He made the rank of corporal before his discharge in 1948. Marine Corps in 1946 and served for two years as an aircraft mechanic. "Stripes" was made by Canadians.Īfter dropping out of high school, future actor Warren Oates enlisted in the U.S. "It just took away any kind of negativity from the movie, and that support really made it a very enjoyable experience for everybody because we were really embraced by the Army." 3. That support "made it really easy for us to get troops during filming," said screenwriter and producer Daniel Goldberg. And the Army's decision to support the production made all the difference. You have to wonder whether anyone at the Pentagon actually read the screenplay before giving the Army's blessing to "Stripes." Even though the movie followed the old Hollywood arc of "raw recruits surviving training before taking on the enemy on the field of battle," all the anarchy was in the details.Ī big part of the reason that "Stripes" works is that the movie was filmed in a real military environment. After they signed up John Candy to play wildman recruit Dewey "Ox" Oxberger, the pieces were in place for a truly chaotic comedy. Both "Cheech and Chong's Next Movie" and "Nice Dreams" were released before "Stripes," so they were never really going to show up and star in someone else's film.įortunately, Reitman got along with Bill Murray from "Meatballs" and recruited him to play the lead, John Winger. They were grinding the movies out quickly. Cheech and Chong were hot after the surprise success of "Up in Smoke" in 1978, but they were writing their own movies and Tommy Chong was the director (even though their manager Lou Adler somehow took credit for Chong's work on the first movie). My idea was to have Cheech and Chong join the Army that's what Dan and Lenny initially wrote." We were in peaceful times, it was post-Vietnam, and I thought it would be great to have some comedic look at the Army that would not be another protest movie. "I felt like it was time for another service comedy. "It was just before the premiere of Meatballs in Toronto, Canada," said Reitman in an interview with the U.S. Reitman came up with the idea for a pro- Army comedy about best friends joining together and enlisted screenwriters Len Blum and Daniel Goldberg to write the screenplay. John and Russell, with Stella and Louise's help, will have to show their true mettle as US army soldiers and in the process test the capabilities of the EM-50 to rescue their platoon without the rest of the US army knowing what's going on, and thus without any assistance beyond themselves.Tommy Chong and Cheech Marin in their movie "Up in Smoke." In the process, the rest of the platoon, Hulka, and Hulka's immediate superior, self-absorbed Captain Stillman, get caught unofficially behind enemy Communist lines in Czechoslovakia. John and Russell decide to take the EM-50 for an unauthorized test drive to visit Stella and Louise who have been reassigned to West Germany. But what happens during basic leads to their entire platoon being assigned to an overseas mission in Italy, to test a new urban assault vehicle, the EM-50 project. Their entire platoon is in jeopardy of not graduating. Two of their saving graces are Stella and Louise, two MPs who get them out of one scrape after another. However, it is still John that is constantly butting heads with their drill sergeant, Sergeant Hulka. In basic training, they are only two of a bunch of misfits that comprise their platoon. At the end of a very bad day when he realizes his life has gone and is going nowhere, John Winger is able to convince his best friend, Russell Ziskey, whose life is not much better, to enlist in the army, despite they not being obvious soldier material.
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