The book is actually worth getting. Unlike other movie tie-ins that are obviously simply attempts to cash in quick, this one actually complements the film, giving extra information (some of which they wouldn’t have been able to get away with in the film). It has illustrations by noted comic artists and fantasy artists (Boris Vallejo!) and scenes missing from the film – the duel between the cafeteria dweeb (played by director John Landis!) and Bluto, D-Day going out to the lake and reciting Shakespeare. A lot more about Stork (played by writer Doug Kenny). The whole Einswine/College Paper sale. Definitely worth picking up and reading.
I bought my copy when the film came out, and it’s coming apart – it was very cheaply glued together. But they re-issued the book in a better binding a couple of years ago.
I was 10 when Animal House came out. I don’t remember how old I was when I first saw it on cable TV but is was probably around 15 or 16. I thought it was stupid, in the “damn, this is stupid, but hilarious” way.
I just unwrapped and watched my DVD of it thanks to this thread. Is it almost as funny as I remember it? Hell no.
But, it is still funny.
Is it over-rated? I think that the accolades it gets are fair.
I just re-watched it thanks to this thread. I think it’s actually funnier than I remember it, partly because this type of humor isn’t really done anymore. This movie is unassailable, in my opinion. One of my favorite moments, which I never really noticed before, was Belushi’s breaking of the fourth wall with the little wink-wink on the ladder while peeping-tomming the sorority. Wow. That sentence sounds all sorts of wrong today, but, well, whatever. I found it amusing.
And something about “may I have ten thousand marbles please?” had me just about pissing my pants. Now, I did not literally soil myself rewatching this movie, but I did actually have tears streaming down my cheeks. Oh, I miss this kind of early 80s stupidity. (ETA: Shit, I guess I mean late 70s. Hey, I was only 4 1/2 when then 80s hit!)
Yes, it’s sort of dated. So what? So is Casablanca. It’s not as funny when you watch it now as it was when you saw it for the first time 32 years ago? No shit. You could say the same for Blazing Saddles, Airplane, Holy Grail, or any comedy. If you can recite the lines by heart, that means the element of surprise has faded.
It was a summer release college comedy film starring unknowns (with the exception of the 4 adult roles). The writers had never written a screenplay before. And it didn’t have much of a budget. That being said, for what it is, it was a great movie.
Did Animal House have an impact on college campuses? I seem to remember growing up in the 70’s that the image of college kids and recreational drugs was getting high on pot. After Animal House it seemed to be getting drunk.
By the time I got to college, a few years later, Budweiser sponsored freshman orientation. (The last year before they raised the drinking age.)
No question, that’s the biggest weakness. That was remarked upon when the movie was new.
In the movie, it really was over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor!
Two years ago I visited Eugene and stopped in the Dexter Lake Club, which has been restored to its Animal House-era appearance. In the movie the DLC is depicted as a place where few white people tread, but in real life it was a rustic hunting and fishing lodge with probably very few black customers.
Unfortunately the University of Oregon cafeteria has been remodeled so that you can no longer go through the line like Belushi did. The curved windows, which formed the backdrop of the cafeteria scenes, are however still there.
I think it was a big success because it struck a nerve. It came out just as the peak of the Baby Boomers (not the start of it) were graduating college, so they could immediately relate*. I know I did – I could draw clear parallels between my living group (a dorm, not a frat, but the floor treated itself like a frat) – the Beer Blasts, the people all known by nicknames rather than real names**, the us-vs-them mentality, the grossness. It was a comedy in the right place at the right time./QUOTE]
Yeah, my dad thought it was the funniest thing ever for much the same reasons, and he’d gone to college in the mid-late 1960s.
To a lesser extent, it resonated with me after I was in college for the same reasons- nicknames, stupidity, drunkenness, pranks, grossness, etc…
Contrast it with the patently stupid “PCU” which was the only college-set movie that I remember coming out when I was actually in college, and that didn’t reflect my experience at all.
Yep, overrated. Not funny at all. 47, just saw it couple years ago. I don’t think I chuckled once. But it’s one of many classic comedies that I don’t think are funny.
Don’t forget Donald Sutherland. He was brought in because the producers wanted another big name star because they didn’t think Belushi had enough star power.
