It's not pretty, but 'Animal House' defines a generation

Miami Herald ^ | 08/24/03 | GLEN GARVIN

[hobbes1]

Hi....I'm Eric Stratton, Rush Chairman, Damned Glad to Meet You!

[Argh]

Good for you! I more closely resemble Flounder these days...

[Argh]

When I was in college (1968-72) we averaged one food fight fight a year at the dorms. They never went over well with the powers that were.

[AngryJawa]

"You're all worthless and weak..."

[Hatteras]

"And If you look close enough, Belushis wife is one of the women 'swooning' over the 'I gave my love a cherry' guy

And if you look even closer, the 'I gave my love a cherry' guy is Stephen Bishop.

Got the sun on my shoulders
And my toes in the sand
My woman's left me for the some other man
Aw, but I don't care
I'll just dream and stay tan
Toss up my heart to see where it lands

On and on
I just keep on trying
And I smile when I feel like dying
On and on, On and on, On and on....

[discostu]

Old School was OK but I know once I buy Animal house I'll never watch Old School again.

Tomorrow is mixed emotion day, Animal House and Warren Zevon's last album. I've got a bottle of scotch already picked to help me sort it out.

[goodseedhomeschool (returned)]

That zit scene was too funny.

[RichInOC]

"Take it easy, I'm pre-law."
"I thought you were pre-med."
"What's the difference?"

[lowbridge]

Hi....I'm Eric Stratton, Rush Chairman, Damned Glad to Meet You!

Hi, that was Eric Stratton, Rush Chairman, he was damn glad to meet you.

[dfwgator]

The horse having a heart attack in Dean Wormer's office. ROFL

"Holy Sh!t!!!"

[dfwgator]

What unique physical characteristic got Pinto his Delta name?

He had "spots on his weenie."

[weegee]

Its heroes were drunks and slobs and Peeping Toms; its villains were teachers and cheerleaders and anybody who was or would ever be grown up.

The writer doesn't get it; doesn't understand what sets this apart from Porky's or American Pie.

The members of Delta House DID grow up to be respectable members of society when they graduated (remember the "where are they now updates at the end"?). One of the writers talked about his own experiences and discussed how these people would cut loose (there were all sorts of "true" stories that would have been to over the top for a Universal film in 1978; it would have been more along the lines of one of John Waters' movies). They cut loose in college but then moved into adult society and settled down. These weren't overgrown teenagers.

The Deltas didn't rebel against society itself. Playboy was the "high life". Wearing a suit didn't make you a "square". This wasn't "the slobs vs. the snobs". That was Caddyshack.

I may read more of the article for laughs but the premise was wrong. I don't think I'll find much substance inside.

[dfwgator]

The members of Delta House DID grow up to be respectable members of society when they graduated (remember the "where are they now updates at the end"?).

As opposed to Niedermayer who was "killed by own troops in Vietnam" and Marmalard who was a Nixon aide who got raped in prison. And I was crushed that Boon and Katy got divorced.

[weegee]

His line about it being the first gross out comedy is false. The Farley brothers and the American Pie crowd have taken a lot from John Waters. This film is very civil by comparison. Spitting out food and calling yourself a zit? Please that pales in comparison.

More importantly, it was the first comedy that was made by, for and about baby boomers. Though released in 1978, it was located squarely in the '60s -- not just in terms of its story, but its in-your-face sensibility.

The baby boom began after the war (August 1945 was victory in Japan). Kids gestate for 9 months. 18 years from 1945 would be 1963. The college kids at Farber were not baby boomers. They were before the baby boom. Some of the upper classmen had been studying for years. Try again.

[weegee]

The first one was about the Manson family in high school, and even 20 drafts later, director John Landis still found himself cutting out a scene of a 10-minute vomiting contest.

Ivan Reitman's first film from 1973 was this horror comedy that starred several members of Second City (and later SCTV) including Eugene Levy:

[weegee]

He doesn't even mention the tv show spin off.

[weegee]

The success of Animal House is what led John Landis to Blues Brothers. He wanted to make a movie that gave audiences something they couldn't get from the tv sketches on SNL. They made it big with musical performances and a lot of stunts (with almost no models).

[weegee]

The audio adaptation with Harry Dean Stanton and Jim Jarmusch providing the voices of Hunter Thompson is good. There are some sound effects, music, and many supporting voices. It is an abridgement.

I read Hunters' Hells Angels first. I've stayed away from his other political works. He ranks President George W. Bush as worse than Richard Nixon.

He writes opinion pieces for ESPN now (there is a link on the Drudge Report).

[weegee]

It's been awhile since I've seen that Animal House novelization. Sounds like I need to get a copy (I never read one).

I have the high school yearbook. Lots of little details.

I've got an interview with Chris Miller from some pre-1980 magazine where he really cut loose telling more college tales.

[weegee]

More "nostalgia" but good movie making was 1979's The Wanderers. Fairly accurate adaptation of the book (although the order of the shorter stories has been jumbled around and a "new guy in town" has been added to the script and sort of weighs things down).

The book is better (often the case); the writer appeared in the movie as one of the con men on the bowling team (I think the one who gets his hand broken).

One of the adlines was that the 1950s ended in 1963.

Karen Allen (from Animal House) was in this one too.