Monday, November 23, 2009 East Central Illinois

Comedy classic 'Animal House' coming to Virginia

By Richard J. Lesksosky
Sunday, November 1, 2009 9:16 AM CDT

What do you do if you publish the nation's foremost humor magazine and your editor tells you he's tired of the magazine business? You ask him to write a movie.

That's what happened when Doug Kenney of the "National Lampoon" complained to publisher Matty Simmons, and the result was "National Lampoon's Animal House," the next film in The News-Gazette Film Series at 1 and 7 p.m. Saturday at the Virginia Theatre.

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Made in 1978, the film was set in 1962 and based on the fraternity experiences of Kinney's co-writers, Chris Miller (at Dartmouth) and Harold Ramis (at Washington University). It recounted the misadventures of the rowdy members of the Delta Tau Chi fraternity at the mythical Faber College and the vendetta waged against them by the dean and the neighboring Omega Theta Pi fraternity.

There's not much to the plot: Dean Vernon Wormer (John Vernon) is out to get the Deltas thrown off campus; he succeeds; and they get revenge. But there are lots of amusing anarchic incidents: a toga party, a food fight, a road trip, a major disruption of a homecoming parade, and many other pranks, including an unforgettable one involving a horse in the dean's office.

"Animal House" also featured some memorably colorful characters, though the one most viewers are likely to remember is John "Bluto" Blutarsky (John Belushi), the wildest of the frat's wild men. It's Bluto who sets up, with gearhead D-Day (Bruce McGill), the horse in the dean's office prank, who starts the food fight, who peeps in the windows of a nearby sorority, who does an explosive impression of a zit, who smashes a bottle over his own head to cheer up Flounder (Stephen Furst) when they're expelled, and who always goes a step or two farther down the crazy path when the frat mobilizes its forces.

The role was written for Belushi (though it would have gone to Meat Loaf if Belushi could not work it into his schedule). He was already a comedy legend from his work in "Lemmings" (the National Lampoon's stage revue) and "Saturday Night Live." This film, as Belushi had expected, made him a comic force to reckon with on the big screen as well.

For the rest of the young cast, "Animal House" was either their film debut (Kevin Bacon, Karen Allen) or their first significant role (Tom Hulce, Stephen Furst, Peter Riegert, Tim Matheson, Bruce McGill). The filmmakers picked a cast of unknowns to keep costs down.

Donald Sutherland shows up as a pot-smoking English teacher and was the most highly paid actor in the film for his three days of work since the studio insisted there should be somebody with a recognizable name in the cast. (The horse was actually the second most highly paid actor.)

More was actually spent on publicizing the film than went into its production, and it went on to become, at least in terms of percentages, one of the most profitable movies of all time. It jump-started a new breed of college comedy with its gross-out humor, which still dominates American comedy today.

The talent behind the camera went on to shape American comedy for the next three decades. Writer Doug Kenney, whose career was cut short by an untimely accidental death, also scripted 1980's "Caddyshack."

Co-writer Harold Ramis was one of the geniuses behind "Second City TV," wrote and starred in the "Ghostbusters" films, and wrote and directed "Caddyshack," "Groundhog Day," "Analyze This" and "Analyze That."

Producer Ivan Reitman, who had produced David Cronenberg's early horror films, redirected his talents into comedy, directing "Meatballs" (1979) and "Stripes" (1981) and producing and directing the "Ghostbusters" films, "Twins," "Junior," "Kindergarten Cop" (all three with Arnold Schwarzenegger softening his image with comedy and kids), "Six Days, Seven Nights" (1998) with Harrison Ford, and "Evolution" (2001) with David Duchovny.

Director John Landis followed up "Animal House" with, most notably, "The Blues Brothers" (1980) also starring Belushi, "Coming to America" (1988), "Trading Places" (1983) and "Beverly Hills Cop III" (1994), all with Eddie Murphy, and "Blues Brothers 2000." He also ventured into horror with "An American Werewolf in London" (1981) and "Innocent Blood" (1992) and did some of Michael Jackson's most famous music videos (including "Thriller").

The film was well-received by critics at the time and even more so by audiences. The script was nominated for a Writers Guild of America award for best comedy. Bluto's line, "Toga! Toga!" at the promise of a toga party, winds up at 82 on the American Film Institute's list of 100 top movie quotes, while the film ranks 36th on their list of 100 funniest American comedies. In 2001 it was added to the National Film Registry as a title especially worthy of preservation.

"National Lampoon's Animal House" still has the ability to amuse, titillate and even shock. (It's also shocking that as Doug Kenney originally wrote it, it was set in high school. The producers told him that it was too raunchy for that setting and needed to be shifted to college.) It will remind you of people you knew – or at least heard of – in college, which is probably part of its appeal. And it's definitely worth seeing on the big screen to appreciate more fully all the grungy detail of the Delta House.

Coming up in The News-Gazette Film Series

Nov. 7: "National Lampoon's Animal House" (1978).

Dec. 5: "It's a Wonderful Life" (1946).

Note: All show times are 1 and 7 p.m. at the Virginia Theatre, 203 W. Park St., C. Ticket prices are $5.

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