“Stripes” also has the distinction of being one of the first films to make use of a Steadicam! Invented by Garrett Brown in 1975 and now a standard fixture on productions of every kind, the then-revolutionary camera was utilized to capture the flick’s famed graduation sequence, with Brown seamlessly shooting right alongside Murray and his fellow castmates as they completed a rousing and rapidly-moving two-and-a-half-minute marching step routine. Though silly, raunchy and certainly problematic at times, especially when looked at through a 2022 lens, the film, as described by, was one of the first of its kind, “released at a moment when theaters were still flooded with angsty dramas focused on the fallout from the Vietnam War.” Showcasing the Army in a positive light while hilariously poking fun at its many bureaucratic protocols along the way, “Stripes” became a veritable hit, earning a whopping $85 million at the box office, thereby paving the way for countless others like it, from “Good Morning, Vietnam” to “Renaissance Man” to “Sgt. But that’s the fact, Jack! The Ivan Reitman-directed comedy, which just celebrated its 41st birthday in June, tells the story of indolent taxi driver/“typical low-life character” John Winger (Bill Murray), who joins the United States Army on a whim along with his best friend, inept ESL teacher Russell Ziskey (Harold Ramis). Most film aficionados don’t likely consider the 1981 movie “Stripes” a trailblazer.
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