Stripes Extended Cut

By: Erik Swift

DVD Features Video: 1.85:1 Audio: Dolby Digital 5.1 Includes: Top Secret EM-50 Urban Assault Vehicle to cut out and assemble! 18 minutes of hilarious deleted scenes Hour-long documentary featuring all new interviews with the cast including Bill Murray. Theatrical release: 6/26/1981 DVD released on 6/07/2005 by Sony Pictures Running time of 107 minutes Starring: Bill Murray, John Candy, John Larroquette, Warren Oates, Harold Ramis, Judge Reinhold Director: Ivan Reitman Plot: When John Winger (Murray) loses his apartment, girlfriend and job all in one day, he does what any red-blooded American would do: he joins the Army and nearly starts WWIII.

Subtract political correctness and add gratuitous nudity to a comedy. The equation usually equals classic, and “Stripes” is exactly that. One of the best to feature a “Saturday Night Live” alum (Bill Murray), its Extended Cut has arrived from Sony on a DVD packed with extras. It’s doubtful this would get the go-ahead today, but Ivan Reitman directed with the US Army’s full cooperation at Fort Knox and other Bluegrass State locales, making a bawdy comedy that shows Army servicemen and women working hard and partying harder.

Wiseass John Winger joins Carl Spackler, Bob Harris and Ernie McCracken as Murray’s career peaks. Winger loves fun and women but hates to work. After hilariously losing his job, his car and his girlfriend one morning, he decides to join the army with buddy Russell Ziskey (Harold Ramis), an English-language teacher for immigrants. They link with Ox (John Candy), Elmo (Judge Reinhold), Cruiser (John Diehl) and others in Basic Training under ballbusters Sgt. Hulka (the great Warren Oates) and John Larroquette (Capt. Stillman). Reitman’s film slides into an anti-communist climax typical of 1980s flicks after the ragtag platoon competes basic training, but one-liners come from everywhere. Good ones, from a decent script by Ramis, Dan Goldberg and Len Blum, a team that made “Meatballs” who clearly know how to write words for Murray (particularly Winger’s taxi ride and Ziskey’s class. When Ox underhandedly tells the platoon he has a slight weight problem, the chorus of “No” is one of the film’s biggest laughs).

Aside from Murray and Oates, the rest of the cast was relatively unknown, and “Stripes” was a boost for many: “Fast Times At Ridgemont High” and “Beverly Hills Cop” awaited Reinhold, while Larroquette would anchor “Night Court” and Diehl (“Miami Vice,” “The Shield”) began an extensive TV career. MP love interest and cult actress P.J. Soles added “Stripes” to a resume that already included “Carrie” and “Halloween;” her partner Sean Young appeared here before “Blade Runner” and “No Way Out.” The 300+-pound Candy would average at least two movies yearly before his career was tragically cut short by a heart attack in 1994. Ramis always looks uncomfortable in front of the camera; he’d never acted before “Stripes” and it shows.

The DVD has 18 extra minutes excised from the original film (half in an overlong sequence that follows an AWOL Winger and Ziskey to South America), but they’re not painful. “Stars And Stripes” is an hour with standard anecdotes from the cast and crew. Don’t miss the genesis of the unscripted Aunt Jemimah treatment, and the tale of Reitman’s practical joke on Oates is a riot. Picturing the mud-covered Oates, shooting one of his final films, rip into the director with the intensity of his work in Peckinpah’s “The Wild Bunch” is something that should have been dug up from the vault. When this bunch of pros dissects the art of comedy, “Stars And Stripes” manages to be engaging. Its 1999 DVD release had nothing, so this is a major upgrade. A box-office smash, comedy collections aren’t complete without the extended edition of “Stripes.”

Reviewer’s Opinion: BUY IT!!