Comments | findingjuliet: Animal House

findingjuliet

Animal House

Apr 20, 2008 20:01

So after having watched Animal House for the first time ever today, I now need someone to explain to me why this movie is so popular. It just seemed kind of silly to me -- was it one of the first college shenanigans/frat movies or something???

Comments 16

koomologist April 21 2008, 00:17:18 UTC

Did you see it on regular television? There's a LOT that gets edited out.

findingjuliet April 21 2008, 00:19:18 UTC

No, we had it on our netflix list. So we got everything ... I'm kind of wondering if it's a generational thing.

jcsbimp April 21 2008, 00:31:19 UTC

It was the first such comedy... it set the stage for lots ruder, cruder, sillier "young people going wild" comedies to follow.

I hated the food fight concept from that movie because it became popular when I was in college. There was one in our cafeteria. It wasn't fun, and I'm sure the cafeteria used it as an excuse to jack up prices.

findingjuliet April 21 2008, 01:01:49 UTC

yeah, i didn't care for the food fight scene -- i found it kind of gross. there were several parts where i did laugh though -- it wasn't all a wash, i was just wondering why it's made some many Top 100 lists. Pretty sure in some circles, it's considered a classic.

torberg April 21 2008, 00:49:11 UTC

My thought is that there's a few reasons:

1.) It's the forerunner of the raucous college hijinks movies

2.) Various lines and bits from the film have becomes very popular catchphrases:
"Thank you sir may I have another"
"A Pledge Pin!?!"

3.) It had a great cast, both of people who had done a fair amount during that time frame (Donald Sutherland, John Vernon, John Belushi) and those who subsequently went on to other memorable roles (Karen Allen - Marion Ravenwood, Tom Hulce - Amadeus, Tim Matheson - varied, etc.)

That said, not everyone likes everything. "Animal House" doesn't do it for you and that's fine. Frankly, I really don't get the fascination with RHPS.

Just my thoughts.

findingjuliet April 21 2008, 01:08:11 UTC

yeah, i'm definitely with you on the Rocky Horror. I don't get that either. Not my brand of humor, I guess.

BLASPHEMY!!! shadowcaptain April 21 2008, 03:35:38 UTC

(well, neither of you have ever seen it with me, so you've probably never heard it done properly. . .)

whimmydiddle April 21 2008, 01:53:40 UTC

Congratulations on having taste and standards. Please tell me you didn't like Airplane either.

findingjuliet April 21 2008, 13:36:49 UTC

I haven't seen Airplane either ... I admit that I lack in the classic movie department.

you kids today. where's mah cane... shadowcaptain April 21 2008, 04:02:50 UTC

when the hoff theater showed the original halloween at the university of maryland, people thought it was an (unintentional) laugh riot. never mind the fact that the slasher genre started in a closet with jamie lee curtis. (okay, that could probably have been put better.) point is, it was the very, very first, and absolutely everything that came after it was shaped by it. doesn't matter that it's laughable for the wrong reasons now. i couldn't have explained to the kids in the audience why i had to sleep with a light on in my closet for years after i first met michael myers.

which is not to say you should necessarily find animal house all that good a movie, or even that good a comedy. it probably owes its entire success to the fact that in 1978 nobody had ever seen anything like it before.

• it was, for all intents and purposes, the very first raucous teen sex comedy. let that sink in for a moment. as american pie is, for all intents and purposes porky's: the next generation, so too was porky's essentially "what the guys in delta ( ... )