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Director John Landis put himself on the map with this low-budget, fabulously successful comedy, which made a then-astounding 62 million dollars and started a slew of careers for its cast in the process. National Lampoon's Animal House is set in 1962 on the campus of Faber College in Faber, PA. The first glimpse we get of the campus is the statue of its founder Emil Faber, on the base of which is inscribed the motto, "Knowledge Is Good." Incoming freshmen Larry "Pinto" Kroger (Tom Hulce) and Kent "Flounder" Dorfman (Stephen Furst) find themselves rejected by the pretentious Omega fraternity, and instead pledge to Delta House. The Deltas are a motley fraternity of rejects and maladjusted undergraduates (some approaching their late twenties) whose main goal -- seemingly accomplished in part by their mere presence on campus -- is disrupting the staid, peaceful, rigidly orthodox, and totally hypocritical social order of the school, as represented by the Omegas and the college's dean, Vernon Wormer (John Vernon). Dean Wormer decides that this is the year he's going to get the Deltas expelled and their chapter decertified; he places the fraternity on "double secret probation" and, with help from Omega president Greg Marmalard (James Daughton) and hard-nosed member Doug Neidermeyer (Mark Metcalf), starts looking for any pretext on which to bring the members of the Delta fraternity up on charges.
The Deltas, oblivious to the danger they're in, are having a great time, steeped in irreverence, mild debauchery, and occasional drunkenness, led by seniors Otter (Tim Matheson), Hoover (James Widdoes), D-Day (Bruce McGill), Boon (Peter Riegert), and pledge master John "Bluto" Blutarsky (John Belushi). They're given enough rope to hang themselves, but even then manage to get into comical misadventures on a road trip (where they arrange an assignation with a group of young ladies from Emily Dickinson University). Finally, they are thrown out of school, and, as a result, stripped of their student deferments (and, thus, eligible for the draft). They decide to commit one last, utterly senseless (and screamingly funny) slapstick act of rebellion, making a shambles of the university's annual homecoming parade, and, in the process, getting revenge on the dean, the Omegas, and everyone else who has ever gone against them. ~ Bruce Eder, Rovi
Menu
Disc #1 -- National Lampoon's Animal House
Play
Scenes
Bonus
Where Are They Now? A Delta Alumni Update
MXPX "Shout" Music Video
Did You Know That? Universal Animated Anecdotes
Anecdotes: On
Anecdotes: Off
The Yearbook: An Animal House Reunion
Theatrical Trailer
Production Notes
Cast & Filmmakers
John Belushi as John "Bluto" Blutarsky
Tim Matheson as Eric "Otter" Stratton
John Vernon as Dean Vernon Wormer
Verna Bloom as Marion Wormer
Thomas Hulce as Larry "Pinto" Kroger
Cesare Danova as Mayor Carmine DePasto
Donald Sutherland as Dave Jennings
Kevin Bacon as Chip Diller
Bruce McGill as Daniel Simpson "D-Day" Day
Mark Metcalf as Doug Neidermeyer
Peter Riegert as Donald "Boon" Schoenstein
James Widdoes as Robert Hoover
Karen Allen as Katy
Stephen Furst as Kent "Flounder" Dorfman
DeWayne Jessie as Otis Day
Martha Smith as Barbara "Babs" Jansen
Produced by Matty Simmons and Ivan Reitman
Written by Harold Ramis and Douglas Kenney and Chris Miller
Directed by John Landis
DVD-ROM Features
Recommendations
Languages
Spoken Languages
English 5.1 Dolby Digital
English Mono 2.0
Captioned For The Hearing Impaired
English
Subtitles
Français
Español
Subtitles: None
Chapters
Disc #1 -- National Lampoon's Animal House
1. Faber College 1962 (Main Titles) [2:35]
2. The Best House on Campus [2:39]
3. The Worst House on Campus [6:35]
4. Double-Secret Probation [1:47]
5. The New Pledges [3:40]
6. The Problem with Milton [1:58]
7. Neidermeyer's Golf Lesson [3:04]
8. A Joint with Mr. Jennings [3:33]
9. A Defenseless Animal [2:09]
10. The Horse's Heart Attack [2:46]
11. The Mayor [1:01]
12. Lunch with Bluto [2:48]
13. Food Fight [2:29]
14. Mandy's Secret Admirer [2:55]
15. The Psych Test [3:35]
16. Preparing to Party [4:43]
17. The Toga Party [2:38]
18. Shout! (Otis Day & The Knights) [3:25]
19. Toga Love [3:03]
20. Larry's Dilemma [2:29]
21. The Probation Hering [6:05]
22. Closed Down [1:41]
23. Road Trip! [1:09]
24. Fawn's Fiancé [3:06]
25. The Only White People Here [6:07]
26. The Morning After [1:22]
27. My Brother's Car [2:08]
28. The Deltas Come Undone [2:48]
29. When the Going Gets Tough [2:02]
30. A Really Futile and Stupid Gesture [2:32]
31. The Homecoming Parade [3:27]
32. The Deltas Strike Back [3:24]
33. The Deathmobile [3:33]
34. Where Are They Now? [1:45]
35. End Titles [4:01]
36. When in Hollywood [2:59]
37. Chapter 37 [:22]
Features
The Yearbook: An Animal House Reunion - An original documentary featuring Interviews and behind-the-scenes footage with the cast
Where Are They Now? A Delta Alumni Update - A hilarious mockumentary featuring the original cast
