National Lampoon's Animal House

National Lampoon's Animal House.
1978 Universal Pictures.
Starring: John Belushi, Tim Matheson, John Vernon, Verna Bloom, Thomas Hulce, Cesare Danova, Donald Sutherland, Stephen Furst, Kevin Bacon, Bruce McGill, Peter Riegert
Director: John Landis
Available from Amazon as a single DVD, or part of the 30th Anniversary Gift Set.
Visit the official website.

The boys at National Lampoon bring us a classic college comedy film that placed #36 on AFI's 100 Years...100 Laughs list, as well as numero uno on Bravo's 100 Funniest Movies list. Animal House received widespread critical acclaim, a surprise for a film that is said to help launch the so-called "gross out genre" of movies. Would this movie be a critical success had it been released 30 years later? Who knows.

At the fictional Faber College back in '62, two freshmen go through fraternity rush. Larry Kroger (Hulce) and the nerdy Kent Dorfman (Furst) are rejected by Omega Theta Pi, but to their surprise, are accepted by the next door fraternity, Delta Tau Chi, which once boasted Kent's older brother as a member. Besides, the Deltas need the dues, so Larry and Kent are brought in, and given the fraternity names "Pinto" (Larry) and "Flounder" (Kent). What do you expect for a group whose first impression was made by a drunken future U.S. senator named John "Bluto" Blutarsky (Belushi) after he stepped outside to take a piss?

Dean Vernon Wormer (Vernon) is trying very hard to kick the Deltas, who are already on probation, off campus. Dean Wormer puts them on DOUBLE SECRET PROBATION, and tells Omega president Greg Marmalard (James Daughton) to assign Doug Neidermeyer (Mark Metcalf) to find a way to chase the Deltas away once and for all. Neidermeyer (dead!) humiliates Flounder at a campus ROTC by ordering him to clean his horse's filthy stable, so the Deltas talk him into sneaking the horse into Dean Wormer's office. They give Flounder a gun loaded with blanks, and tell him to shoot the horse. Flounder can't bring himself to do it, and fires into the ceiling, but the noise scares the horse to death right there in Wormer's office. The next afternoon, Bluto instigates a food fight (and runs away as soon as it starts) between the two rival fraternities. The Omegas retaliate by planting incorrect answers for a psychology exam in a dumpster that Bluto and D-Day (McGill) are searching for, which causes everyone's GPA to drop even lower than before.

Wormer only needs one more incident to revoke the Deltas' charter that allows them to reside on campus. Not worried, they organize a toga party (Toga! Toga!*), where Mrs. Wormer (Bloom) gets plastered and sleeps with Otter (Matheson). This gets the fraternity thrown off campus, with all of their belongings are confiscated. Otter, Boon (Riegert), Flounder and Pinto go on a road trip, and Otto picks up some girls from a local liberal arts college. They go to a roadhouse where Otis Day and the Knights are playing, and end up getting chased out by the regulars...without their dates. Otter is later set up by a girl he likes who is turned off by the crass Deltas, and the Omegas beat him up for allegedly having an affair with Marmalard's girlfriend Mandy (Mary Louise Weller).

The Deltas' grades are bad enough to justify Wormer expelling them all from school and notifying their draft boards of their newfound eligibility. As revenge, the Deltas wreak havoc on Faber's homecoming parade, thanks to Bluto's rah-rah speech. Bluto himself steals a car, abducts Mandy, and drives off into the sunset. The fates of all of the characters are revealed, and we're out.

Highly, highly, highly recommended film.


* #82 on AFI's 100 Years...100 Movie Quotes list.