Animal House Released!

Talk to most people about their favorite movies of all time and you’ll get such classic titles as “Gone With The Wind”, “Citizen Kane” and “Out Of Africa”.

Ask me and you’ll get three biggies:

“Tommy Boy”
“Blazing Saddles”
“Animal House”

All three continue to make me laugh out loud—and while none of them will ever appear on a “Classic Films Of All Time” list, even detractors have to admit that National Lampoon’s “Animal House” was a groundbreaking movie when it was released on this date in 1978.

Produced with an estimated budget of $3 million, “Animal House” has earned hundreds of millions of dollars since release and has achieved a level of stature that’s rare for a movie that’s so…..well….stupid.

Yeah, it’s stupid, immature, silly , juvenile and perhaps a few other adjectives not printable here. Maybe that’s why I like it so much. Almost everyone I know can quote lines from nearly every scene—and it has become such a part of pop culture as to be iconic. Yes, I said ICONIC. It has woven itself into the fabric of our culture—and seeing it was a rite of passage.

John Belushi’s reputation was cemented with a role that sadly was probably too close to reality for him. Tim Matheson was outstanding, as were all the other unknown characters.

Set at the fictional Faber College in Oregon in the early 60’s (motto: “Learning Is Good”), the villain is the school’s aptly named Dean Wormer.

Here is the original movie trailer-unavailable for embedding, but here is the link:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m8psQi7ScQQ


Hope that brought back fond memories and a few laughs as well. Everyone has their own favorite line from the movie, but mine comes from Dean Wormer’s dressing down of the overweight misfit Flounder:

“Fat, drunk and stupid is no way to go through life, son”

Here it is-somehow I could embed this one:



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bK-Dqj4fHmM&feature=related

Indeed.

Happy 32nd birthday, “Animal House”! I may have to rent that one again soon.

If you’d like my blog in your box, just let me know: tim.moore@citcomm.com