The Recruit's First Day | Stripes (1981) 

This movie never gets old. It's a classic.

Army brat here my father was a drill Sargent. We were raised as recuits. I remember my mother told him once these are your children not your recruits. I miss him everday.

I miss the 80's! Some great years!

"Are either of you two homosexuals?" "No, but we are willing to learn" 😂😂😂

I love how everyone gets a complete buzz cut except the two stars of the movie LOL

RIP Warren Oates (July 5, 1928 - April 3, 1982), aged 53 RIP Harold Ramis (November 21, 1944 - February 24, 2014), aged 69 RIP Ivan Reitman (October 27, 1946 - February 12, 2022), aged 75 RIP John Candy (October 31, 1950 - March 4, 1994), aged 43 You will be remembered as legends.

"Soldier, I've noticed you're always last." "I'm pacing myself, SGT" Describes my time in the military perfectly!

I was a caddy in 1981 when this came out, so Murray was ALREADY our God. We used "that's a fact, Jack," a lot.

To all of you comparing the movie to your days in the military… Thank You for your service. You have my admiration.

Warren Oates is a fantastic actor. His piece in Blue Thunder is just brilliant acting.

I love how all the recruits look 30+ years old

Love, love, love this movie! Saw it 4 years before I joined in 1985. What's made it better since is that a lot of this stuff really kind of happens in the military. Also, my old unit's patch is in this scene at 0:46. Its the one to the left of the door top middle, 2nd Armored Cavalry Regiment (2 ACR) The others are: left 3rd ACR, right 194th Armored Brigade, and bottom middle 11th ACR.

John Candy. As in every movie. Was priceless

I loved the way the hair shaving was "optional." Only poor John "Ox" Candy had a regulation haircut.

This was filmed at Ft. Knox in 81. I went through Ft. Knox and watched this movie in 82.

I love these wacky early 80s comedies. Stripes, Caddyshack, Blues Brothers, and Fletch are the funniest. And, can't forget Trading places

Having gone to Fort Knox for basic training and training in the barracks they lived in, it was a great feeling of nostalgia knowing they filmed it there. Just a shame all those buildings have since been torn down.

These comedians make me laugh even when I’m in very bad mood. I will hear me laughing with them in heaven.

I had a big bunch of people to watch this movie with me on my 23rd birthday and we all laughed and laughed. Sure it’s unrealistic but that’s part of the fun. I would have been honored to be on the set of this classic. According to Judge Reinhold all of the actors in “the platoon” were told stories by Warren Oates about working with him on The Wild Bunch and I would have considered it an honor among those fine men who got to hear those stories. Warren Oates in spite of his tough exterior really seemed like an awesome dude RIP.

I love how it ends with Do Wah Diddy Diddy as the cadance. It worked out so well the Sgt was totally cool with it. It would have been great if they did the entire song.

This movie was originally supposed to be "Cheech & Chong Go To The Army", but Chong didn't like not having the creative control and they backed out. Instead we got Bill Murray, Harold Ramis, John Candy, and the rest of these guys and it was still hilarious!!

Id say that Hulka was mighty laid back acting for a drill instructor.

This is the most realistic basic training/boot camp movie EVER. This is my word. And as such is beyond contestation.

I always loved how Harold Ramos started randomly dancing and singing “Hare Krishna” when they were just standing there after their haircuts. I don’t really understand the context, but the randomness of it is still funny 😂

Took my Army boot camp 51 years ago. As long as you did a halve descent job nobody really broke your balls much. Ten weeks after boot camp was in nice warm sunny Viet Nam.

I enlisted in the Army during my senior year of high school and left for basic training on June 16th. I was an M1A1 gunner (19K) and at the time the U.S. Army Armor center was at Ft. Knox where this was filmed. I got off the bus where they did. While standing at attention the weed (what our drill sergeants called us) next to me fainted and landed face first onto the pavement. Then we met our drill sergeants in the same room we did. I spent my first night in a one of those old white barracks. I ran the same obstacle course that John Candy goes off into the woods several times and when BM is trying to sneak away that was my tank motor pool. Basic and AIT was 16 weeks of fun for a kid like me. Like summer camp with weapons and really grumpy counselors. So many good memories. Now, all these years later I'm a licensed drone operator who's been accepted by the Ukrainians to come and teach new operators how to fly drones. Time to go make some more memories. Slava Ukraini! Update: The Ukrainian government isn't letting foreigners teach at the drone academies. So, I've applied to join the International Legion. My fingers are crossed. When I enlisted the USSR was always swinging their nuclear peckers around. I've always wanted to kill some Russians. God willing, I'll get my chance. I'll be sure to post a special message from Ukraine just for Colin, the BF2, CoD, I mean EOD puke.

