THE BULLETIN • MARCH 18 - 24, 2021
TV • PAGE 21
BY GEORGE DICKIE
John Belushi in
“National Lampoon’s
Animal House”
Food fight! When meals become
missiles in film
Show of hands – how many of you have ever been
in an actual food fight?
We thought so. Neither have we.
It seems food fights are far more common on screen
than in real life, a device used mostly for comic relief
that involves no special effects and doesn’t cost a lot to
film, save for the choreography and the clean-up. And
people remember food fight scenes, no matter how
good or bad the movie was.
There’s no denying it makes for good entertainment
and the following are films where it was done to state-
of-the-art effect.
“National Lampoon’s Animal House” (Tuesday,
March 26, on Flix; Showtime on Demand): John
Landis’ raucous 1978 comedy about the antics of
a 1950s college fraternity contains a classic scene
in which Bluto (John Belushi), his dining hall tray
overloaded, takes a mouthful of mashed potatoes and
asks his table mates “See if you can guess what I am
now.” What happens next is what any collegian would
agree is exactly what dining hall food deserves.
“Blazing Saddles” (Saturday, March 27, Ovation;
streaming on Amazon): Often obscured by the
campfire scene in Mel Brooks’ 1974 Western spoof is
the climactic food fight sequence that literally breaks
the fourth wall and spills over into the commissary
on the Warner Bros. lot, sending an out-of-character
Harvey Korman falling out onto a Burbank, Calif.,
street and into a passing cab.
“Little Darlings” (Streaming on CBS All Access): A
little spilled milk between frenemies Angel and Ferris
(Kristy McNichol, Tatum O’Neal) escalates into a
cafeteria-wide war of flying pancakes and oatmeal in
director Ron Maxwell’s 1980 teen comedy about the
denizens of a girls summer camp. Pay attention and
you’ll recognize a 13-year-old Cynthia Nixon among
the combatants.
“Hook” (Streaming on Netflix): The flying
pastel-hued comestibles may be unidentifiable and
unappetizing-looking in Steven Spielberg’s 1991
adventure comedy about Peter Pan’s (Robin Williams)
quest to save his kidnapped children from Captain
Hook (Dustin Hoffman). But it certainly makes for
bold swatches of color that look great on the big
screen.
“The Great Race” (Streaming on Amazon): An all-
star cast including Jack Lemmon, Natalie Wood, Tony
Curtis and Peter Falk wind up covered in marzipan
and butter cream frosting when a misstep into a
giant cake devolves into an all-out battle of airborne
confections in a bakery scene in Blake Edwards’ 1965
action comedy about an epic automobile race.
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