This is an excerpt from an interesting take on this movie. I never considered the underlying theme of class struggle. I was just yucking it up with the rest of the world. http://d2rights.blogspot.com/2013/10/talking-point-dean-wormer-is-secretly.html
Lighten up dude. It's a comedy.
shareDepends on how you look at it.
In the small, fictional world of Faber College, the Deltas are kids who were rejects in the eyes of the smartest, most athletic, and good looking frats. Therefore, making them underdogs. They established that in the first 5 minutes.
You need to lighten up.
I agree. In a slightly broader sense:
It's about the kids not getting what they believe they're entitled to. What they're entitled to isn't a matter that can be settled objectively, though the writer of that blurb seems to think otherwise. The writer is simply assuming that they're not entitled to be members of the relatively privileged world in which they live. They believe they are, and are keenly aware of the fact that they're kind of low on the totem pole within that world.
Assumptions about what world you're "in," so to speak, exist in lots of similar discussions, though they're often not acknowledged. The situation of people who work at McDonalds for minimum wage and feel they're poorly off doesn't look so bad if you compare them to workers in Bangladesh or Chinese factories. You've got to assume that they're entitled to be in the "first world." For that matter, even the plight of the worst-off humans looks pretty good compared to that of mammals generally.
At the end of the day, it all comes down to this:
"We can do anything we want. We're college students!"
For that matter, even the plight of the worst-off humans looks pretty good compared to that of mammals generally.
I agree. I do get a good chuckles out of those who take this kind of movie too seriously. Kind of reminds me of the TV show and movie, "the odd couple", where it's one extreme to the other. Although I like Felix a lot more then those Omega brats.
shareRejects in college?
Your spinning.
I'll bet you enjoyed being at the receiving end of those paddle whacks.
share"Isn't this a story about underdogs triumphing over adversity? No. No way. Not even close. Simply put, the members of Delta House are not underdogs. The inspiration for the film was a series of articles that Chris Miller wrote for National Lampoon about his experiences at Dartmouth in the early '60s. Read that again: Dartmouth. The magazine itself takes its name from the Harvard Lampoon. Harvard and Dartmouth are not places where underdogs generally go to college. Ivy League schools are the sure dominion of overdogs, not underdogs. These are privileged upper-middle-class and upper-class kids with well-connected mommies and daddies. The Deltas' only real "problem" is that they're not simply allowed to do whatever they want whenever they want. Plus, they've been given access to educational -- and, therefore, career -- opportunities that most kids will never have... and they couldn't give a damm. They never spend a solitary second studying, and they're all rewarded with great jobs at the end."
But thats how it is in real life to this day. Spoiled rich white kids get everything, don't they?
When theres no more room in Hollywood, remakes shall walk the Earth.
Yeah, Dean Wormer looked real upstanding when he cut off Hoover's chance to address the charges at their hearing.
You know, the nerds in Revenge of the Nerds were likely just as rich as the Alpha Betas. Were they the bad guys?
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"If we were in prison, you guys would be, like, my bitches."---Phoebe, Friends
It is not a class struggle, it is a great anti-authority film. The wealth of the members of the Delta house has NOTHING to do with the story. The Delta house was a bunch of fun loving, usually drunk, college kids without a care in the world. They wanted to have a great time in college before they had to enter the real world. They were up against a dean who hated them and an uptight fraternity house who wanted to take them down simply because they were out to have fun versus worry about graduating and having a career. In the end they won and that was the beauty of the film. The great comedies of the late 70s and 80s were anti-authority e.g. Caddyshack, Animal House, Ghostbusters, Revenge of the Nerds, etc.
shareYou have a point about it being based on a Dartmouth or Harvard-type school, but that only takes away from them being "disadvantaged" in a general sense. What kind of schools do you think the professors, administrators and Deans at such places went to as well.
As it is, the Deltas are the outcasts in the general campus mix and they are young guys fighting the institution run by older ones and their cronies. Don't think you need more than that to make the story work.
I never considered it an underdog movie, but more of an elitist vs. "regular dudes" movie. I grew up in a largely upper middle class town, but lived on the "poor" neighborhood. Yes, in retrospect, I had it darn good, but that doesn't mean I took any less pleasure in beating one of the "rich kids" at something. Same goes for Animal House. Sure, if you over-analyze, it was more a matter of elitists versus elitists, but one set of elitists were a lot more like me, so that was enough.
share