as John Deal and Larichette are also discussed.

In the discussion (5)
Approx. transcript time · 00:52:17Read transcript
  • John Deal, using the machine transcript’s spelling, and Donald Gibb are raised as recognizable supporting candidates.
  • Conrad Dunn wins because every later appearance made the panel identify him as Francis.
  • Warren Oates is rejected as too famous for the category.
  • An actor whose name the machine transcript renders as Larichette is debated because he was not famous then but is unmistakable now.
  • John Candy is moved toward the heat-check discussion.

The Dion Waiters Award for Best Heat Check Performance

John Candy wins as Ox; Dave Thomas, Judge Reinhold, and Conrad Dunn are runners-up.

In the discussion (5)
Approx. transcript time · 00:54:23Read transcript
  • Dave Thomas is a runner-up for the mud-wrestling announcer.
  • Judge Reinhold has a high success rate with very few lines.
  • Conrad Dunn is another runner-up for Francis.
  • John Candy wins for Ox.
  • Candy’s wider career is celebrated while the panel wishes his early death had not prevented another defining 1980s comedy vehicle.

Half-Assed Internet Research

Research covers Army access, Warren Oates’s Wild Bunch stories, on-set injuries, improvised accidents, surprise haircuts, Murray–Young friction, and a John Candy fight-night dinner.

In the discussion (8)
Approx. transcript time · 00:56:50Read transcript
  • The military reportedly supported the film with Fort Knox access and real troops as extras.
  • Warren Oates chipped a tooth when actors dragged him through mud without warning him.
  • Warren Oates reportedly entertained the cast with stories about The Wild Bunch and was liked even by Bill Murray.
  • The actor whose name is transcribed as Laracette broke his nose running into a door during an unused take and wore makeup afterward.
  • Murray’s suitcase blow was accidental and remained in the film.
  • Most basic-training haircuts were surprises, producing genuine reactions.
  • A disputed story says Murray and Sean Young clashed over improvisation; the panel explicitly marks it uncertain.
  • John Candy hosted the cast for homemade spaghetti and the Leonard–Duran no-más fight.

Apex Mountain

Warren Oates, military comedies, and movie mud wrestling receive positive apex cases; most individual stars are rejected or debated.

In the discussion (11)
Approx. transcript time · 00:59:19Read transcript
  • Bill Murray is rejected because Ghostbusters provided a stronger later peak.
  • Harold Ramis is debated as a newly cool movie star here, while Groundhog Day and Ghostbusters brought larger later influence and wealth.
  • John Candy is rejected.
  • Military comedies about joining and training are given a strong apex case, with the broader military-movie claim treated as weaker.
  • The actress identified by the machine transcript as P. J. Souls is rejected in favor of Halloween.
  • Sean Young is rejected in favor of the Blade Runner, Wall Street, and No Way Out period.
  • The actor whose name the machine transcript renders as Laracette is rejected because he became a major television star.
  • Goofy future-tense closing credits are discussed, with Animal House preferred.
  • Warren Oates receives a clear apex verdict.
  • Ivan Reitman is rejected.
  • The mud-wrestling sequence is proposed as the apex of mud wrestling in movies.

Sequel, Prequel, Limited Series, or All-Black Remake

A Stripes series is possible but unwanted; An Officer and a Gentleman is preferred for adaptation.

In the discussion (2)
Approx. transcript time · 01:04:51Read transcript
  • One participant rejects a ten-episode Stripes series as sacrilege, while another says the right two leads could make an entertaining version.
  • An Officer and a Gentleman is proposed as the more suitable series adaptation.

Probably Unanswerable Questions

The panel asks whether the movie should end at graduation, what middle material would replace the rescue, and how attraction to the two military-police characters changed with age.

In the discussion (6)
Approx. transcript time · 01:06:19Read transcript
  • The main question asks whether the film improves if it ends with the graduation ceremony and drops the military-vehicle rescue.
  • The proposal draws a specific objection: the welcome-to-Italy arrival still works, even though the plot from there is judged a disaster.
  • More backstory with the central friends, the two military-police characters, Candy, and another Pom Pom excursion is proposed.
  • The woman from the opening finding John attractive again is proposed as another middle sequence.
  • The favorite recruit-introduction scene was reportedly rewritten by the cast in Murray’s trailer, prompting regret that the ending did not receive the same treatment.
  • A bonus question compares adolescent and present-day attraction to Sean Young and the actress the machine transcript calls P. J. Souls.

What Piece of Memorabilia Would You Want From This Movie?

The EM-50, framed spatula, apartment set, and indoor basketball hoop are the preferred objects.

In the discussion (3)
Approx. transcript time · 01:08:40Read transcript
  • The military vehicle is proposed as a driveway object, gaming room, sports-viewing room, or child’s hangout.
  • The spatula would be framed.
  • The apartment set and especially its basketball hoop are preferred alternatives.

The Neil McCauley “A Book about Metals” Award for Best Line from the Movie

The panel rapidly lists favorite lines, with Wisconsin selected as the funniest single line.

In the discussion (5)
Approx. transcript time · 01:11:10Read transcript
  • The rapid list includes the furs answer, Eisenhower greeting, unusual-underwear speech, acorn speech, officer-material line, and depression line.
  • The abandoning-the-car, never-convicted, and have-that-removed lines are cited as frequently reused favorites.
  • Wisconsin is selected as the funniest single line.
  • The cheap-shoeshine line is another finalist.
  • The stopped-draft exchange is praised as a final throwaway quote.

More from the conversation

The film is remembered as part of a small VHS rotation of comedies repeatedly watched in college and shared through quoting and nicknames.
Approx. transcript time · 00:02:32Read transcript
John Winger is interpreted as a lovable-loser hero whose immaturity and appealing apartment made adolescents identify with him.
Approx. transcript time · 00:05:59Read transcript
The movie is placed in a 1977–84 cycle of lovable-loser comedies that later shaped Sandler, 1990s comedies, and Apatow-era work.
Approx. transcript time · 00:05:59Read transcript
The indoor-basketball window gag includes a large wrench already placed to clear the broken glass, a small prop detail singled out as part of the apartment’s dense comedy.
Approx. transcript time · 00:10:08Read transcript
Bill Murray’s comic appeal is described as enlisting the audience in mischief rather than placing himself above it.
Approx. transcript time · 00:11:26Read transcript
The Murray–Ramis partnership and later estrangement are discussed as central to American comedy and a lost opportunity for more buddy films.
Approx. transcript time · 00:19:50Read transcript
The supporting cast, $10 million budget, $85 million gross, and fifth-place 1981 box-office finish establish the movie’s commercial context.
Approx. transcript time · 00:23:25Read transcript
Brian Koppelman describes a controlled improvisation process with Edward Norton on Rounders and says Dan Soder was the sole Billions performer regularly invited to riff scene buttons.
Approx. transcript time · 00:27:59Read transcript
The closing discussion treats the movie’s age as evidence of how durable the hosts’ identification and shared quotations became.
Approx. transcript time · 01:11:10Read transcript