La bidasse (1980)

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.