MovieChat Forums > National Lampoon's Animal House (1978) Discussion > Aged quite well

Aged quite well

posted 11 years ago by chelseaal
13 replies | jump to latest

I saw this for the first time in 1981 on VHS after the success of Blues Brothers as I don't think it got a UK cinema release in 1978. It was funny as hell, LOVED it!
Saw it several more times in the 80's, then maybe another time in the early '90s.
It was on UK TV last night, and I watched it thinking 'this is going to look dated'..........how wrong I was. A few scenes hadn't aged well, but the majority of the film still made me laugh, especially the credits of what happened to the characters with one being 'raped in prison' and the other 'killed by his own troops in Vietnam'.
Overall, STILL very funny...........even if Kevin Bacon looks about 14 in the film!

[–] Muppetsfan1 10 years ago

Yeah despite a few things that might date it a bit, the movie overall holds up really well.

[–] wrs6565 10 years ago

This is my all time favorite movie. I think it holds up almost perfectly. It's less a matter of finding the film "hilarious," although parts of it still make me laugh, than the general late-70s sense of fun (even if it's set in 1962) that pervades the whole thing, along with the post-Nixon contempt for authority which leads to "Raped in Prison, 1974." In real life, I probably wouldn't go anywhere near the Deltas, but they make for a nice little world in the movie. That's REALLY why it holds up more so than just Belushi doing a zit or something like that.

It's pretty weird to think Kevin Bacon is 4 years away from being 60.

[–] Classic_Movies7 10 years ago

For some reason I keep thinking this is a 80s movie. But I am not far off, late 70s.

[–] matt-akers 10 years ago

Actually, that's understandable. It has the look and feel of a mid 80s film. It was ahead of its time in many ways - which is odd since it was set in 1962...

[–] johnston.scot 10 years ago

Part of the reason it might have the feel of an '80s movie is that many '80s movies imitated it.

[–] Pierre_D 10 years ago

We saw it for Classic Movie Night on Friday and it was side-splittingly hilarious. So many awesome scenes and lines: "TOGA! TOGA!" "Double Secret Probation." "Drop and give me 20!"

What an absolutely awesome movie.

[–] huwdj 10 years ago

I saw it on tape in the 80's - really enjoyed it then and still do. Ditto for The Blues Brothers.

[–] TMC-4 10 years ago

http://lebeauleblog.com/2015/04/11/70s-movies-bracket-game-animal-house-v-blazing-saddles/comment-page-1/#comment-210483

This comedic scene from Animal House about a potential date rape leans very hard on the boyish charm of Tom Hulce. Despite his callow countenance, we tend to trust him and accept the darkness of his temptation as the manifestation of the deepest shameful truth of a young man in such a position. The cartoonish nature of the Angel/Devil trope also somehow serves to soften the awful reality of what he is considering. The fact that she introduces him later as “the boy who molested me last month” and announces that they have to get married the day after he finds out she’s only 13 years old doesn’t necessarily convince me that he went ahead with a true molestation…but it sure doesn’t look good, does it? Are these the jokes? Animal House is, without a doubt, an entertaining movie based mostly around harmless hi-jinks, but is anybody really that sympathetic for the guys when they get expelled? They’re kind of asking for it, aren’t they? What say you? Is Animal House truly the classic comedy many regard it as? Has it suffered with the passage of time? Was date rape funny 37 years ago?

[–] 10 years ago

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[–] kevinswife 9 years ago

Was date rape funny 37 years ago?

I felt the same thing watching this again as a 40-something woman, but when this movie came out, it wasn't considered date rape. Well-brought-up boys were taught not to "take advantage of" girls who were drunk. Boys and men who did "take advantage of" inebriated girls were considered low and cads, but not criminals.

It's interesting to me looking back, since something similar happened to me when I was underage in the 80's (after I had seen Animal House and likely laughed right along with everyone else)--except the perp wasn't someone I even liked. I had so much rage toward him after I pieced together what had happened, but it was many years before I even realized that it was rape. If you were to ask him today, he's probably not proud of it, but I bet he would flatly deny that he committed rape that night.

So to answer your question, yes--the incident was considered funny because it was seen as a dilemma between being a gentleman or not, vs being a criminal or not. Thankfully, things have changed.

[–] tallkennj 9 years ago

Period pieces tend to age a bit better... and, if the piece in question, includes the work of a comedic genius, well, they age even better than that. Had this movie had the exact same plot and cast but had been about a present day (i.e. circa 1978) fraternity, it would undoubtedly have aged terribly. Watch "Fast Times at Ridgemont High" if you doubt it.

[–] BiffGG 9 years ago

Funny in that this thread was on here as I was thinking about this while watching today. I still like the movie but some things just do not pass for muster today. Using an obit (Fawn) to find a date just is not humorous. Ditching "dates" in a bar where racial tensions could lead to violence just is not funny. I even had issues with a utility pole coming down on Main Street near the end of the movie. 440 volt electricity can kill with no difficulty if somebody came in contact with the wire. I still enjoy the movie but I can not say that it aged well. A good thing in that the main focus of the elite versus the outcasts is still timeless. The same goes with Revenge of the Nerds.