Product Description

When John Winger (Murray) loses his job, car, apartment and girlfriend all in one day, he decides that his only option is to enlist in the Army.
Genre: Feature Film-Comedy
Rating: NR
Release Date: 4-SEP-2007
Media Type: DVD

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #5338 in DVD
• Brand: Sony
• Released on: 2005-06-07
• Rating: R (Restricted)
• Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
• Formats: AC-3, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, DVD, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: English, French
• Dubbed in: French
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .25 pounds
• Running time: 106 minutes

Amazon.com
Bill Murray was heading toward a career peak on the back of comedies such as this one from 1981, the second film in his ongoing collaboration with director Ivan Reitman (the two went on to make Ghostbusters). Murray plays a chronic loser who joins the army and fails to find a fan for his ironic sensibilities in his by-the-book sergeant (Warren Oates). When push comes to shove, however, the smirking hero takes charge of his ragtag unit and turns them into fighting machines, albeit to the rhythm of hit songs by Manfred Mann and Sly Stone. The film is occasionally funny, but it mostly plays like any one of a dozen underachieving comedies featuring players from Saturday Night Live and SCTV. --Tom Keogh

Customer Reviews

Stripes (Extended Cut) DVD 2005
Nope! It's NOT just the same movie - simply put:
You haven't actually seen Bill Murray's 'STRIPES' until you obtain this 2005 re-release DVD!

The bonus scenes featured DOES INDEED answer various inquiries we once had re this comedy:
e.g. - why are those 2 guys ALONE sitting against the EM-50 in Italy before they take it for a spin?....and when in Germany Russell flat-out refuses to rescue the captured troops with the other three in the EM-50, what made him change his mind? - (to mention a few)..

Another one of the deleted scenes is the (talked-about) 7-minute "South America" segment
where we DO see another side of Harold Ramis - while Murray is truly hilarious!

A BETTER print with superior STEREO 5.1 dolby sound now vs the previous mono DVD, including a great feature in two parts -"Stars & Stripes" - that will leave you dazzled in understanding this entire film: how it was made, rare image stills, and how the actors (a good number of them)
felt in doing the film along with Murray himself, being interviewed from of all places - TOKYO!

This new DVD gives you 2 movie options:
1.) the EXTENDED version featuring the deleted scenes-
(with added option of audio commentary from the director and head writer)
2.) the ORIGINAL theatrical version-
*BOTH WS*

There's also the option of seeing all SIX bonus scenes - one after the other -

The EXTENDED version does a fine editing job inserting the deleted scenes at the right places,
- even indicating (via small permanent text) where these bonus scenes START and END -
-an extremely smooth flow minus any pauses or audio dropouts...

However on this strange ORIGINAL version, there ARE crude pauses/slight audio drops only at the marks where the deleted scenes were MEANT to be placed (or were previously removed),
it's as if they didn't (wouldn't or couldn't) simply EMPLOY the main original print for this DVD -
-unsmooth/choppy at these marks, esp when the guys drive to Germany and meet the girls -

e.g. - Murray hugs P.J. Soles with the line: "I Brought The Magic Suitcase"..
- That very scene literally disappears - thus disappoints on this ORG version -

One Major Blunder:
A bonus scene w/P.J. Soles (there's MORE of her) & Murray in a hotel bedroom from Germany
is in fact the EXACT same bedroom set in a PREVIOUS short scene where she pulls Bill out of the trunk at General Barnacy's house; When you compare the two you'll believe they intended this to be START of the 'Barnacy Bedroom' segment..

But overall (the pauses & blunder notwithstanding), they did a great job
in christening this DVD as: "The ULTIMATE Stripes"
- definately worth forking over (at best) a Hamilton and an Abe for...

5 Stars for the Flick (Wish it Could be 6), 3 for the DVD
This is one of my favorite films of all time. I saw it with a boatload of fellow geology students at the end of a gruelling summer field camp in Montana and when Harold Ramis made his crack about passing 2 semesters of geology in one night it brought the house down. You don't have to be a geologist to appreciate this flick though, it's got laughs galore. Great stuff.

My objective in writing the review is to beef about the DVD. The big fat mono soundtrack is pretty dismal. I have to crank the volume to the max to watch it, then it sounds distorted and hissy. My biggest beef is with the "widescreen" version of the film. It appears to be just the fullscreen version with black bars at the top and bottom of the screen. I discovered this by examining the shower scene that Captain Sillman watches through his telescope. On the fullscreen side you can see the one of the girls' head and legs down to the knees. On the "widescreen" version you have extactly the same width of view and her head and buns are cut off by the black bars. Boo-hiss.

A classic flick like this deserves a much better DVD!

A fitting DVD presentation of a great comedy
The mark of a great comedy is that it remains funny after numerous viewings. "Stripes" (the 1981 release that helped make Bill Murray a star) passes this litmus test with flying colors. Now at last there is a DVD release, replete with extras, worthy of this enduring comedy.
Ivan Reitman directed Murray, Harold Ramis (who has subsequently directed many comedies of his own) and a great supporting cast led by John Candy as new recruits in the U.S. Army.
The wonderful veteran actor Warren Oates, who died shortly after the film's release, is their tough-as-nails drill sergeant. The by-play between Murray and Oates (opposites don't always attract) is priceless.
Suffice it to say that hilarity ensues, with the improbable unit putting on a virtuoso performance at their graduation ceremony ("That's the fact Jack!) sans their injured sergeant. This leads to them being charged with the security of a new super weaponized mobile home (it's called an, "urban assault vehicle") in Europe. Improbable? Absolutely. Hilarious? Most definitely.
Murray and Ramis also each has a lovely MP to accompany him on the duo's escapades as the ribaldry doesn't stop until the closing credits.
You can watch the "Stripes" with deleted scenes included or without.
The obvious highlight of the DVD extras is an hour long documentary on the movie with all principles interviewed (at his insistence, Murray's interview is done in black light). It is one of the better retrospectives of its kind.
And "Stripes" is one of the best comedies of this or any other time.