Private Benjamin (1980)

Directed by Howard Zieff. Starring Goldie Hawn, Eileen Brennan, Armand Assante, Sam Wanamaker, Hal Williams, Robert Webber, Barbara Barrie, Albert Brooks, Damita Jo Freeman, Harry Dean Stanton, Toni Kalem, P. J. Soles, Mary Kay Place, Richard Herd, Alston Ahern, Craig T. Nelson. [R]

After her husband dies on top of her during sex on her honeymoon, recently-married-and-widowed Judy Benjamin (Hawn) longs for structure and purpose in her life, so she’s an easy mark for being “recruited” to join the US Army. Uneven and overlong boot camp comedy can’t even be bothered to fully exploit its “spoiled Jewish princess forced to get tough” premise. Hawn nearly pulls it off anyway, but she’s ill-served by handfuls of anemic script pages, flimsy story structure, and too few fresh ideas; the training montage is packed with clichés off the assembly line, and the second half spins its wheels at just about every turn, as she risks her career for a “safe” marriage with a French gynecologist (Assante), the result of their romance too much a foregone conclusion to bother with investment. The filmmakers either decided to cut out any connecting scenes that might explain how Judy turns it around in such a hurry and becomes a competent soldier and canny opportunist, or else no one even tried to make it seem credible. Just enough amusing moments to make it an okay commercial comedy, but there’s a real shortage of big laughs (in fact, the funniest part of the movie might be the poster, which spoofs All Quiet on the Western Front). Feature writing debut for Nancy Meyers (she co-scripted with Harvey Miller and Charles Shyer); first executive producer credit for Hawn, too.

56/100