It’s an especially fun movie from a director and cast who are clearly having a good time allowing themselves to let loose.

When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.

This is a must-see and one of the best documentaries - and films - of this year.

The acting in this movie is really good.

There's nothing necessarily egregious about this army-camp 'comedy' but the sum of its parts add up to a tedious, tiresome and generally joyless experience that peaks around an hour too early and just wallows around in its own self-pity for the remainder of its run-time. It's this meandering that really brings the piece down as, without this slack pacing and the almost incompetent lack of focus for the main plot found within this segment, the majority of the feature is inoffensive fluff that can be passively watched to kill a bit of time. Even then there are a few moments that stand out as truly odd, such as a poorly handled, out-of-nowhere sexual assault sequence played purely for laughs and an advancement in the plot before never being mentioned again. There's also a general lack of a proper grasp on both the core concept and the character arcs that should stem from it, especially considering the lead learns her lesson and completes her arc only to then completely relapse and bizarrely learn her lesson again in the final scene, literally within the blink of an eye. In the end, though, I didn't enjoy this flick, I wasn't entertained and I didn't laugh once. 4/10

Goldie Hawn as Judy Benjamin is your typical Philadelphia Jewish princess with two husbands already, one quickly annulled, one expiring on their honeymoon night. Seeking something to give life meaning again she meets with an army recruiter and finds herself pushing Mississippi away from her numerous times as Private Benjamin.This turns out for Goldie Hawn to be one of her career roles, it even spawned a TV series though Hawn did not do it for the small screen. It also won her a Best Actress Oscar nomination for herself and a Supporting Actress nomination for her screen nemesis Eileen Brennan as her basic training company commander. Private Benjamin also got a nomination for Best Original Screenplay.Some 30 years earlier Rosalind Russell also found a home in the army when she did Never Wave At A WAC. A lot of similarities except that Russell was a good deal older when she decided to enlist. Her film was also more of a recruiting commercial for the Women's Army Corps.Hawn's army in 1980 was a great deal more integrated although we would not see women in combat roles until the Gulf War. Still Hawn goes through some rigorous training.She also has a good military mind, pulling out a war game sequence in a similar manner to The Dirty Dozen. She gets the goods on General Robert Webber so to speak and also has mixed results in the romance department with Armand Assante. As a woman who has now learned to be all she can be, she will not be a trophy wife for an Alpha male Frenchman.Funniest scene for me is Goldie complaining about the latrine facilities and Brennan showing her what she can do about it.45+ years later and Private Benjamin still a very good and very funny film.

She is, of course, quite beautiful, but I can't say that Goldie Hawn has really blown me away with her acting or her style of comedy. Having said that, "Private Benjamin" seemed like a movie and a role that was right up her alley, so to speak, and I looked forward to watching it. I was disappointed. What I thought would be an amusing comedy failed completely. It turns out to be little more than a woman's journey to find herself. The first twenty minutes or so are really quite heavy. It's sad to watch Judy Benjamin being controlled and manipulated by everyone around her - her parents, her fiancé/husband and then even the army recruiter who lies to her after she's devastated by her husband's death on their wedding night to convince her to join up by telling her what a cushy life she'll lead as a soldier. I certainly didn't start out laughing. The basic training portion of the movie started out well. It had a few laughs in it, although I thought at times that it came across as little more than a female version of "MASH." Maybe if the focus had stayed more on Judy as a misfit in the army trying to fit in, this would have worked, but then after an unfortunately limited amount of time in basic training, the rest of the movie turns into a soap opera about her relationship with Henri and whether she's going to end up marrying him. Again, there were few laughs in this part of the movie, yet more feelings of heaviness as Judy finds herself getting sucked in by yet another manipulative guy and just a general lack of fun in a movie that's supposed to be a comedy.I suppose in the end this fits into one of the themes of the late 70's (although technically this is a 1980 movie): the idea of the woman who finds herself when she realizes that she doesn't need a man in her life. For goodness sake, this even referenced 1978's "An Unmarried Woman" and my reaction to this was about the same as my reaction to that one: bleak and not really that interesting to watch. I'm glad Judy finally found herself at the end. Frankly, though, I'm a little sorry I watched the process of self-discovery!

This must be the most under rated, under appreciated, overlooked comedy ever. It was never even released in Wide-screen on DVD. Goldie Hawn shines as the main Character Judy Benjamin as well as Eileen Brennen as the tough sergeant. Oh, and did I mention how funny it is.It is the Story of Judy Benjamin, a newly married Jewish "Princess" with over protective Parents. To them, Judy is the typical "be pretty and stay quiet" kind of a girl. They marry her off to a doctor as every nice Jewish girl must do. This begins a journey of self discovery for Judy and we are taken along for the ride. As the title insinuates, she joins the Army and begins to develop into the woman that deep down she knew she could be.I never understood why this movie has been cast aside. Maybe the audience does not want to see a mature, thoughtful Goldie Hawn. It's one of my favorites, and I hope one day it gets the treatment that it deserves on Blu-Ray.