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David Spates Double-secret probation has been lifted Score one for us malcontents. The federal
government is ensuring food fights, toga parties and the memory
of Fawn Liebowitz, who died in a tragic kiln accident, never
will be forgotten. For that, I say God bless America. Finally,
an endeavor worthy of my tax dollars. Anyone who went to college, even if only for
a semester, can relate to National Lampoon's Animal House to
some degree, and thanks to Librarian of Congress James Billington,
Animal House will be immortalized in the National Film Registry.
According to Billington -- whose Delta Tau Chi name, if I recall,
was ceremoniously selected as Frog -- Animal House was included
because it has enough cultural, historical or aesthetic significance
for the federal government to guarantee its preservation, either
in the Library's archive or one of the other film archives nationwide. I've seen Animal House countless times. It
is THE benchmark for lowbrow collegiate movies, but is it historic?
Aesthetic? Cultural, perhaps, for its glimpse into the beer-stained
underbelly of college life, but the reason Animal House is such
a fantastic movie is because it's funny. It's really funny.
It's hilarious, and best of all, its inclusion into the National
Film Registry is bound to offend someone, somewhere. Actually, there were 25 movies recently selected
for national preservation. They are wonderful films, without
question all worthy of historical note, but only one includes
a scene in which John Belushi stuffs an entire cheeseburger in
his mouth and slurps a plate of Jell-O in one deft motion. I
enjoy The Sound of Music, one of the other films selected, as
much as the next guy, but I'm not going to stay up until 3 a.m.
to watch it. If Animal House begins at 1 a.m., even on the SuperStation
where it's been hacked and edited it to within in inch of its
life, I'm in. It's one of those movies where classic, unforgettable
scenes come at every moment -- no lulls. It's one iconographic
moment after another. Let me put it this way: Animal House is
the one, the only reason "Louie Louie" is still played
on college campuses to this day. This movie had an impact. If you're one of those people who watches
most of his movies on WTBS or WGN, you should really take the
time to rent Animal House and see it in all its glory. Just be
sure the kids are out of the house -- well, the younger kids
anyway. I'd hate for you to have to explain to your 6-year-old
why there's a devil and an angel on Tom Hulce's shoulders. However, if you're pretty uptight and don't
find things like zit impersonations and sorority house voyeurism
funny (not even a little?), you might want to stick with Julie
Andrews twirling her way through the Austrian countryside. That's
about as edgy as you should go. (If you're not sure whether you're
uptight, ask around. I'm sure someone will be happy to fill you
in.) If lines like "Fat, drunk and stupid
is no way to go through life," "Seven years of college
down the drain," and "Was it over when the Germans
bombed Pearl Harbor?" aren't your cup of tea, keep in mind
that "Animal House" does hold at least one critical
function. It's a pivotal link in the Six Degrees of
Kevin Bacon game. Kevin, who appears in Animal House as his first
major motion picture, plays one of the new pledges at Omega House,
where the rich kids and jocks hang out. Animal House gives you
Bacon links (but no sausage links) to actors like Belushi, Hulce,
Tim Matheson, John Vernon, Donald Sutherland and even Stephen
Bishop, the guy whose guitar Bluto smashes because he hates the
song. There's even a Tennessee connection in the
movie, sort of. In the student court scene, there stands a Tennessee
state flag, although the mythical Faber College is located somewhere
in Pennsylvania. The filming was done at the University of Oregon,
but the Oregon state flag has "State of Oregon" across
the top. The set decorator decided to use the first "generic-looking"
flag he could find, Tennessee's. Incidentally, the other films rounding out
the class of 2001 are: Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein;
All That Jazz; All the King's Men; America, America; Cologne:
From the Diary of Ray and Esther; Evidence of the Film; Hoosiers;
The House in the Middle; It; Jam Session; Jaws; Manhattan; Marian
Anderson: The Lincoln Memorial Concert; Memphis Belle; The Miracle
of Morgan's Creek; Miss Lulu Bett; Planet of the Apes; Rose Hobart;
Serene Velocity; Stormy Weather; The Tell-Tale Heart; The Thin
Blue Line and The Thing From Another World. I'm glad all of these films are getting the recognition they're due, even the ones I haven't seen, and I'm particularly thrilled that, as of now, the guys at Delta House are seemingly off double-secret probation. · · · |