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Animal House [HD DVD] [1978] [US Import]


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Editorial
Amazon.co.uk Review

A groundbreaking screwball caper, 1978's National Lampoon's Animal House was in its own way a rite of passage for Hollywood. Set in 1962 at Faber College, it follows the riotous carryings-on of the Delta Fraternity, into which are initiated freshmen Tom Hulce and Stephen Furst. Among the established house members are Tim Matheson, Peter Riegert and the late John Belushi as Bluto, a belching, lecherous, Jack Daniels guzzling maniac. A debauched house of pranksters (culminating in the famous Deathmobile sequence), Delta stands as a fun alternative to the more strait-laced, crew-cut, unpleasantly repressive norm personified by Omega House. As cowriter the late Doug Kenney puts it, "better to be an animal than a vegetable".

Animal House is deliberately set in the pre-JFK assassination, pre-Vietnam era, something not made much of here, but which would have been implicitly understood by its American audience. The film was an enormous success, a rude, liberating catharsis for the latter-day frathousers who watched it. However, decades on, a lot of the humour seems broad, predictable, boorish, oafishly sexist and less witty than Airplane!, made two years later in the same anarchic spirit. Indeed, although it launched the Hollywood careers of several of its players and makers, including Kevin Bacon, director John Landis, Harold Ramis and Tom Hulce, who went on to do fine things, it might well have been inadvertently responsible for the infantilisation of much subsequent Hollywood comedy. Still, there's an undeniable energy that gusts throughout the film and Belushi, whether eating garbage or trying to reinvoke the spirit of America "After the Germans bombed Pearl Harbour" is a joy.

On the DVD: Animal House comes to disc in a good transfer, presented in 1.85:1. The main extra is a featurette in which director John Landis, writer Chris Miller and some of the actors talk about the making of the movie. Interestingly, 23 years on, most of those interviewed look better than they did back in 1978, especially Stephen "Flounder" Furst. --David Stubbs


Give me an F! Give me an A! Give me a B! .....
Review date: 2007-08-03 Rating: 10 out of 10


It is remarkable to me how well this film's appeal has held up over the years since its initial release 30 years ago. Ably directed by John Landis with a talented ensemble cast in which John Belushi (John "Bluto" Blutarsky) generates especially inspired mayhem, Animal House is within a tradition of earlier comedies, both on stage (dating back to ancient Greece) and on film (notably those directed by Preston Sturges), in which Irresponsible Youth and Civilized Society are in direct and constant conflict. In this instance, members of Delta House (anarchists and hedonists) versus the Omegas (prim and proper prudes) on the Faber College campus in 1962. The adversarial relationship between the two fraternities is exacerbated by Dean Vernon Wormer (brilliantly portrayed by John Vernon) who also seems determined to rid the college (if not the planet Earth) of the devilish Deltas. Rather than a carefully developed plot, Landis and the co-authors of the screenplay (who include Harold Ramis) prefer to present the action within a picaresque framework: one zany episode follows another as the Deltas' adventures evolve. Drunk or sober, Belushi (the pledge trainer, of course) and his fraternity brothers successfully reject all efforts to moderate their behavior. Sometimes life imitates art as when, following the release of this film, fraternities on campuses throughout the United States developed social activities (e.g. toga parties) no doubt inspired by the inmates of Delta House.

Then (1978) and now, I think the Dexter Lake Club incident is unnecessary, indeed a mistake. (Yes, that's Robert Cray among the members of Otis Day's band.) Also the illicit rendezvous with a group of young ladies from Emily Dickinson University seems superfluous. (Obviously, Emily is preferable to Fairleigh.) However, the film ends with a brilliantly staged demolition by the Deltas of the town's annual Founder's Day parade. Be sure to remain for a brief but hilarious "Where are they now?" update. Within a relatively brief period of time, I saw both Animal House and Good News (1947) again. Both examine undergraduate life but that's about all they share in common. Those who plan to see Animal House for the first time (or again) are urged to see Good News first. It stars June Allyson (Connie Lane), Morris Ankrum (Dean Griswold), Tom Dugan (Pooch), Connie Gilchrist (Cora the Cook), Jane Green (Mrs. Drexel), and Peter Lawford (Tommy Marlowe). The portrayal of life on the Tait College campus in Good News establishes a frame-of-reference within which to appreciate even more the high level of satire at work throughout most (but not all) of Animal House.

