National Lampoon's Animal House is a 1978 American comedy film directed by John Landis. The film is about a misfit group of fraternity men who challenge their college's administrators. The screenplay was adapted by Douglas Kenney, Chris Miller and Harold Ramis from stories written by Miller and published in National Lampoon magazine based on Miller's experiences in the Alpha Delta Phi fraternity at Dartmouth College (the character Pinto is a thinly veiled version of Miller, whose actual fraternity nickname was, in fact, "Pinto")[1], Ramis' experiences in the Zeta Beta Tau fraternity at Washington University in St. Louis, and producer Ivan Reitman's experiences at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario.
Of the young lead actors only John Belushi was an established star; several of the actors, including Tom Hulce, Karen Allen, and Kevin Bacon, were early in their careers. Upon its initial release, Animal House received generally mixed reviews from critics, but Time and Roger Ebert proclaimed it one of the year's best. Filmed for $2.7 million, it is one of the most profitable movies of all time; since its initial release, Animal House has garnered an estimated return of more than $141 million in the form of video and DVDs, not including merchandising.
The film launched the gross-out genre. In 2001, the United States Library of Congress deemed Animal House "culturally significant" and selected it for preservation in the National Film Registry. This film was #1 on Bravo's 100 Funniest Movies. It was number 36 on AFI's 100 Years... 100 Laughs list of the 100 best American comedies. In 2008, Empire magazine selected Animal House as one of The 500 Greatest Movies of All Time.
Delta Tau Chi (ΔΤΧ)
John Belushi as John "Bluto" Blutarsky: A drunken degenerate with his own style, in his seventh year of college, sporting a GPA of 0.0. He goes on to become a United States Senator. In the short film "Where Are They Now?: A Delta Alumni Update" he became President of the United States.
Tim Matheson as Eric "Otter" Stratton: A smooth playboy whose room is a pristine seduction den amid the sheer filth of the rest of the Delta house. Otter is the fraternity's rush chairman and essentially the fraternity's unofficial leader. He goes on to become a gynecologist in Beverly Hills.
Peter Riegert as Donald "Boon" Schoenstein: Otter's best friend, who is forever having to decide between his Delta pals and his girlfriend Katy. He marries Katy in 1964, but they divorce in 1969. In the book adaptation Boon becomes a cab driver and part-time writer in New York City. In "Where Are They Now?" he and Katy remarried, redivorced, and remarried a final time after a fling resulted in the conception of their son Otis; he also works as a documentarian.
Thomas Hulce as Lawrence "Pinto" Kroger: A shy but normal fellow, who becomes the editor of National Lampoon magazine. "Pinto" was screenwriter Chris Miller's nickname at his Dartmouth fraternity.
Stephen Furst as Kent "Flounder" Dorfman: An overweight, clumsy legacy pledge, later a sensitivity trainer in Cleveland.
Bruce McGill as Daniel Simpson Day, "D-Day": A tough biker with no grade point average; all classes incomplete. His later whereabouts are unknown.
James Widdoes as Robert Hoover: The affable, reasonably clean-cut president of the fraternity, who desperately struggles to maintain a façade of normality to placate the Dean. He becomes a public defender in Baltimore. In "Where Are They Now?" he became an assistant district attorney and provided some strategies to the OJ Simpson trial prosecution.
Douglas Kenney as "Stork": During his first year, everyone thought the Stork was brain damaged; indeed, he only speaks two lines in the entire film. In the book adaptation, Stork is revealed to be independently wealthy as a result of several patents he holds. In "Where Are They Now?" he'd died.
Omega Theta Pi (ΩΘΠ)
James Daughton as Gregory Marmalard: The president of Omega House and boyfriend of Mandy Pepperidge. He goes on to become a Nixon White House aide and is subsequently raped in prison in 1974.
Mark Metcalf as Douglas C. Neidermeyer: An ROTC cadet officer and scion of a military family who hates the Deltas with unbridled passion; one of the main antagonists. He is killed by his own troops in Vietnam.
Kevin Bacon as Chip Diller: An Omega pledge who is trampled by the panicking crowd at the end of the movie. In "Where Are They Now?" he became a born-again Christian missionary in Africa.
Animal House is considered to be the movie that launched the gross-out genre (although it was predated by several films now also included in the genre) inspiring countless other comedies such as Porky's, the Police Academy films, the American Pie films, and Old School among others.
Bluto's Motivational Speech
D-Day (Bruce McGill): War's over, man. Wormer dropped the big one.
Bluto: Over? Did you say "over"? Nothing is over until we decide it is! Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor? Hell no!
Otter (Tim Matheson): [whispering] Germans?
Boon (Peter Riegert): Forget it, he's rolling.
Bluto: And it ain't over now. 'Cause when the goin' gets tough... the tough get goin'! Who's with me? Let's go!
What the fuck happened to the Delta I used to know? Where's the spirit? Where's the guts, huh? "Ooh, we're afraid to go with you Bluto, we might get in trouble." Well just kiss my ass from now on! Not me! I'm not gonna take this. Wormer, he's a dead man! Marmalard, dead! Niedermeyer -
Otter: Dead! Bluto's right. Psychotic, but absolutely right. We gotta take these bastards. Now we could do it with conventional weapons that could take years and cost millions of lives. No, I think we have to go all out. I think that this situation absolutely requires a really futile and stupid gesture be done on somebody's part.
Bluto: We're just the guys to do it.
D-Day: Let's do it.
Bluto: LET'S DO IT!!
Fat, Drunk and Stupid
Lunch Time
Guitar Scene
Otis Day and The Knights
