Private Benjamin (1980)'s comments

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Siskoid

When I was a kid, the reason you knew who Goldie Hawn was, was Private Benjamin, and while I feel sure I saw the movie on TV, I probably remember the television spin-off more readily. The sitcom really didn't have the full breadth of what happens in the film, so it was to my surprise rewatching it that is takes its time setting Judy Benjamin up as a socialite princess who will have no place in the Army (Militarily Blonde, I called it), and takes well beyond the typical boot camp shenanigans I'd also seen elsewhere to give her a full blown career, as well as a romcom plot. Though carried in large part by Hawn's charm (and for a while there, Eileen Brennan was more fun and three-dimensional than most drill sergeants in most army comedies), the romantic comedy element does seem to go a bit long, but thematically, it superimposes following the military's orders and following a man's in a relationship. One is a duty, the other is not. The subplot is also marred by one of my bugbears: non-French actors playing French people and mangling their French lines (truthfully, Hawn has a better accent than her paramour, Armand Assante). Overall, a cute workplace comedy about discovering and testing yourself, and one that never questions the place of women in the military, like, at all.

3 years 8 months ago

Jonas2k

Crap.

10 years 11 months ago

Zeltaebar

This movie annoyed me.

11 years 8 months ago