Remembering the anti-heroes at the 'Animal House'

A friend reminded me this morning that today marks the 36th anniversary of the release of “Animal House”, director John Landis’ raucous tale about college life in the early 1960s and the men of the Delta House fraternity at the fictional Faber College. 

The movie was released a few weeks before I started my senior year at Arlington High School. I immediately connected with the fun-loving, anti-authoritarian men of Delta House, and so did audiences across the nation. “Animal House” became an instant classic. 

The film’s script, penned by Harold Ramis, Doug Kenney, and Chris Miller, includes dozens of memorable lines, many of which I can still recite today. While the film’s content is tame compared to recent movies about college life, longtime fans of “Animal House” know it set a high standard for outrageous over-indulgence. 

However, it is the film’s anti-authority spirit that resonates with me today, more than three decades after I first watched John Belushi scream “no prisoners”. Of course, Belushi’s “Bluto Blutarsky” remains the most recognized character from the movie, but I think the supporting characters, the other men of Delta, reinforce the film’s rebellious nature and contribute to the film’s lasting popularity. 

Those characters include D-Day (Bruce McGill), Boone (Peter Riegert), Larry Kroger (Tom Hulce), Kent Dorfman (Stephen Furst), and Hoover (James Widdoes). The men of Delta House turned the status quo at Faber College upside down, destroyed a homecoming parade and knocked Faber’s elites from their pedestals.  

The “anti-hero” heroes accomplished quite a lot, and that’s worth remembering, I think.

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