11 years after Goldie Hawn earned a Best Supporting Actress Oscar for 1969’s Cactus Flower, she got a Best Actress nomination for 1980’s Private Benjamin. She lost to Sissy Spacek for Coal Miner’s Daughter but with this honor and Benjamin as a major box office hit, 1980 might exist as Hawn’s career pinnacle.

28-year—old Judy Benjamin (Hawn) aspires to nothing more than to marry a financially stable man, and she achieves this when she weds Yale Goodman (Albert Brooks). However, Yale keels over on their wedding night.

Emotionally adrift, Judy meets Army recruiter SFC James Ballard (Harry Dean Stanton) and he convinces her that the military will provide meaning to her life – along with a paid vacation. Judy enlists and deals with a harsher reality than she expected.

That synopsis makes Benjamin sound a whole lot more serious than the film actually is. Despite those elements, the movie largely pursues a comedic bent.

Interestingly, 1981’s Stripes would tell a very similar story and also look at its themes via humor. Because filming for the Bill Murray film took place after Benjamin debuted, it becomes tempting to view the 1981 flick as a rip-off of the Hawn movie.

Heck, both even feature PJ Soles in a supporting role! However, Stripes came into the mind of its creator back in 1979, so it appears the similarities remain coincidental.

Though both feature similarities, Benjamin clearly takes a more dramatic path. It definitely comes with plenty of “fish out of water” humor, but it also provides a real character arc absent from Stripes.

That film’s John Winger (Bill Murray) goes through small changes but he remains the same cocky smart-ass at the end that we met at the beginning. On the other hand, Judy develops into a different version of herself.

But not an unrecognizable one, so Benjamin doesn’t create a Judy who transforms into someone else. I do think the film takes her from inept princess to solid soldier a little too quickly, but overall, her evolution works fine.

Really, Benjamin tells a “coming of age” story. That seems unusual for a character pushing 30, but given that it seems clear Judy remained in a state of perpetual adolescence prior to the Army, this makes sense.

Benjamin conveys that men – especially her father – treat her as nothing more than an appendage of sorts. With no real goals in life other than to be someone’s daughter or wife, Judy puts up with this until she finally tires of the infantilization and breaks away.

Which leads to the aforementioned growth. Again, I think Judy becomes a little too competent a little too quickly, but this doesn’t turn into a fatal flaw.

Hawn handles her evolution pretty well, especially because she doesn’t overplay the “Jewish princess” side of Judy. Hawn easily could’ve made pre-Army Judy a total cartoon, but while she shows some goofy traits, she maintains a fairly realistic role.

Benjamin benefits from a strong supporting cast, as in addition to Brooks, Soles and Stanton, we get talents like Eileen Brennan, Robert Webber, Craig T. Nelson, Mary Kay Place, Armand Assante, and others. They add to the quality of the movie.

Like Stripes, Benjamin probably runs longer than it should and it would likely fare better with smaller scope, as both logically end when their leads conquer basic training. Still, Benjamin delivers a quality mix of character arcs and comedy.

Private Benjamin appears in an aspect ratio of 1.85:1 on this Blu-ray Disc. Though not exactly a visual showpiece, this became a more than satisfactory presentation.

Sharpness worked fine. This wasn’t a movie that boasted the tightest delineation, but that resulted from the source, and the end result felt appropriately defined.

No examples of moiré effects or jagged edges appeared, and edge haloes remained absent. Print flaws also failed to create distractions, and the movie came with a light layer of grain.

We got a fairly natural palette here. The earthy tones seemed well depicted within visual choices.

Blacks felt dark and dense, while shadows appeared smooth and clear. This ended up as a good representation of the source.

The movie’s DTS-HD MA monaural soundtrack appeared dated but fine. Benjamin offered a generally chatty experience, and dialogue strongly dominated the film.

Music appeared on a decent basis and effects crept into the action mainly via some military-related scenes. These didn’t become a big factor, though.

Audio quality appeared adequate. Speech sounded a little stiff but usually came across as reasonably natural.

Effects and music seemed clear and appropriately rendered. Though nothing here impressed, the mix worked fine for a movie of this one’s age and ambitions.

Along with the movie’s trailer, we find two episodes of the Private Benjamin TV series that ran from April 1981 to January 1983. We get “Benjamin to the Rescue” (22:41) and “The Captain’s Helper” (22:53).

The show used Lorna Patterson as the title character but brought back Eileen Brennan and Hal Williams to reprise their film parts. “Rescue” offered the series’ first episode and “Helper” its fourth.

Whereas boot camp only occupied a relatively small portion of the film, the TV show focuses entirely on that period. This makes sense, as basic training comes with more comedic opportunities than the movie’s other domains.

This also means the TV series will stick with “fish out of water” comedy more than the flick’s character arc. That doesn’t seem like a terrible idea.

“Rescue” and “Helper” offers moderate amusement. Patterson channels Hawn well and we get a few laughs, even if the episodes lack the depth of the movie.

Back in 1980, Private Benjamin became a surprise hit, and it holds up pretty well after more than 45 years. While not without flaws, the movie becomes a largely endearing form of ‘coming of age’ comedy/drama. The Blu-ray brings solid visuals, appropriate audio and two episodes of a TV spinoff. We get a fairly enjoyable tale from Benjamin.