Private Benjamin (1980 film)

Private Benjamin is a 1980 American comedy film starring Goldie Hawn. The film was one of the biggest box office hits of 1980,[1] and also spawned a short-lived television series. The film is ranked 82 on the American Film Institute's 100 Years...100 Laughs list,[2] and 59 on Bravo's list of "100 Funniest Movies".[3]

Private Benjamin
Theatrical release poster
Directed byHoward Zieff
Produced byNancy Meyers
Harvey Miller
Charles Shyer
Goldie Hawn
Written byNancy Meyers
Charles Shyer
Harvey Miller
StarringGoldie Hawn
Eileen Brennan
Armand Assante
Robert Webber
Sam Wanamaker
Barbara Barrie
Mary Kay Place
Harry Dean Stanton
Albert Brooks
Music byBill Conti
Barry De Vorzon
CinematographyDavid M. Walsh
Edited bySheldon Kahn
Distributed byWarner Bros.
Release date
  • October 10, 1980 (1980-10-10)
Running time
109 minutes
CountryUnited States
Budget$15 million
Box office$69,847,348

Plot

Judy Benjamin (Goldie Hawn), a 28-year-old Jewish woman from a sheltered wealthy upbringing whose lifelong dream is to "marry a professional man," joins the U.S. Army after Yale Goodman, her new husband (Albert Brooks), dies on their wedding night during sex. Adrift, Benjamin tells her story on a radio call-in show and meets an Army recruiter, SFC James Ballard (Harry Dean Stanton), who leads her to believe military life will provide the "family" she seeks. He also tells her that the service is glamorous, comparing it to a spa vacation. She has a rude awakening upon arriving at basic training. Judy wants to quit almost immediately, and is astonished to learn that she cannot, contrary to the assertions of her recruiting sergeant.

Army regulations and the continuing disapproval of both Captain Doreen Lewis (Eileen Brennan) and SFC L. C. Ross (Hal Williams), her drill sergeant, frustrate her, but when Judy's parents (Sam Wanamaker and Barbara Barrie) arrive at Fort Biloxi to take her home, she decides to stay and finish basic training, which she does with distinction after a wargames exercise where her squad exposes an affair between a member of her training platoon and an officer from another company (with whom Lewis had also been having an affair), and take the leaders of both sides hostage. Upon completion of basic training, Judy meets Henri Tremont (Armand Assante), a French doctor, who is in Biloxi for a medical conference. They separate after a brief romance; Henri returns to Paris, and Judy enters training for the Thornbirds, an elite paratrooper unit.

She quickly finds that she was chosen for paratrooper training because the unit's commander finds her attractive; after the other trainees have taken their parachute jump he attempts to sexually assault her on the plane. When she refuses to comply, he attempts to have her transferred as far away from Biloxi as soon as possible. Rather than accept what she sees as an undesirable post in Greenland or Guam, she negotiates an assignment to SHAPE in Belgium, and meets up with Henri again on a visit to Paris. He proposes marriage and she accepts, but when Captain Lewis discovers that Tremont is a communist, Judy is forced to choose either her Army career or love.

After she chooses Henri and gets engaged, Judy discovers Henri's controlling side. He tries to "remake" her, and also insists she sign a prenuptial agreement (in French) to protect his family home held for centuries. Then, when she finds out Henri is still in love with his ex-girlfriend Clare and has cheated on her with their maid, she realizes that she is capable of doing whatever she wants and that she does not need Henri in her life. In the final scene, just as Judy is about to get married again, she walks out on Henri at the altar.

Cast

Reception

The film holds a score of 82% on Rotten Tomatoes based on 33 reviews, with an average rating of 6.65/10. The site's consensus reads, "Private Benjamin proves a potent showcase for its Oscar-nominated star, with Goldie Hawn making the most of a story that rests almost completely on her daffily irresistible charm."[4]

Roger Ebert gave the film 3 stars out of 4 and praised it as "an appealing, infectious comedy" in a review that concluded, "Goldie Hawn, who is a true comic actress, makes an original, appealing character out of Judy Benjamin, and so the movie feels alive, not just an exercise in gags and situations."[5] Vincent Canby of The New York Times called Hawn "totally charming" and praised Zieff's "great skill at keeping the gags aloft and in finding new ways by which to free the laughs trapped inside old routines about latrine duty, war games, forced marches and calisthenics."[6] Gene Siskel of the Chicago Tribune gave the film 3.5 stars out of 4, calling it "old-fashioned, commercial Hollywood filmmaking at its best — an upbeat, delightful comedy with a gentle message."[7] Variety wrote that the film "is actually a double feature — one is a frequently funny tale of an innocent who is conned into joining the U.S. Army and her adventures therein; the other deals with the same innocent's personality problems as a Jewish princess with only an intermittent chuckle to help out."[8] Charles Champlin of the Los Angeles Times panned the film, calling it "a movie you don't salute, you court martial. It may or may not violate the Articles of War but it raises holy hob with the laws of film making, the first of which is that you start with a good script."[9] Gary Arnold of The Washington Post called it "a peculiarly unappealing throwback to the traditional service comedies like 'Buck Privates,' 'Caught in the Draft,' 'See Here, Private Hargrove,' et al.," with an "aimless screenplay" that leaves Hawn's character "less likable than the one at the beginning."[10] Pauline Kael of The New Yorker wrote, "Goldie Hawn demonstrates what an accomplished comedienne she is—she carries 'Private Benjamin' on her back."[11] David Ansen of Newsweek called the film "an uneven but highly enjoyable mixture of sociological satire, basic-training slapstick and feminist fable."[12]

