Animal House is, to my knowledge, the first teen gross-out comedy. Set in 1962, the flick follows the members of Delta Tau Chi as they binge drink and fuck their way out of fictional Faber University while contending with the Omega Theta Pis and the villainous Dean Wormer. Notable for launching the career of John Belishi, Animal House is an indictment of the Baby Boomer generation when viewed through a modern lens. Ladies man Otter is obviously a sexual predator, one so incapable of controlling his predations that he successfully seduces the alcoholic wife of Dean Wormer. Belushi's Bluto has a zero point zero grade point average; the movie later tells us he's a US Senator. The Deltas love Black rock 'n' roll band Otis Day and the Knights, but when they crash a bar to see him, they are terrified of being the only white people in the joint, and later abandon their dates to a couple caricatures of black males. The Boomers came up in a time of plenty and were happy to frivol away their educations while feigning a progressiveness that masked their hedonistic selfishness. Alright, I've finished my meta observation; the truth is that Animal House is still pretty funny, and an insightful window into a different time, when things like the impropriety of a professor sleeping with his students weren't really considered. Made in 1978, Animal House began director John Landis's amazing hit streak, which included films like Trading Places, An American Werewolf in London, and Blues Brothers. He is, in my opinion, the best comedic director of the late seventies and eighties. However, if you want to realize how much the world has changed, watch this movie and contemplate its sexual politics. At least they are an honest depiction of how people frat boys thought back then (frats hadn't changed that much when I was a lad at University in the aughts). When peeking tom Bluto turns toward the camera and gives as a knowing eyebrow while a topless sorority sister pleasures herself unaware of his presence, are we being indicted as fellow voyeurs? Because it feels more like we're being asked to join in the voyeurism. So while Animal House is an uncomfortable movie to watch in many ways, that willingness to challenge the decency of its audience is something that we're lacking in modern cinema. People are afraid to make comedies now. Can we still laugh at situations that are terrible in retrospect? I can, I guess. I dunno know about you.
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