Tied for the best movie I have ever seen

not horrible nor great

Great movie! If you want to be entertained and have a few good laughs, see this movie. The music is also very good,

It was OK. I don't see why everyone loves it so much. It wasn't very smart or deep or well-directed.

This comedy flick is about a spoiled Jewish-American woman Judy Benjamin (Goldie Hawn) who joins the Army after her new husband dies right on their wedding night during sex and duped by sneaky recruiting Sgt. Jim Ballard (Harry Dean Stanton) convinces her that military life to be glamorous, she gets a rude wake up call in boot camp after getting in trouble constantly, especially by Judy's hard-nosed superior officer Capt. Doreen Lewis (Eileen Brennan) prompting her to want a quit the Army, but then Judy has a change of heart and decides to stick it out leading her to a series of adventures that eventually lead her to a promotion and a transfer to Paris, France.The entire cast is outstanding, but especially Hawn who lights up the screen with her charm and beauty. Goldie Hawn is made for this kind of role, and as usual delivers the goods. There are some genuinely 'laugh out loud' moments as she struggles to adapt and make friends. Unfortunately the film seems to run out of steam half way through. Whereas the first half is true comedy, the second half has very little in the way of humor to offer. Having met a French gynecologist who she falls for, she wangles a posting to Paris to be with him. This is where the humor disappears as Judy leaves the army to be with him and he turns out to be a control freak that turns Judy into a clone of his ex girlfriend. It's almost like watching two separate films. I think it would have been better if the whole movie was her in the army not broken into basically two parts one distinctly comedic and the other a love story. Still, despite some glaring flaws, Private Benjamin is a good movie with a good story to tell. Unfortunately, what was probably a pretty daring look at gender rolls for its time has gotten really stale. If you overlook that, though, the movie is very entertaining.Overall rating: 8 out of 10.

Judy Benjamin (Goldie Hawn) is a picky superficial newlywed who loses her husband (Albert Brooks) during wedding night sex on the bathroom floor. She's 28, married twice, and trained for nothing. Lying recruiter Jim Ballard (Harry Dean Stanton) tricks her to join the army. She's in for a rude awakening and wants to go home. Captain Lewis (Eileen Brennan) is her tough trainer. After being belittled by her father, she decides to stay rather than go home getting taken care of. She becomes a great private and rout the opposition in a war game. While on leave in New Orleans, she meets french doctor Henri Tremont (Armand Assante). Later, he would propose but he isn't prince charming.Goldie Hawn is fun and Eileen Brennan is terrific. They are both great and the movie is actually uplifting. The movie should probably stay with basic training. The second half isn't quite as compelling and the comedy dries up. The movie is better off expanding on the first half and cut out the second half.

She is, of course, quite beautiful, but I can't say that Goldie Hawn has really blown me away with her acting or her style of comedy. Having said that, "Private Benjamin" seemed like a movie and a role that was right up her alley, so to speak, and I looked forward to watching it. I was disappointed. What I thought would be an amusing comedy failed completely. It turns out to be little more than a woman's journey to find herself. The first twenty minutes or so are really quite heavy. It's sad to watch Judy Benjamin being controlled and manipulated by everyone around her - her parents, her fiancé/husband and then even the army recruiter who lies to her after she's devastated by her husband's death on their wedding night to convince her to join up by telling her what a cushy life she'll lead as a soldier. I certainly didn't start out laughing. The basic training portion of the movie started out well. It had a few laughs in it, although I thought at times that it came across as little more than a female version of "MASH." Maybe if the focus had stayed more on Judy as a misfit in the army trying to fit in, this would have worked, but then after an unfortunately limited amount of time in basic training, the rest of the movie turns into a soap opera about her relationship with Henri and whether she's going to end up marrying him. Again, there were few laughs in this part of the movie, yet more feelings of heaviness as Judy finds herself getting sucked in by yet another manipulative guy and just a general lack of fun in a movie that's supposed to be a comedy.I suppose in the end this fits into one of the themes of the late 70's (although technically this is a 1980 movie): the idea of the woman who finds herself when she realizes that she doesn't need a man in her life. For goodness sake, this even referenced 1978's "An Unmarried Woman" and my reaction to this was about the same as my reaction to that one: bleak and not really that interesting to watch. I'm glad Judy finally found herself at the end. Frankly, though, I'm a little sorry I watched the process of self-discovery!

Ah, the good old forces comedy gets a female make over with entertaining enough results.When Judy Benjamin's second husband dies whilst making love to her, she is sold on joining the army by cunning recruitment officer Sgt. Jim Ballard {Harry Dean Stanton}, trouble for Judy is that training camp in Biloxi is a far cry from the exotic base she had envisaged for her stay in the service. Pulled from pillar to post by ruthless Capt. Doreen Lewis {a delightful Eileen Brennan}, and shunned by her fellow recruits for being a whining posh lass, Judy finally gets the picture and pulls herself up from the brink of misery.The script from Nancy Meyers, Charles Shyler and Harvey Miller stands up well enough, it's laced with genuine humour, and at its core, the triumph of the will theme gladdens the spirit all told. Yet strip away the comic ability of Goldie Hawn and you would be left with a very unmemorable picture, and come the films final snug piece of jigsaw filling, you can't help thinking that the films shift away from the army to France {for Judy's final romantic awakening} has left us short of more comic glee, and thus an empty feeling replaces where once was fulfilment. 6/10