This is the deal: I own around 350 movies on DVD and Blu-ray. Through June 10, 2015, I will be watching and writing about them all, in the order they are arranged on my shelf (i.e., alphabetically, with certain exceptions). No movie will be left unwatched . I welcome your comments, your words of encouragement and your declarations of my insanity.
Movie #18: Animal House
First off, I’m not going to be talking about John Belushi in this movie. That is well-covered territory — so much so that fetuses are doing the “I’m a zit” bit in utero. No, what I’m going to talk about is everything else.
Let’s start with the cast. Yes, there was John Belushi in his first feature film, becoming an international comedy icon and symbol of the slacker dorm room poster industry right before our eyes. There were also two future Oscar nominees (Tom Hulce in Amadeus and Peter Riegert for a live action short film), perpetual That Guy Bruce McGill (as D-Day, his perhaps only truly badass role, though my favorite remains the bartender Al in the Quantum Leap series finale), Karen Allen before she became love interest of Indiana Jones in Raiders of the Lost Ark, current villain of the blockbuster Hunger Games movies and Hollywood patriarch Donald Sutherland, and some guy named Kevin Bacon who has literally appeared in so many things there’s a game named after him based on the idea that no actor ever in history is more than six degrees separated from him. That’s one hell of a pedigree for a tiny little comedy made by a bunch of no-names.
Oh, and those behind-the-scenes no-names? John Landis directed Animal House — it was his third film — and would go on to give us The Blues Brothers, Trading Places, The Three Amigos, Coming to America, and more, just in the ’80s. Harold Ramis wrote the script for Animal House with two collaborators; it was his first. He went on to write Meatballs, Caddyshack, Stripes, Back to School, Ghostbusters and Groundhog Day, among others, plus act in and direct some of the funniest movies of his time. And when Animal House came out in 1978, producer Ivan Reitman was still a relatively new name, but he would become one of the biggest and most respected men in the business.
The movie’s soundtrack is also historically great, featuring indelible songs of the ’60s like “Louie, Louie,” “Wonderful World” and “Twistin’ the Night Away.” The most memorable song from the movie, however, is “Shout” by The Isley Brothers. Originally released in 1959, “Shout” became the signature song for a movie based in 1962 that was filmed in 1978. But that’s not where the story ends. I graduated from high school in 1993, fifteen years after Animal House came out in theaters (more than thirty years since the song’s original release), and that song was still being played at my school dances. Every time, without fail. They still play it at weddings today. It’s a staple of the portable DJ business. Not only that, but the entire way people dance to that song, to this day (arms in the air, crouching down at the “softer now” parts, jumping at the “louder now” parts), comes from this movie that featured it. If you catch an old episode of America’s Funniest Home Videos on cable some night, and somebody’s grandmother falls on her backside while trying to squat as low as she can during this song, it is because of Animal House. That is monumental cultural influence, and it doesn’t stop there.
Animal House isn’t just a movie, it’s a landmark. If it had been made this century, it would have no fewer than two sequels that would have likely diluted its cultural significance, but as a standalone film-cum-global phenomenon, it wields massive influence over our collective idea of what college is like, of what young adulthood is like, and it has seeped into all manner of things in our society.
When I was a freshman at Syracuse University my best friend came to visit me for a weekend and as we were wandering around the party houses just off-campus, we stumbled into a toga party. Why a toga party? Because of Animal House.
If you went to a college in the last thirty years that had any kind of fraternity/sorority presence, it was because of this movie. Animal House single-handedly revitalized the Greek system on college campuses, for good or for ill. They wouldn’t be here today if not its popularity. (And weird fraternity brother nicknames? This movie.)
The bizarre and completely played-out myth/idea that girls are constantly having pillow fights in their underwear (or less, if a director is looking for an easy path to gratuitous nudity) features prominently into this movie.
Veronica Mars seasons 2 and 3 featured a fraternity jerkwad named Chip Diller. Chip Diller just so happens to be the name of Kevin Bacon’s character in Animal House.
If you’ve ever been able to correctly use sensuous and sensual in sentences because “vegetables are sensual, people are sensuous,” if you’ve ever shouted “food fight” and expected everyone to respond by flinging things, if you’ve ever said “Thank you sir, may I have another,” it is because of this movie.
Oh, and it’s pretty much accepted as the quintessential college party movie. (I saw one list that put Old School at the top, but there would be no Old School without Animal House.) I’m not saying Animal House invented these things necessarily, but it’s undeniable that Animal House made them mainstream and unforgettable. Just as all sci-fi changed after Star Wars, just as all summer movies changed after Jaws, all adolescent/young adult party comedies changed after Animal House.
And yes, John Belushi was a key player in the movie’s overall impact, but for the record my favorite part is when Kevin Bacon gets literally flattened by a stampeding mob of townspeople. Now that’s funny.
Viable Option 