A sheltered young high-society woman joins the United States Army on a whim and finds herself in a trickier situation than she ever expected.
When her husband dies on their wedding night, Judy decides to join the United States Army. She realizes that she has never been independent in her entire life. What looks like a bad decision at first, turns out not so bad at all. That is, until her superior officer makes sexual advances on her. She has been transferred to NATO headquarters in Europe and (re)meets the Frenchman Henri Tremont. Judy and Henri decide to marry, but will they?—Berend Meijer <[email protected]>
Twenty-eight year old Judy Benjamin, a stereotypical Jewish princess from Philadelphia, has the skills only for one thing in life, namely being married to a professional man which will allow them to hire a maid while she attends to serving her husband. As such, Judy has never been alone, always having had a boy/man in her life to do things for her. That life is more important than the choice of the husband in a romantic sense. People that know Judy, including her parents, have that similar view of and for her. All Judy's dreams come true with what will be her second marriage, this time to lawyer Yale Goodman. That dream bubble quickly pops when Yale dies of a heart attack on their wedding night. At a total loss of what to do with no man in her life, Judy is sold on the idea by a recruiter, Sgt. Jim Ballard, to join the army, Ballard marketing army life as something akin to a country club. Judy quickly finds that the six week basic training is nothing as Ballard mentioned, including that she cannot just quit because she doesn't like it. She is ill-equipped to basic training, which is made all the more difficult with the antagonism some of her fellow recruits have toward her. But what's probably worst is the mutual hatred between her and her squad leader, Captain Doreen Lewis, who wants to make Judy's life as miserable as possible just because of who she is. What skills Judy is able to pick up while in the army may not prepare her for everything army and life may throw at her, but those skills may prepare her for those things she finds important for herself, including in a relationship with French doctor Henrí Trémont, the first man she may truly believe is the entire package as a husband.—Huggo
Judy Benjamin (Goldie Hawn), a 28-year-old Jewish woman from a sheltered wealthy upbringing whose lifelong dream is to "marry a professional man," joins the U.S. Army after Yale Goodman, her new husband (Albert Brooks), dies on their wedding night during sex (Yale was a lawyer and was handling a divorce case even on the evening of the wedding). Judy is 28 years old and even her parents know that she is trained for nothing. From the age of 2, she has always had a boyfriend, who looked out for her. She has already been married twice.
Adrift, Judy tells her story on a radio call-in show and meets an Army recruiter, SFC James Ballard (Harry Dean Stanton), who leads her to believe military life will provide the "family" she seeks. He also pitches the service as a glamorous getaway, comparing it to a spa vacation (Condos and private rooms with yachts) ($458/month, food, housing, medical and 30 days of paid vacation), but Judy has a rude awakening upon arriving at basic training at Fort Biloxi (She fells asleep on the bus, and is rudely awakened by the drill instructor who makes her do 20 push-ups). She wants to quit almost immediately (she has to sleep in one room with 20 strangers, no drapes, and dirty linen), but is astonished to find out, contrary to the assertions of her recruiting sergeant, that she cannot leave (she has to serve a full 3 years).
Private Wanda Winter (P. J. Soles) is a class favorite and does everything by the book. Private Gianelli (Toni Kalem) is the rebel, her only other choice was to go to jail. Colonel Clay Thornbush (Robert Webber) is the CO of the base.Lewis gets Judy to clean all the bathrooms, when she complains about unsanitary conditions. She tries to escape at night but gets caught in the barbed wire.
Army regulations and the continual disapproval of both Captain Doreen Lewis (Eileen Brennan) and SFC L. C. Ross (Hal Williams), the drill sergeant, frustrate Judy-but when her parents (Theodore Benjamin (Sam Wanamaker) and Harriet Benjamin (Barbara Barrie)) arrive at Fort Biloxi to take her home (They think it is bad for their social status and Theodore says she is incapable of making her own decisions), she decides to stay and finish basic training, which she does with distinction after a war games exercise in which her squad exposes an affair between a member of her training platoon (Private Einter) and a rival company officer Captain William Woodbridge (Craig T. Nelson) (with whom Lewis was also having an affair), and takes the both of them hostage.
Lewis is livid that she was made a fool and orders the entire company to clean up the barracks. In response, Judy gets into Lewis's bathroom and fill her shower head with a blue dye. Lewis attends the graduation ceremony, looking like Smurf.Upon completion of basic training, Judy and her friends spend the weekend on leave in New Orleans, where she meets Henri Tremont (Armand Assante), a French doctor there for a medical conference. After a brief romance, Henri returns to Paris and Judy begins training with an elite paratrooper unit, the Thornbirds.
Judy quickly discovers she was chosen for paratrooper training because the unit's commander finds her attractive; after the other trainees have jumped from the plane, he attempts to sexually assault her. When Judy refuses to comply, he attempts to have her transferred far from Biloxi as soon as possible. Rather than accept what she sees as an undesirable post in Greenland or Guam, Judy negotiates (with a threat of reporting sexual assault attempt) an assignment to SHAPE (Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe) in Belgium and meets up with Henri again on a visit to Paris. He proposes marriage and she accepts, but when Captain Lewis (who is also posted to the same base in Belgium) discovers that Tremont is a communist, Judy is forced to choose between the Army and love.
After she chooses Henri and gets engaged, he reveals his childish, controlling nature. He tries to "remake" Judy, and also insists she sign a prenuptial agreement (in French) to protect his centuries-old family home. Finally, when Henri sleeps with the house maid and also makes it obvious that he hasn't gotten over his ex-girlfriend Clare, Judy has a change of heart. On her wedding day, in the middle of the ceremony, she realizes she is on the verge of a huge mistake. Judy abandons Henri at the altar and heads off into the unknown, empowered by her newfound freedom and excited about what may lie ahead.
