EARNING HIS 'STRIPES' // HAROLD RAMIS RECALLS HIS BIGSCREEN DEBUT

Chicago Sun-Times (IL) - Tuesday, June 7, 2005 Author/Byline: mike thomas Section: Features Page: 37 He's known mostly as a writer and director of high-grossing comedies, including "Animal House," "Caddyshack," "National Lampoon's Vacation," "Ghostbusters," "Groundhog Day" and "Analyze This." But Chicago-based filmmaker Harold Ramis has had a few memorable acting parts, too. The slapstick military send-up "Stripes," for instance, which grossed more than $80 million in 1981, was his big-screen debut. He also co-wrote it. To mark the film's almost-25th anniversary, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment today releases a specialedition DVD, replete with added scenes, bonus features and gratuitous nudity. "[Harold] has me to blame for putting him in front of a camera," said "Stripes" director Ivan Reitman, with whom Ramis has teamed on several projects. "That he's had very little of an acting life outside of my movies, I don't want to be blamed for. But I'm a big fan." Recently, in the modest, sword-and-memorabilia-bedecked offices of his Highland Park-based production company, Ocean Pictures, Ramis kicked back with three remotes and a Starbucks beverage to review his early thespianism. Here's what he had to say. 1 Scene: Bill Murray as slacker John Winger is berated by a haughty blue-haired woman in his cab. Ramis says: "I drove a Yellow Cab in Chicago for a month after college. I was actually pretty responsible, but this incident with the lady here was based on something that happened to me. "I picked up a Catholic priest at the Palmer House, who said, 'Take me to Michael Reese hospital.' I knew where it was, but I wanted to make sure there was an exit off the Eisenhower right at Michael Reese. So I actually pulled away from the curb with him, I pulled right back to the curb, flipped open my book and would have found it in a second. He goes [exasperated tone], 'What's wrong?!' I said, 'I just wanna make sure we're going the right way.' 'Well, don't you know?! What are you, an idiot? Don't you have to take a test for this?!' I said, 'I took the test, I did very well on the test, I just want to make sure that there's an exit there.' 'Well, this is ridiculous!' And now I'm already driving and he won't stop. He just keeps going, 'You must be some kind of fool!' Really insulting. "We get onto the Eisenhower and he's still going. I pull over to the side and I say, 'All right, get out.' He says, 'What?' I said, 'Get out! I don't have to take this. I'm not an emergency vehicle, I don't have a flashing light. If you're in that much of a hurry, you should've called a cop.' He said, 'All right, all right, just drive, just drive.' So we get to Michael Reese and he said, 'I'm sorry. I had to get here to give someone last rites, and I didn't want to miss it.' So I accepted his apology." 2 Scene: John (Murray) and Russell Ziskey ( Ramis ) hang out at John's apartment after he loses his job, car and girlfriend. Ramis says: "I was very nervous, 'cause this was my first time in front of a movie camera. This whole scene, every shot in sequence was my beginning, first movie acting. ... I didn't love the dialogue [here], so I just low-keyed it. ... My theory was, just play as close to myself as I could because there was no way I could handle playing a character. So I just said, 'What would I be like hanging out with my friend and joining the Army with my friend?' That was my whole approach." 3 Scene: Basic training camp at Ft. Knox.

Ramis says: "The Defense Department liked the script and gave us a lot of access -- rolled out the tanks, let Ivan command the troops wherever he needed extras. And they're the greatest extras in the world, 'cause they jog back into place, they don't need any breaks, they're real versatile." 4 Scene: The platoon of misfits Ramis says: "Everyone else in our platoon were local guys who had to be free for like, three months. So they were basically unemployed guys from Louisville [Ky., where part of 'Stripes' was filmed], or guys who had jobs they could leave. And they make up the background platoon. You'll see those guys all over the movie. And we took them to California. There's a whole thing there about turning these guys loose in L.A. You could make a movie about that, I think. L.A., all living in the same motel with a couple cars between 'em. And some firearms." 5 Scene: Sgt. Hulka (Warren Oates) sends his platoon through the obstacle course at Ft. Knox. Ramis says: "When we were shooting this one, Ivan thought it would be funny if we pulled Warren into the mud hole. So on our last take we pulled Warren into the mud hole -- and he got really mad. Really mad. It was embarrassing. He said, 'Never do anything to an actor unexpected like that!'" 6 Scene: Ox (John Candy) mud-wrestles at an L.A. strip joint. Ramis says: "I think John was very unhappy doing this. But he was a good sport. He was tired of being exploited for his size and pretty ambivalent about it. But he didn't like being dragged through the oatmeal, as it were. ... He thought it was just kind of demeaning. And I could've done without the whole thing myself." 7 Scene: Russell revs up the Army's top-secret, superpowered RV. Ramis says: "See, 'cause I wear glasses, I'm always the guy who knows how to work that science stuff, the tech stuff." 'Stripes' lines you know by heart *"Name's Francis Sawyer. Everybody calls me Psycho. Any of you guys call me Francis, and I'll kill ya." *"Lighten up, Francis!" *"Chicks dig me because I rarely wear underwear, and when I do it's usually something pretty unusual." *"That's the fact, Jack!" *"I once got my ass kicked in Wisconsin." *"I'm gettin' too old for this s---." *"We've been kicking ass for 200 years. We're 10 and 1."