Animal House

So when I was a kid my parents never showed me the National Lampoon movies. I mean, for good reason. There's a lot of nudity and swearing and just material not really suitable for kids to be watching. But for some reason all my other friends watched Animal House and the other National Lampoon movies and I never have until now.

I'm gonna be honest, probably the only reason I had any interest in this movie was to figure out the pop culture references behind it and see what the hype was all about.

Oh and to finally figure out what the hell the context behind this picture is.

I know now... good for me.

Animal House takes place in 1962 (even though the movie was made in 1978, believe me I will talk about that) at a college called Faber. The story at the start centers around two young freshmen, Larry and Kent (played by Thomas Hulce and Stephen Furst respectively) as they try and pledge a fraternity in order to get women, have alcohol, and just have the quintessential college experience.

They make a few passes at the more prestigious fraternities on campus but they finally make their way to Delta Tau Chi, the worst fraternity on campus.

There they are greeted by a cast of wacky trouble makers and their out of control fraternity, and then the hi-jinx ensue. This crew includes Bluto (played by John Belushi), Eric Stratton the pledge coordinator (played by Tim Matheson), the fraternity President Robert Hoover (played by James Widdoes, Boon who has to choose between his girlfriend (played by Karen Allen) and the frat, and a bunch of other mischievous pranksters.

I haven't watched a lot of the National Lampoon movies, but I'm getting the feeling from this film that they're not exactly story driven.

The basic premise of the story is just these guys doing their fraternity shenanigans, pulling pranks on the other fraternities, and trying to get laid.

The story I guess is more within the realm of the Dean of the School (played by John Vernon) and his quest to get the fraternity kicked out of Faber and have them all expelled. He utilizes the other fraternities, the ROTC program, and everything else within his power to break the spirits of the Deltas and he never really succeeds.

I get the feeling this is going to be a short review because there's not a lot to talk about with this movie. Like I said, there's not much of a story structure. The point of the movie is more to show you these fun scenarios and make you laugh. And I'll give them credit, it's pretty funny.

I get the feeling this is more of a movie that is funnier with a group of friends but I did think there were a lot of funny moments. And yeah, a lot of it has to do with John Belushi.

I honestly haven't had a lot of exposure to John Belushi. I don't think he's bad by any means, I just haven't watched a lot of his movies or his time on SNL. I've seen Blues Brothers but that's really about it.

And I didn't know anything about this movie prior to watching it and I thought the movie was going to center all around John Belushi. The truth is, he's just there for comic relief and the story centers around the more straight characters throughout.

However, Bluto in this movie is really funny because he's the stereotypical frat guy that your mind immediately goes to when you think of fraternities. The guy created a stereotype with this performance and it's really well done.

Now I personally think it's funny if you imagine Bluto as a rambling homeless guy in this film... because that's basically what he is, but I think they realized half way through that Bluto was going to be the funniest part of the film and they made him more of the center of attention in the end.

I almost wish the movie had been centered on him more because the other aspects of the film, while funny, are somewhat dated and not always the greatest scenes.

And while we're speaking on the datedness of the film...

I know that National Lampoon is not supposed to be a movie taken that seriously and it is the farthest from far from something you should speak politically about.

But does anybody have an answer why the movie was made in 1978 and yet they placed it in 1962 before the Civil Rights movement and integration of schools?

You don't really realize it until the fraternity hearing where they mention the date of the film being in 1962 and then you realize, looooottta white guys at that school and there's a reason for that.

And then there's that kind of awkward scene where they go to a black bar and end up running out of it yelling, THE NEGROS STOLE OUR WOMEN...

I guess they couldn't get away with that joke if the movie was set in the 70's?

Also... there's a really awkward scene where an underaged girl passes out at a party and Tom Hulce actually has a moral dilemma of whether or not he's going to have sex with a passed out girl...

The devil and angel trope has been used many times but it's not really funny when it's a debate about date rape.

I don't mean to call this movie out for being racist or promoting nonconsensual sex. It was a different time and these subjects weren't as sensitive as they are now. I don't think there were any malicious intentions but it just shows the changing of the time and how this movie really hasn't aged well in close to 40 years.

But hey neither has Thomas Hulce...

My point is, Animal House is kind of like that politically incorrect relative you have. He can be really funny, and I'm sure he was a looker in college like Thomas Hulce. But now, not all of his jokes translate that well to 2016 and he's gotten pretty old and not as good looking.

Overall, I liked Animal House. It was a fun time and going back to it, it's National Lampoon. It's not a movie you need to take that seriously. It's more a movie you put on to remind you of college and get a couple of laughs out of a really funny comedian like John Belushi that was taken too soon.

But those are my thoughts on Animal House. What did you think? Did you have any great college party stories like this one? Comment and Discuss below! You can also send me your thoughts on Twitter @cmhaugen24 as well as send me your requests for films I should review in the future. If you follow me on Twitter, you can get updates on future movie news and reviews coming out of this blog.

I'll leave you with this. Making of videos are always great right? Enjoy!