National Lampoon’s Animal House
Director: John Landis
5 p.m., 7:30 p.m. Friday
IFC
A
There once was a time in the history of this proud nation when certain movie references needed no explanation. The workplace, a neighborhood bar, Thanksgiving dinner — it didn’t matter, the odds were pretty good that someone could rattle off a line from The Godfather or Star Wars, even Airplane!, and not be met with the blank stares. Such pop-culture bondings brought order and organization to the universe. It was what made America great — well, that and the Constitution and other stuff, anyway.
It breaks my arrested-adolescent heart to see references to National Lampoon’s Animal House slowly go the way of the Dodo bird. Don’t remember the Alamo. Wrongly believe the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor, if you must. But unless you wanna risk double secret probation, don’t idly allow the popular zeitgeist fail to properly appreciate the Citizen Kane of teen exploitation flicks.
Director John Landis and screenwriters Douglas Kenney, Chris Miller and the late, great Harold Ramis hardly invented college comedy, but they set the benchmark against which its successive imitators are judged, and inevitably fall short. The tale pits the stodgy, unforgiving Establishment against the heroically misbegotten slobs and outcasts of Delta House, the worst fraternity at fictitious Faber College in 1962. It’s not all booze and toga parties for the Delts, who must fend off the conspiring menace of Dean Wormer (John Vernon) and the silver-spooned overachievers at the Omega house.
A generation of American men (and many women) nursing their inner cretin has cherished Animal House since the picture’s 1978 release, and with good reason. Its gags work — not simply as hard-R high jinks but as beautifully executed physical comedy.
And the performances are terrific. John Belushi was at the height of his post-Saturday Night Live comic powers, but he was only part of an outstanding ensemble that included deft turns by Tim Matheson, Tom Hulce, Stephen Furst, Peter Reigert and Donald Sutherland.
Oh, and Animal House also happens to be that rarest of comedies, one that boasts a pitch-perfect climax. In this case, it’s an over-the-top homecoming parade that Landis choreographed with expert precision, something of a trial run for his The Blues Brothers two years later.
