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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.

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.

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.

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.

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.