Box office

Private Benjamin grossed $4,739,769 from 763 theaters in its opening weekend, finishing at the top of the US box office. It added 36 more screens the following weekend and increased its gross to $4,935,571, finishing number one again, with a 10-day gross of $11.5 million.[13][14][15][16][17]

Awards and nominations

Private Benjamin was nominated for Academy Awards for Best Actress (Goldie Hawn), Best Supporting Actress (Eileen Brennan), and Best Original Screenplay (Nancy Meyers, Charles Shyer, Harvey Miller).[18]

The film is recognized by American Film Institute in these lists:

Television series
Main article: Private Benjamin (TV series)

In 1981, Private Benjamin was made into an Emmy and Golden Globe–winning television series of the same name that ran from 1981 to 1983. Set during the events of the film, it starred Lorna Patterson, Eileen Brennan, Hal Williams, Lisa Raggio, Wendie Jo Sperber and Joel Brooks. Brennan and Williams reprised their roles, those of Captain Doreen Lewis and Sergeant L. C. Ross respectively, from the film for the television series.

Remake

In March 2010, Anna Faris was originally cast to portray Judy Benjamin in a remake of Private Benjamin from New Line Cinema, but in May 2014, it was confirmed that Rebel Wilson would portray Benjamin in the remake. Amy Talkington was in talks to write the script, which was to update both the story and the screenplay on which Harvey Miller, Nancy Meyers, and Charles Shyer had initially written in collaboration, and Mark Gordon was set to produce.

The new take Talkington was in talks to adapt would re-set Miller's, Meyers's, and Shyer's story in contemporary times, with modern wars as the backdrop. Insiders said that the studio wanted neither to poke fun at the people in the service nor take political potshots, but instead sought to focus on the empowerment elements and to build on the fish-out-of-water comedy.[21] But as of the beginning of August 2018, no new word was available on the project.

See also

References
  1. Box Office Mojo. "1980 Yearly Box Office Results". Archived from the original on 2014-10-23. Retrieved 2014-01-28.
  2. "Private Tutor". Infoplease.com. Retrieved 2011-03-27.
  3. "Bravo's "100 Funniest Movies" on Lists of Bests". Listsofbests.com. 2006-06-02. Archived from the original on 2009-02-02. Retrieved 2011-03-27.
  4. "Private Benjamin". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved April 24, 2019.
  5. Ebert, Roger. "Private Benjamin". RogerEbert.com. Retrieved April 24, 2019.
  6. Canby, Vincent (October 10, 1980). "Film: Goldie Hawn as 'Private Benjamin'". The New York Times. C6.
  7. Siskel, Gene (October 10, 1980). "'Benjamin' — a message and Goldie to boot". Chicago Tribune. Section 2, p. 3.
  8. "Film Reviews: Private Benjamin". Variety. October 8, 1980. 20.
  9. Champlin, Charles (October 10, 1980). "'Private': The Script Went AWOL". Los Angeles Times. Calendar p. 1.
  10. Arnold, Gary (October 10, 1980). "No Salute for 'Benjamin'". The Washington Post. E7.
  11. Kael, Pauline (November 10, 1980). "The Current Cinema". The New Yorker. 205.
  12. Ansen, David (October 20, 1980). "Goldie in Khaki". Newsweek. 84.
  13. "50 Top-Grossing Films". Variety. October 22, 1980. p. 13.
  14. "Weekend Domestic Chart for October 10, 1980". The Numbers. Retrieved December 30, 2020.
  15. "Private Benjamin Marches On (advertisement)". Variety. October 22, 1980. pp. 18–19.
  16. "50 Top-Grossing Films". Variety. October 29, 1980. p. 9.
  17. "'Benjamin' At $11.5-Mil". Variety. October 22, 1980. p. 4.
  18. "The 53rd Academy Awards | 1981". Oscars.org | Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Retrieved 2018-02-26.
  19. "AFI's 100 Years...100 Laughs" (PDF). American Film Institute. Retrieved 2016-08-21.
  20. "AFI's 100 Years...100 Movie Quotes Nominees" (PDF). Retrieved 2016-08-21.
  21. "Anna Faris to star in 'Private Benjamin' remake (exclusive)". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 2010-03-30.
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