She's in the Army Now

I can only recommend this to a die-hard Melanie Griffith fan. To anybody else who wants to see female recruits in basic training, go find Private Benjamin (1980) with Goldie Hawn instead. This is a rather boring account of a couple of young women doing seven weeks in an army camp. I've done basic training myself and it wasn't a holiday home like the one they seem to have in the US. Doing push-ups and practicing at a fire range, is that all? If you want a better account of army life, rent Kubrick's Full Metal Jacket (1987).

Movie critiques are written either about the film or about the story. I'm not a film critic. So, I'm just another nobody who enjoys a good story with good and enjoyable basic values. Even better, maybe it revives memories of 8-years in the military preparing for Vietnam, for Special Operations and for 100-plus individual military parachute missions. And yet today for me from a new POV: 40-years after this story was made into a movie and nearly 20-years after having served in Vietnam, I loved "She's In The Army Now". Sure, life has its challenges. Some, at the time, we win and some not. Yet these aspiring young female recruits each made a decision, exercised courage and common sense in sticking to their decision, and, whether any single young lady won or not, they all kept the faith with each other as a group of what could become lifelong friendships. And that's what makes this a great story AND for me therefore a great movie!

"She's In The Army Now" 1981. This was a farily well known, and talked about, movie back in the '80s. It's pretty good, with a cast that all became famous afterward. The movie is kind of cookie cutter; it's just another one of those movies where they show these misfit, reject, boot campers graduate from basic training. Then, they go on to save the world. They did it in "Topgun", "Stripes", and "Police Academy". And oh yeah, it's yet another movie that Noflix doesn't carry. // The Bushwacker 10/22/2021.