I was in high school when I saw Animal House for the first time (on VHS). A guy at school had recommended a list of "must see" comedies, and this film was on the list.
The list was hit and miss: He recommended The Lonely Guy and The Man with Two Brains, both excellent, but he also recommended Erik the Viking, which I thought was a steaming turd despite the Monty Python associations. Maybe I need to give that one another chance, as 20 years have passed.
To be honest I didn't think Animal House was all that funny at first. There were great parts (the horse in the dean's office, Blutarsky smashing the guitar, Otter's "Frank" going to Emily Dickinson College and scamming a sympathy date, etc.), but to me the film wasn't as consistently funny as, say, Blazing Saddles or Caddyshack. I know, sacrilege, but stay with me.
Luckily, the film has grown on me each time I watch. This is not a film to see in advance of college, but one to watch afterward. Call this a nostalgia piece, a kind of permission slip to laugh at authority even though as adults, we all gotta serve somebody...just not Dean Wormer.
In college, I never joined a fraternity. A few fraternity members became good friends (some best friends to this day), but I didn't really need much more than that. I didn't have time. Maybe my life would've been different if I had joined. I might be better off. Then again, I might be dead. I don't regret the decision at all.
I watch Animal House every view years and oddly, the film doesn't age for me. These archetypes — Otter, Blutarsky, Niedermeyer, Wormer, Pinto, Flounder — seem to be at every school. So for me, even though this film came out in the 1970s, these archetypes never die.
I like things that don't change.
Love the Animal House! It came out when I was in college and I could definitely relate... There was a fraternity at Butler (to remain unnamed) that was the prototype for Animal House. Their couch had no legs and concrete blocks were used to hold it up; they fed the fish in their aquarium pot; there were 15 members and all but one was on academic probation. I could go on.... Suffice to say that they lost their charter the year after I graduated!
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