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Reviews


One of a kind!
Review date: 2006-12-08 Rating: 10 out of 10

Most films in National Lampoon's canon are interesting, funny in a fairly juvenile way, and you sometimes feel they are for Americans only.

This little devil, however, was amongst the first they made, and bucks all those later trends. You can easily watch it once a month, the humour is broad and black at the same time, and it's got such universal appeal, I've always wished I'd still been at Grammar school when it came out, so I could've tried a few tricks from the movie here. Unfortunately, I'd have been a peculiar retard to still be there aged 27!!

One good reason for its' success is the excellent weaseally performance of John Vernon as Dean Wormer. His crypto-Fascist efforts to squash Delta fraternities fun and excesses have remained ursurpassed, even by Alan Rickman as Sheriff of Nottingham in Prince of Thieves-talk about the pantomime villian incarnate.

But, of course, it helps to have a hero to match and finally outwit that villian. Luckily, it isn't an anaemic and tree-hugging one-it's the one and only John Belushi. There's probably no point in anyone else being on screen in every scene he's in-he just dominates events quite wonderfully.

I'll leave it there & not spoil the ending-let's just say the final battle between the WASP's and the anarachic Delta frat is something to behold, and beats Star Wars or Lord of the Rings hands down!

brilliant!!!!... an absolute cracker of a film.
Review date: 2006-01-14 Rating: 10 out of 10

This is one of those films you can watch over and over and over and over and over again, again, again, again and again!!! I never tire of it. John Belushi at his best. The food fight, the party, the parade, the beginning, the end and all the bits inbetween are just so brilliant. Watch it, Love it, Buy it... I DID!!! So many cracking lines.... so many beautiful girls. Get a few beers in, get a few friends around and have a good old laugh.

animal house original music letdown!
Review date: 2005-01-20 Rating: 8 out of 10

Just bought the new Animal House dvd. After all these years it's still a classic! Most people mention Belushi's performance but for me the underrated Tim Matheson as Otter steals the show. (Tim Matheson should've been a major star). However the big disappointment on this version is they've changed much of the music featured from the original film. No "Wonderful World", "Theme from a Summer Place", "Let's Dance" (from the foodfight scene). And what's worse they've replaced it with bland "modern" music and it's awful. This is the first time I've ever heard of this happening to film music. But at least they've kept Elmer Bernstein's classic original score. A superb film but one star deducted for the changes.

What happened to the music ?
Review date: 2004-06-20 Rating: 4 out of 10

Although the film is as good as it always was. This DVD has been ruined by the complete changing of some of the music in the film. I counted at least four songs that have been changed, including Money, and the Sam Cooke song Wonderful World.

I have given this DVD 2 stars not the film as the original was 5 stars.

Product Details/Specifications


Actor(s):
Verna Bloom
John Vernon
Karen Allen
John Belushi
Tim Matheson

Creators:
John Belushi (Primary Contributor)
Karen Allen (Primary Contributor)
Charles Correll (Cinematographer)
George Folsey Jr. (Editor)
Ivan Reitman (Producer)
Matty Simmons (Producer)

Director(s):

Recording label: Universal Studios
Manufacturer: Universal Studios
EAN: 0025193002228
Binding: HD DVD
Number of items: 1
Format: AC-3, Colour, Dolby, Dubbed, Subtitled, Widescreen,
Release date: 2006-08-15
Universal product code (UPC): 025193002228
Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
Region code: 1
Running time: 109 minutes
Theatrical release date: 1978-07-28
Language: English (Original Language)
Language: English (Subtitled)
Language: French (Subtitled)
Language: Spanish (Subtitled)
Language: French (Dubbed)

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