National Lampoon's Animal House (1978)

Film: National Lampoon's Animal House (1978)
Stars: John Belushi, Tim Matheson, Peter Riegert, Tom Hulce, Stephen Furst, John Vernon, Verna Bloom, Donald Sutherland, Karen Allen
Director: John Landis
Oscar History: Hardly, though it still regularly shows up on "greatest films of all-time lists" anyway.
Snap Judgment Ranking: 3/5 stars

One of the strange things about being a film fan is that you don't really watch movies chronologically.  I can see a movie like Stagecoach now, for example, and think it's a run-of-the-mill western, albeit one with an A-Grade cast, and not realize that it set the stage for hundreds of westerns that followed, and essentially turned John Wayne into one of the truly great movie stars.  The reality is that some films get borrowed from so ferociously that it's impossible to see them anew the first time you investigate them, which was the case for me when this past week I caught Animal House for the first time.

(Spoilers Ahead) For anyone over, say, 40, that is reading this blog, Animal House needs no introduction, and for anyone under the age of 40, you probably have seen Animal House over-and-over anyway, as it spawned dozens of movie stars in its wake (it's hard to imagine Adam Sandler, Jack Black, and Will Ferrell having the long careers they've had without John Landis' much-beloved film as a forerunner).  If you don't know the film's plot, essentially it's about the Deltas, a group of motley college frat guys who don't live up to the posh, WASP-y ideals that their rivals the Omegas aspire toward.  Two new pledges, Larry (Hulce) and Dorfman (Furst), join and suddenly find themselves becoming accepted for the first time in their lives (they play the nerd and the fat kid in terms of college movie tropes).  The movie's plot is a series of elaborate stunts and pranks, followed by debauchery of most kinds, all-the-while the Deltas are a foil for the Dean.  The film ends in a similar fashion to American Graffiti, a movie that it clearly is parodying in some respects, but instead of the surprisingly bleak way the title cards show how quickly youth fades in American Graffiti, here that profound moment is played for laughs, implying that Bluto (Belushi), the most outrageous of the characters, became a US Senator while Greg, the sycophantic president of the Omega House, ended up being a Nixon aide who was raped in prison.

This sort of humor (rape jokes and all), show that the film is extremely dated.  Even an Adam Sandler comedy couldn't get away with some of the film's most shocking elements (there's a scene where Hulce's Larry debates whether or not to commit date rape on a girl who passes out at a party).  These elements are jaw-dropping in the wrong sense, and proves the adage that comedies don't ever age as well as dramas, but there's still some scenes in the film that probably fall into the classic level, even if they've been parodied to death.  The movie itself has some terrific site gags, every-so-often breaking the fourth wall, and the central performances are good, particularly from Matheson and Belushi.  Matheson, whom I'd never seen in a comedic role prior to this (I'm really more used to him as the dour Vice President Hoynes on The West Wing) is surprisingly good as the cocky, handsome ladies' man who seduces everyone, including both of his rival's love interests.  While he's hardly a feminist (something none of the film could be accused of), you can see why he was cast and for the most part his role works as keeping him likable, when a lesser actor would have had to make him more sympathetic in order to maintain the audience on his side.

Belushi, though, stands apart as the best part of the movie.  Played as a combination of a secret genius and a warthog, his Bluto steals virtually every scene.  He gets top-billing, even though he's really more of a supporting player at the end of the day (very little of the plot ever centers around him), but honestly-you can see why legions of comedy fans were devoted to Belushi from this performance.  He has a raw, live-wire act that is impossible to turn away from and he is by-far the best part of the movie.  I don't know if the film deserves its place in the pantheon of great films (it's still a frat movie with very little to say and is very dated), but if it does it's almost certainly because of Belushi's performance.

Those are my thoughts on this much-celebrated picture-how about yours?  Overall, I enjoyed it more than I expected (I try not to be a genre snob, but college frat movie is not in my wheelhouse at all), but don't quite think it passes into the realm of classic, just popular.  But try to convince me otherwise below!