private benjamin: a summer with nancy meyers, pt. 3

let me sum up the first five minutes in emojis: 👰🏼💍🤵🏻‍♂️🍆💦🛌💥☠️

in case you missed it, i’m spending my summer with nancy meyers and attempting to watch all of her movies! (as someone who raaaaarely watches movies, this is A Big Deal.)

here’s the scoop:

my plan for the summer:

• watch one nancy meyers movie each week

• write up a movie review with my thoughts — that’s what this post is!

• share any key foodie moments from the movie

• give a few similar book recs

• share a fun moodboard with vibes/products/screenshots from the movie

• read this book (very academic in nature!) about nancy herself

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this week’s movie: private benjamin

here’s the overview for private benjamin:

• the synopsis: A Jewish-American princess, Judy Benjamin (Goldie Hawn), is devastated when her husband (Albert Brooks) drops dead on their wedding night. While she grieves a duplicitous recruiter for the Women’s Army Corps convinces her to enlist. Judy thinks her enlistment is like a vacation but Captain Lewis (Eileen Brennan) quickly dashes her hopes of an easy time. As Judy goes through basic training like any other grunt, she becomes a good soldier and develops a sense of self-esteem.

  • let me note!!! meyers has said that the phrasing of goldie hawn’s character as seen above is “a racist, sexist caricature” and I AGREE

• the reviews: 84% tomatometer (aka the critics), 60% popcornmeter (aka the audience)

• released in: 1980

• runtime: 1 hr, 50 min

• rating: R

• nancy’s role: producer and screenwriter (her debut, and it won her a screenwriting oscar nom!)

• the score: various artists

• the accolades:

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my thoughts on this movie:

on the vibe:

this was… a strange one. i am, admittedly, not a big fan of older movies, and i wasn’t alive in the 1980s so it doesn’t have nostalgia for me, and i’m not a big military fan… so this one was starting with some major disadvantages.

the vibe is… starting over? sex so good your brand new husband dies? entitlement? accidentally joining the military after being told you could have a condo??? cluelessness?

idk, this was a weird one, y’all!

i don’t even think i have much to say about it. i’m surprised i finished watching it!