Oregon Daily Emerald —
PULSE
Wednesday, August 20,2003
Brad Schmidt
Of chief concern
'Animal'
Zeitgeist
embodies
goodness
"Fat, drunk and stupid" may indeed be
no way to go through life, but it certainly
isn't a bad way to go through college.
These aren't words to live by, nor are
they a mantra for others to follow. It's
simply the truth, the reality that I've been
so fortunate to discover here at the Uni
versity, home of the beloved "National
Lampoon's Animal House."
To me, the University is a place where I
learn, and for that I am grateful. But
much more apparent in my mind is that
the University was, for a brief moment in
time, Faber College — a place where the
booze is free, the women are easy and
the teachers are heady.
Faber College has so much more to offer
than this University of ours. Back in 1977,
when the film was shot on campus, Universal
Studios gave the University the paltry sum of
$20,000 to record a movie about binge drink
ing. Today, the University has become one of
the first in the nation to ban alcohol from all
Greek houses. There's something terribly
wrong with this picture; and I don't want any
part of it Give me Dean Vernon Wormer and
"double-secret probation" over University Pres
ident Dave Frohnmayer and a dry system. Take
the Pioneer statue in front of Johnson Hall. I'd
rather have the likeness of Emil Faber, and his
insightful words, "Knowledge is good."
Maybe I'm a little lost, more like the sick
fraternity buddies in the movie, out of touch
with the realities of today. But with the re
lease of the 25th anniversary edition of the
movie Aug. 26, I'm OK with my dementia.
"Animal House" is a place where a fatty
like Kent "Flounder" Dorfman can get ac
cepted into the party house on campus,
Delta Tau Chi. "Animal House" is the place
where a man like "Flounder" can have a girl
friend — a hot blonde that rivals the movie's
other, equally hot cheerleaders.
"Animal House" is a place where you
can sit down and socialize with your pro
fessor over some grass. It's the place where
you can talk about the microcosm in your
fingernail, and have a frank discussion
about the irrelevance of Milton.
"Animal House" is a place where you
can walk into a room and hear the words
we all long for: "Grab a brew, it don't cost
nothin'." It's a place where grown men can
dress up in bed sheets. A place where
homecoming parades don't suck.
It's a place where John Belushi can drink
a fifth of Jack Daniel's because he's an al
coholic, and it's funny. It's a place where
sorority girls have topless pillow fights and
— as wonderful as just the thought of that
is — it's OK for peeping Tom's to have a
look-see. It's a place where Sam Cooke
music is always on, where white people
can dance, where grades don't matter and
where there are no repercussions.
A place that only gets better with age.
"Is this really what you're going to do for
the rest of your life?" asks Katie, the wide
eyed girl most befriended by the Delts.
Turn to Schmidt, page 10A
Peter Utsey for the Emerald
It’s not gonna be an orgy;
it's a toga party
Cottage Grove will play host to a 25th
anniversary Animal House jubilee, which
coincides with the movie's DVD re-release
By Ryan Nyburg
Freelance Reporter
The city of Cottage Grove is holding what
it hopes will be the world's largest toga party
on Aug. 30.
The 25th Anniversary Animal 1 louse Cele
bration, part of Universal Studios' "Animal
House Celebration Week," is timed to coin
cide with a new DVD re-release of "National
Lampoon's Animal I louse."
The event will feature concerts, a parade
and a day long toga and look-alike contest.
There will also be two showings of the film,
one at 2 p.m. and another at 5 p.m., at the
Cottage Grove High School auditorium,
which seats 500.
The toga party itself will begin at noon with
live music beginning at 2:30 p.m. Among the
bands scheduled to perform are 'lhe Power Pep
Band, The Patty McCulla & Dave Clark Band,
The Blue Light Special, The Blues Brothers and
the party band who performed in the film, Otis
Day and the Knights. The climax of the evening
will be an 8:30 p.m. performance by the Kings
men, whose version of "Louie, Louie" was fea
tured prominently in "Animal House."
The toga party will be the largest on record
if all goes according to plan, and the paper
work has already been filed with The Guin
ness Book of World Records, according to
event coordinator Tim Flowerday. There is no
Turn to Animal House, page 10A
'Animal House7 serves up timeless comedy
By Ryan Nyburg
Freelance Reporter
I las "National Lampoon's Animal 1 louse" ever
really been forgotten? I doubt it. When it was re
leased in 1978, it struck like a lightening bolt There
had never been anything _
quite like it, and though FORGOTTEN
many have tried, there has m & m&am
never been anything quite ® ® «*•“ 8 w I
like it since. Is it one of the
funniest movies ever? Debatable, but it is impossi
ble to deny the film's worth, both in and of itself,
and as a cultural influence.
Who doesn't know the plot? Who needs to?
"Animal House" isn't about plot, it's about char
acter, set-up and punchline. It is all one good,
well-crafted joke, and like all good jokes it uses
broad characterizations to stand in for real people.
The characters aren't believable, but they don't
need to be. There is the party animal, the ladies'
man, the stuffy dean of students, etc. The charac
ters are written as cardboard cutouts and it's up to
the actors to make them work.
In many films of this kind, that's what goes
wrong. But not here. The actors were mostly un
knowns, with the exception of a few older greats
like John Vernon and Donald Sutherland, but
they filled out the characters so well as to turn
these cutouts into near brilliant comic caricatures.
It says a lot that you can't help thinking of Tim
Matheson without thinking of the egotistical, sex
obsessed grifter "Otter" (this is assuming you ever
spend time thinking of Tim Matheson, which
would be very sad state of affairs).
And then of course there is John Belushi. As
"Bluto" Blutarsky, he is a force of nature unto
himself. Me is wild, destructive, drunk, hedonis
tic, gluttonous and vulgar, yet never unlikable.
It is easy to say there has never been a character
quite like him in the history of cinema. Belushi
embodies Bluto so well that it's possible to be
lieve a bottle of Jack Daniel's you see him con
sume was not just a prop.
Another area where the film excels is in the
soundtrack, which is full of the soul, pop and rock
that filled the airwaves of the early 1960s. And the
Kingsmen's version of "Louie, Louie" — the an
them of beer-soaked partygoers — is used in all its
three-chord glory. It's also an interesting bit of triv
ia that blues artist Robert Cray makes an unac
credited appearance as a member of soul band
Otis Day and the Knights.
One of the major problems with comedies is
they have a tendency to become dated pretty
quickly, with only the best being worth remem
bering. "Animal 1 louse" avoids this pitfall by tak
ing place in the past, in this case circa 1962. But
the film would probably survive the advance of
age, anyway. Unlike many comedies today, the
film does not depend on references to modern
pop culture or on satire of current trends. Instead
the humor has an almost timeless feel to it, cap
turing a few aspects of American college life that
never seem to really change. College students
drink, party, worry about dates, worry about tests
and worry about whether or not the person they
spent the night with last night really was 18.
Ihe film takes these tilings and finds the humor in
them. It's not funny when a man crashes a beer can
against his head, it's funny that other people find it
funny. A scene where a group of students experiment
with pot for the first time isn't funny because the stu
dents act absurdly while stoned, but because they art
generally like anyone would art. Ihe film exaggerates
college life, but it exaggerates in the same way your
memory exaggerates. You laugh because deep down
inside this is what you see college as being like
Ryan Nyburg is a freelance reporter
for the Emerald.