She's in the Army Now (1981 TV Movie) User Reviews

Is this film over yet?

[Mattias · 4/10 · 5 October 2002]

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).

To Watch or Not To Watch???

[ToTo2025 · 4/10 · 20 September 2021]

"She's in the Army Now" is an early 80's TV movie with an all star cast that looks like a blend between "Reform School Girls" and "Private Benjamin". Released a year after the Goldie Hawn classic, this TV film tries to capture the success of women in the military. With early performances by a young Jamie Lee Curtis and Melanie Griffith, it shows seven weeks of basic training in the army of a group of very different women. While it does have a cross of comedic and dramatic undertones, it falls very short of it being a drama or a comedy. Most of the subject matter it portrays (i.e. Suicide to bullying) has a very adult mannerisms in how they approach it for a TV movie. Most people who are fans of the cast and/or fans of military movies will be drawn to this film. However, things are not all what they appear to be. Proceed with caution!!!!

Just plain bad in so many ways.

[ghatbkk · 4/10 · 12 June 2023]

There is so much wrong with this movie that I thought they must not have had a technical advisor, but there is one listed on the list of the crew. I must assume that Dennis Foley was never at a BCT post in the timeframe that this is set in. The uniforms are pretty much correct, although the way they are worn is blatantly ridiculous as are some of the events portrayed. But a technical expert you would hope would get the nomenclature for the M16A1 rifle correct, or make sure the women could march in something resembling being in step. The cast is such that you really would expect the film to be better, but it's really just blah, blah, blah. Even the Article 15 towards the end is really not well done (maybe the Colonel was incapable of reading any lines). And the complete failure to take advantage of the existence of the Chaplin, both for the girl who attempts suicide and for the girl in danger of losing her baby is just silly.

Stripe's Ripoff

[thebushwacker · 7/10 · 22 October 2021]

"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.

As a story this is great.

[dhcaton · 10/10 · 11 June 2023]

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!