Who else really misses John Candy? He made so many smile. He died at 43. 😢

Man I wish I could go back to those days 😪

You can tell who was the biggest star by their haircut. Biggest names got less cut.

Dang 1981..... I remember going to the theater to see this one. That was 1981? Damn time flies .

I LOVE THE CHARACTER FRANCIS!!!! U THE MAN!!!!

I love Elmo sitting behind Winger trying not to bust out laughing. .

Saw this when it came out, I was 15 years old.....still one of the best ever.....

I remembered going through basic training. I sure do miss being 18 with my head shaved and running around. It made me a better citizen.

Bill Murray's best movie. This is where I saw Bill for the first time. As an Englishman, I was totally in awe of this uniquely confident, cocky performer.

Just the cast itself was gold

I still bust a gut when Sgt. Hulka called John Winger "Mr. Push-Ups" in the movie!

Timeless classic

I was in this very room for 19K OSUT basic training at Fort Knox, Kentucky in October of 1992, a little over 10 years after this filming. We'd just arrived by bus, from Louisville, at about 4 in the morning. This was the "what the hell have I gotten myself into?" moment.

I was 12 when this movie came out. My dad was a Vietnam vet and wasn’t too keen on it. It was my favorite movie. 6 years later I joined the Army and went to basic training at Ft Knox, where stripes was filmed. Sat in that very room day one.

I'll never forget that first haircut the barbers had a lot of jokes they asked one recruit a black kid with a huge Afro how much hair he wanted to keep he answered "all of it" the barber took his time very carefully cut the Guy's hair when he was done he very carefully lifted the whole Afro off the recruit's head an d laid the whole head of hair in the recruit's lap he said he wanted to keep al his hair and he did. In the end his head was cleanly shorn it's a good memory.

I went through OSUT at Fort Knox in 93. By then training units were all at Disney Barracks. The old white barracks were still there and I stayed in them when I came back for training in 95. You could walk across the floor in your socks and the years of wax would bring them to an instant shine. A friend who was stationed there in 2020 told me they are all gone now. Too bad, as the artwork in them was amazing.

God Bless Warren Oates, if you haven't seen Two Lane Blacktop...he's phenomenal in it. The Wild Bunch, Race with the Devil...brilliant performer

Ah the time when you could say things that annoyed other people and everyone laughed in the end

" HEY!, ONE OF THESE MEN MIGHT SAVE YA LIFE ONE OF THESE DAYS?, then again?, maybe one of us Won't!!!, LOVED IT!.

I remember I had to get refitted for my dress uniform because I lost more weight then I wanted. I went from a 36 to a 34 almost a 32. The tailor said “You’re back.” I said yes ma’am, my body seems to think I need to loose more weight. We talked about it and we agreed to stop at 34.” I went in at 205 came out 189. (Started at, before boot, 230)

"How's it goin', Eisenhower?"

Top tip. If told to jump, DO NOT ask how high. Just start jumping... He will very quickly tell you if you're not jumping high enough!!!

Warren Oats was one of The Wild Bunch. That alone makes him a legend. He was the type of fantastic actor that simply doesn't exist any longer.

I’ve seen this movie countless times since I was a kid and I always forget Judge Reinhold was in it. 🤷🏽‍♂️

This and Private Benjamin were classic army comedies I love to this day! 💙

3:11 John Candy walking out with his shaved hair in his hands always slays me😂

Actually quite a few comedians in that room. What a great cast.

We need a lot more fun like this today in this WORK movie, TV time.

I never got that kind of welcome from a drill sergeant at basic training in Ft.Benning GA in 1995

We had this very moment at Fort Dix in July of 84.

Sgt. Hulka was easily respected, right off the bat. Yes, it's a comedy, but no way would I have disrespected Hulka, like Winger does.

Love that movie

That’s messed up. John Candy 🕊 is the only one that came close to the fa real indoc haircut. 😏

"You're a BUM, and you'll always be a BUM!" Too funny... It's so true that when strangers judge us, too often we feel the need to prove them wrong...

I always found it interesting that the two principal actors didn't get a real military haircut, just a short one. I think a military haircut would have been too extreme and would have taken focus away from the comedy part of it.

"Blown up, sir"

2:51 I didn't know Colin Kaepernick was in Stripes!

I like the drill parade scene Army Training Sir!

And this comic platoon is still better than the entire Russian army...

