Stripes
Directed by Ivan Reitman
- action
- comedy
The story
Hard-luck cabbie John Winger, directionless after being fired from his job and dumped by his girlfriend, enlists in the U.S. Army with his close pal, Russell Ziskey. After his barely satisfactory performance in basic training, the irreverent Winger emerges as the figurehead for a ragtag band of misfits. However, his hijinks threaten to cause an international scandal when he inadvertently commandeers a military assault vehicle behind enemy lines.
What it’s like
Scrappy 1981 studio comedy with the flat, bright look of its era: sunny daylight over sweaty barracks, dusty drill fields under hard blue skies, and the grimy, sun-bleached rot of a Detroit cab garage at the start. The camera stays mostly conventional and unfussy, holding wide on group scenes so the chaos reads clearly, and the score is loose, jaunty, and synth-tinged, with pop cues that keep the energy bouncing. The vibe is brash, sardonic, and warm-hearted, a shaggy goof with a streak of ordinary melancholy underneath. It suits a lazy weekend afternoon, a comfort rewatch, or a night when you want something loud and funny without much thinking. Pacing is brisk and episodic, built around set-piece pranks and barracks banter, and the emotional arc follows a drifting, lovable slacker who slowly finds loyalty among a ragtag squad of misfits. Violence is cartoonish and brief, with some crude sexual humor, some profanity, and no gore. It is for people who want raucous, irreverent comedy with heart and a touch of anti-authority bite.
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