Private Benjamin (1980)

User Rating:

5.9/10   

Director:

Howard Zieff

Writers:

Nancy Meyers (written by) &
Charles Shyer (written by) ...

Release Date:

10 October 1980 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy

Tagline:

The army was no laughing matter until Judy Benjamin joined it.

Plot:

A sheltered young high society woman joins the army on a whim and finds herself in a more difficult situation than she ever expected.

Plot Keywords:

Army | Wedding | NATO | Wedding Night | Doctor

Awards:

Nominated for 3 Oscars. Another 1 win & 1 nomination

Cast

Goldie Hawn	...	Pvt. Judy Benjamin - Judy Goodman
Eileen Brennan	...	Capt. Doreen Lewis
Armand Assante	...	Henri Alan Tremont
Robert Webber	...	Col. Clay Thornbush
Sam Wanamaker	...	Teddy Benjamin
Barbara Barrie	...	Harriet Benjamin
Mary Kay Place	...	Pvt. Mary Lou Glass
Harry Dean Stanton	...	1st Sgt. Jim Ballard
Albert Brooks	...	Yale Goodman
Alan Oppenheimer	...	Rabbi
Estelle Marlov	...	Vocalist at Wedding
Everett Covin	...	Bandleader
Robert Hanley	...	Arnie
Lee Wallace	...	Mr. Waxman
James Dybas	...	Photographer

Runtime:

109 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Certification:

Iceland:L | Singapore:PG | Canada:PG | Australia:M | Argentina:13 | Chile:14 | Finland:K-12 | Norway:12 | Sweden:11 | UK:15 | USA:R | West Germany:16

Filming Locations:

Angel's Gate Park - 3601 Gaffey Street, San Pedro, Los Angeles, California, USA

Company:

Warner Bros. Pictures

Trivia:

Judy discovers another woman's jewelry in her bed and accuses her fiancé of cheating on her. The same thing happens to Goldie Hawn's character in Shampoo (1975).

Goofs:

Revealing mistakes: After the "war games", the women are back at their barracks dancing to "We Are Family" there is a close-up of the tape player that is playing the music. The "play" button is pushed but there is no tape in the player.

Quotes:

Judy Benjamin: Have you seen the bathroom?
Capt. Lewis: Do you think that the latrine... do you think that it's unsanitary?
Judy Benjamin: It's disgusting! There are *urinals* in there!

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "Saturday Night Live: Seann William Scott/Sum41 (#27.2)" (2001)

Soundtrack:

Down by the Riverside

All present and correct

The service comedy is a genre almost as old as cinema itself and, whether it's Charlie Chaplin or Victor McLaglen and Edmund Lowe in the trenches, Andy Griffith befuddling his sergeants, the Carry On team on the assault course or Steve Guttenberg and co at the Police Academy, has an almost immutable formula that is never, ever departed from: through mildly comic misadventure misfit(s) find themselves in the army/navy/air force/police force, are hopelessly unprepared for the harsh realities of basic training, fumble every task yet somehow come out of it all as the perfect soldier/sailor/airman/cop and prove themselves in a mildly comic baptism of fire. Private Benjamin does absolutely nothing to fix what ain't broke, contenting itself to offer the odd slight tweak and flavoring with a mild dose of Jewish humor as Goldie Hawn's sheltered princess finds herself talked into joining the 'new' army by Harry Dean Stanton's smooth-talking recruiting sergeant after husband Albert Brooks dies in the throes of passion before the honeymoon even starts ("Do you remember what the last thing he said was?"] asks his distraught mother, eliciting the reply "I'm coming.").

While it's a given that there are no surprises whatsoever, it's one of those comedies that manages to be pretty consistently funny throughout even if there aren't many really big laughs out of sheer likability. Hawn's character is not too bright but not too Hilton with it – her character arc is not just from dependence to self-reliance but more importantly from not being able to understand why Jill Clayburgh walked out on Alan Bates in An Unmarried Woman to being able to make the same choice herself, in the process tackling sexism rather more effectively than G.I. Jane did 17 years later. Eileen Brennan is clearly having a ball as the obligatory sadistic training officer out to make her life hell and there's a quietly impressive supporting cast filling out the ranks as well as a memorable Bill Conti score. It only really misses its step slightly in the scenes where her Monsieur Right (Armand Assante) rather clumsily turns out to be Monsieur Wrong at the end, as if afraid of losing the audience's sympathy long after she's won them over, but not enough to squander the goodwill it's earned by then.