Private Benjamin Overview (1980-1983)

Introduction

Private Benjamin is a 1980 American comedy film starring Goldie Hawn.

The film was one of the biggest box office hits of 1980, and also spawned a short-lived television series (1981-1983).

The film is ranked 82 on the American Film Institute’s 100 Years…100 Laughs list, and 59 on Bravo’s list of “100 Funniest Movies”.

Outline of the Movie (1980)

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 US 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, Sergeant First Class 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 Sergeant First Class 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 realises 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.

Film 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.

Outline of the TV Series (1981-1983)

Like the movie, the series is about a spoiled young socialite named Judy Benjamin adjusting to life in the army. She is popular among her fellow enlisted personnel (with the exception of Private Carol Winter), but not with her superiors. Most of the humour in the series is derived from Benjamin and her friends’ attempts to evade the watchful eye of their Sergeant.

Although some of the actors from the film play the same characters on the TV show, (notably Eileen Brennan and Hal Williams, in their roles of Captain Doreen Lewis and Sergeant L.C. Ross respectively) the title role is acted by Lorna Patterson instead of Goldie Hawn.

While the series was initially shot on film and featured many outdoor scenes, later episodes were more like a standard sitcom, shot on video on sound stages and complete with a laugh track.

In the fall of 1982, Robert Mandan joined the cast as Colonel Lawrence Fielding, the pompous, well-meaning, but ineffectual, head of the camp. In late 1982, Eileen Brennan was struck by a car and Polly Holliday was brought in as Captain Amanda Allen, intended as a temporary replacement for Brennan’s Captain Lewis character, but the show was cancelled shortly thereafter.

Private Benjamin Series