It’s not all off the top, he’s a writer too and he thinks of things and writes things in between takes. Reitman on Murray: “Bill and lines-he has wonderful way of spinning whatever you’ve written. Reitman called Murray a very good driver, so the taxi scenes were not filmed with a tow truck, rather with a camera mounted on the hood and Murray driving. The film was largely improvised in this first scene when he loaded the suitcases Murray actually did hit himself in the cojones, so his line “Oh my balls” was very real. He was following a baseball team (around the country).” The beginning of the film was shot in downtown Louisville and for the opening scene when Winger loads suitcases into his taxi trunk, “Bill insisted we load up the bags (suitcases) really heavy so he could act properly.” Reitman laughed over spending a lot of time trying to determine exactly how much weight should be in the bags. Murray agreed to do the film two weeks before shooting began and showed up on the third day of shooting Reitman said, “We were hoping he’d show up. Stripes was the third time Reitman worked with Bill Murray, whom he calls “the funniest white man in America.” The two were together during “The National Lampoon Radio Hour,” which also featured John Belushi, Gilda Radner, Chevy Chase, Harold Ramis, Christopher Guest and Joe Flaherty.Ĥ. Goldberg noted that Private Benjamin was shooting at the same time and they were not given DoD approval and had to film in “strange locations in California.” They had a couple of Army guys who followed them around all the time and made sure insignias and room decorations were correct one of them had a line and a lot of characters are soldiers from open auditions held at Fort Knox.ģ. The director said he’s made a lot of films and tried with much more innocent movies to get the Department of Defense to help, but that never happened again. The production got permission from the Army to use their commercial and Reitman is “still amazed” they were allowed to shoot at Fort Knox and given assistance. The writers ended up taking out all the dope humor and the script became “smarter.”Ģ. Movie studio Paramount “thought it was a good idea.” The movie ended up being distributed by Columbia Pictures instead, without Cheech and Chong (Reitman didn’t go into details about why Marin and Chong were out, but some sources say that the duo’s manager demanded too much control and/or money). The group (Reitman, Goldberg and Blum) figured there would be no problem talking to the comedy duo who had just done Up in Smoke. In what may be my favorite commentary tidbit ever, Writer Dan Goldberg ( Meatballs, Heavy Metal, Feds) recalled Reitman coming up to him at the Meatballs premiere and saying, “I have an idea for a movie: Cheech and Chong join the Army.” Lenny (Co-writer Len Blum ) and Dan said, “That’s a great idea” and for the next year they wrote Cheech and Chong Join the Army, though they never spoke to either Marin or Chong. Director Ivan Reitman ( Ghostbusters, Meatballs, Twins, Kindergarten Cop, Six Days, Seven Nights, My Super Ex-Girlfriend) says people always tell him that this is their favorite movie of his. Throw in John Larroquette, John Candy and Warren Oates, mud wrestling and a couple of topless women, and you’ve got yourself one of the funniest, silliest comedies to ever drolly go behind the scenes of military life.ġ. There’s a John Winger in every platoon and the rest of the soldiers are usually thankful for him. What he does get right is the need for humor and the coming together of a group of vastly different people, thrown into a disarming situation. With a veritable who’s who of comedy gracing its cast, Ivan Reitman’s version of Army training has a few moments of truth and a lot of fun, wishful thinking.
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