Sceneit? Animal House - Relive all your favorite moments from your favorite fraternity through real movie clips, trivia questions, and an array of on-screen puzzlers with these two Scent It mini-game experiences
Douglas Kenney Chris Miller John Hughes Harold Ramis
Set Designers
Hal G. Gausman Anne McCulley
Others
Art Director - John J. Lloyd
Camera Operator - Steve Yaconelli
Casting - Michael Chinich
Cinematographer - Philip H. Lathrop
Cinematographer - Charles Correll
Composer (Music Score) - Elmer Bernstein
Composer (Music Score) - Mark Goldenberg
Costume Designer - Jean-Pierre Dorleac
Costume Designer - Deborah Nadoolman
Featured Music - Sam Cooke
First Assistant Director - Clifford C. Coleman
First Assistant Director - Robert P. Cohen
Makeup - Lynn Brooks
Makeup - Marilyn Phillips
Makeup - Gerald Soucie
Music Editor - Stephen A. Hope
Music Editor - David Kahn
Production Designer - Dean Edward Mitzner
Second Unit Director - Gary McLarty
Songwriter - Stephen Bishop
Sound/Sound Designer - William B. Kaplan
Sound/Sound Designer - Bill Varney
Sound/Sound Designer - Bill Randall
Special Effects - Henry Millar
Stunts - Jim Halty
Stunts - Gary McLarty
Stunts - Bud Ekins
Stunts Coordinator - Gary McLarty
The 1970s were full of movies that constituted cultural phenomena, with The Exorcist, Jaws, The Omen, "Star Wars", and Close Encounters of the Third Kind all coming out in about a four-year span. One title that is usually overlooked -- probably because it didn't take itself remotely as seriously as these others -- but had every bit as much impact as any of those films, was National Lampoon's Animal House. Shot during late 1977 and early 1978 on a modest budget, Animal House proceeded to return many times its investment and jump-started the careers of its director and most of its cast. College students who had too much energy and not enough outlets for it suddenly began organizing "toga parties"; interest in fraternities, which had been declining since the mid-'60s, suddenly spiked; and it was suddenly not only okay, but even expected, for college students (who'd come to represent the conscience of the nation in some circles during the Vietnam War) to be goofy again. On the most superficial level, Animal House was no more profound than such collegiate comedies of an earlier era as "Too Many Girls" (1940), Good News (1947), or The Affairs of Dobie Gillis (1953), and even less serious than "Apartment for Peggy" (1948) or "Mr. Belvedere Goes to College" (1949). What it did do was take audiences back to that earlier era of college humor, add some sex in a carefully calculated manner, and inject just enough of a '70s consciousness so that audiences could laugh at the film -- and at the idea of the film -- and hold those late '50s/early '60s pop and R&B songs in their heads. The movie's impact and the nature of its acceptance can be measured by the fact that the only star to emerge from it was John Belushi, his gonzo portrayal of "Bluto" Blutarsky marking a high-point in his big-screen career that he never again achieved. What's more, the movie's influence is still being felt today in every teen comedy by the Farrelly brothers, the Wayans brothers, and any of their rivals, most of whom emphasize gross-out humor to a degree that Animal House director John Landis never would have considered.
Ironically, amid the slapstick humor and outsized characterizations that filled the movie, Animal House had a very serious source of inspiration. Co-author Chris Miller did base some of the material on his experiences as an undergraduate at Dartmouth (a fact that Dartmouth has been trying to live down ever since), but the authors also intended part of the plot as an allegory about the Nixon White House. The inspiration for Dean Wormer and the Omegas, and their activities undermining the Deltas, was Richard Nixon and the "plumbers," his dirty-tricks squad, which directed their activities against the president's political enemies. Indeed, if you look closely at the portrayal of the dean by John Vernon and of Omega house leaders Greg Marmalard and Doug Neidermeyer by James Daughton and Mark Metcalf, respectively, it's easy to see similarities to Nixon, his aides H.R. Haldeman and John Erlichman. This doesn't make Animal House into All the President's Men, and knowing it doesn't make the movie any more (or less) funny, though it may make it seem slightly more subversive, as well as more intelligent. Animal House is still best appreciated for what is seen onscreen -- some good jokes and sight gags and memorable characterizations, with Belushi's Bluto proving that "fat, drunk, and stupid" may not get you through life, but it is one way to get through seven years of college. The viewer does best to just sit back and -- echoing Stephen Furst's exclamation as all comic hell breaks loose at the denouement -- say to themselves, "Oh boy, is this great!" ~ Bruce Eder, Rovi
