Private Banjamin is an uneven film, but it is also an entertaining one. The first half is very focused, but the second half does get rather scatter-shot and dull. While most of it is funny, some of the laughs have a tendency to become sporadic, while the romance felt forced for my tastes. On the other hand, the film is at least nice to look at with good cinematography, editing and scenery, the story is decently paced and maintains interest and at its best the script is smart and snappy. Goldie Hawn is a very likable lead, and there is a sterling support cast including Eileen Brennan and Harry Dean Stanton. Overall, a very decent and entertaining film. 7/10 Bethany Cox

Many reviewers here have compared this movie to Stripes, which came out the following year. Beyond the fact of the Army setting, and the participation of P.J. Soles, I see nothing in common between this thoughtful and well-acted production, and Stripes, an unfunny, undisciplined farcial bore. On its own merits, Private Benjamin develops characters you can care about (or hate), shows significant metamorphosis of the title character, and plays out countless funny scenes and situations.The war-games scenario has been done and done endlessly (ref. The Dirty Dozen, etc), but is played for humor here with great success. Eileen Brennan is the CO everyone loves to hate, and gets her comeuppance more than once in PB, to the audience's delight.Support is solidified with performances by P.J. Soles, Albert Brooks, Harry Dean Stanton, Robert Webber, Craig T. Nelson, and, perhaps best of all, Sam Wanamaker as Judy Benjamin's doting yet controlling father.The final portion of the movie involves our heroine conceiving matrimony with a slick and caddish French gynecologist, played to perfection by Armand Assante. This culminates in our being treated to an ending that leaves the world wide open to Judy, thanks to her Army experience of maturing and self-discovery.A good choice for viewing any time.

In "Private Benjamin" Goldie Hawn demonstrates what made her a star: blond hair, child's eyes, and an astounding ability to laugh at herself. Here she sends herself up as both a dumb blond AND a Jewish princess, and the formula would serve as the prototype for every film she made afterward. If this is Goldie at her best, why isn't the film considered a classic? You ask a good question, friend...The first hour of the movie is delightful. Fish-out-of-water Judy Benjamin joins the Army. Judy aggravates the tough-as-nails drill instructor (Eileen Brennan), develops as a soldier and a person, triumphs at war games and inevitably dances to Sister Sledge's "We Are Family" with her fellow cadets in the ultimate display of female bonding. (Sync cycles, anyone?) Hmmmm... that's odd. The movie's over. But according to the box there's still an hour left. What could possibly come next? A bizarre adventure in which Officer Judy gets stationed overseas, falls in love with a Frenchman, and has to decide whether to marry him or re-enlist in the army. I found my mind wandering during the second-half... I started making mental grocery lists, naming state capitals... it was very difficult to stay focused on a movie that had so clearly lost its focus. The scattershot second-half of the movie only serves to undo the good of the first half. Maybe this is why the movie fails to endure as a classic.Still, there's a lot of laughs here, with Goldie Hawn at her best.GRADE: B-

A harmless, cute movie that rests nearly entirely on the talents of two women: Goldie Hawn and Eileen Brennan.Hawn is an expert comedienne and her string of late 70s/early 80s comedies are nearly all perfectly watchable now. Brennan is a total hoot as a drill sergeant who you love to hate. The movie is basically an all-female version of "Police Academy" or "Stripes" (which would come out a year later).I don't have anything else to say about this movie but I have to have ten lines of text to get my comment approved.Grade: B+