Brings back memories, not of the movie, but of showing up to Fort McClellan, Alabama for Army basic training. I was surprised to learn that Army haircuts weren't free, I had to pay $2 to get my hair lopped off.

Corporal Briggs was a real soldier. We met him at reception station.

Gen Barnecke he owes me money😂😂😂

And at 4:22, the smirk and the sarcastic insincerity is great

remember watching this show when it first came out. i was either a sophmore or junior in hight school at the time. it was the talk of the high school kids at the time. i haven't seen the movie in decades.

What kind of training son? Aaaaarmmmy training sir. What happened to you sergent son? He got blown up.

Ha !!! The Sargent has an UNCLE TOM !!😮😮😅😅😅😊😊😊😂😂

The training scenes in this movie were all filmed at Fort Knox Kentucky, where armor crewmen and cavalry scouts go through basic training. The first time I saw it, at the base theater at Fort Stewart, Georgia, the tankers and cavalrymen in the audience cheered every time we recognized any landmark or training ground.

Such a great movie. I was stationed at Knox. Our Logistics Office was in the same room as the movie’s Barbershop. That’s the fact jack!

"Lighten up, Francis!"

I heard the same speech in 1971 except your answer was "Yes Drill Sargent". The whites were Olive Drab Green. We sang lots of songs but not that one. Ours were not as nice. my barracks looked exactly like those, old WW 2 leftovers. Cold in the winter, hot in the summer. Windows open all the time. Memories!

Takes you back to better times

Only Bill Murray and Harold Ramis are allowed to keep their hair? Not in real life they wouldn't! I'm guessing is actors they refused to let their heads be shaved but in real life they wouldn't have a choice in the army.

Was assigned to Ft. Knox, KY at the time this movie was filmed. I was the XO(exective officer of A company 5/33 Armor, 194th Armor Brigade. We had to supply a platoon of tanks for some of the scenes you see. Much of this was filmed in the 4th Training Brigade Area and the St. Johns Motor Pool. It was a very funny movie. The scenes for the girls wrestling were filmed at a club called the Toy Tiger in Louisville, KY. It was funny up to the point when they were supposedly in Germany with the armored Winnebago on the East German Border. I was in the 7th Cavalry and patrolled the East German border and it was no laughing matter. Brings back a lot of memories.

I was among the last in the army to be issued that olive drab fatigues. After basic and infantry school at exotic Ft Benning, I went to Germany and soon had to buy the camouflage BDU’s, so we could go to the field and cover them up with olive drab chemical suits. Good memories.

My brother Tony and I were extras in this scene. Now I wish I had let them cut my hair for the movie. Only my blonde hair is scene from the back when Sgt. Hulka walks past me. During the lunch break, I talked to Warren Oates about his family and career as an actor. I mentioned how much I loved his part in "2 Lane Blacktop". I was surprised he talked to me so long. When I got my Army haircut at Fort Knox, the barbers cut off all your hair up the center then asked how you wanted your hair cut after almost scalping you with the hair clipper. 1969.

"Hey, we're walkin'!"

When you get the haircut,, you are practically bald. I still remember the steam coming off all of our heads when we got outside. So cold

I like how they let John Candy keep his hair after it was cut off!

I love how judge Reinhold is the only one that doesn’t know his left from his right

After the haircut, John Candy looks to be like Curly Howard!

The first shot of John Candy is fucking priceless.

"Get your goat smelling ass outta here!" 😂😂

Kinda odd that Murray and a couple other actors didn't get the standard hair-cut treatment. Always made me think they were being prima-donnas in the movie.

One of my all time favourite films.

One of the greatest movies ever

I went through basic training in 1985. The DI's terrified me. I can still recall there names after nearly 40 years.

Now I want to watch the entire movie yet again perhaps for the 25th time

One of the great "cult" movies of my senior year in high school, this one and "Heavy Metal".

How's it going Eisenhower?

I told my Battalion and Brigade Commanders when they asked what my career goals were my reply was not to get fired and to be a lean, mean fighting machine. I also told them that the movie “Stripes” inspired me to join.

I did PLDC at these same barracks on Ft. Knox. Seems like a million years ago now.

@3:30 at least john candy was willing to go all the way with his character.

''That's the Fact Jack'' That line in the movie would be quoted from one of my Uncles who was a ''funny alcholic type'' , he saw so much humor in that line from the movie, he would quote it in daily life situation's I swear like 15 years later, it still makes me smile when I think about it....

Ghostbusters basic training 😂 RIP Harold 😢