National Lampoon's Animal House
1978 · Directed by John Landis
The blueprint for every college comedy that followed, and still funnier than all of them. Belushi's eyebrows do more acting than most leading men manage in a career.
Why It's Cult
Animal House is the original sin of the college comedy genre. Before Van Wilder, before Old School, before anything with Will Ferrell in a toga, there was Bluto and the Deltas. The toga party sequence is in the Library of Congress. That's not a bit — it's actually in the National Film Registry.
The Plot, Officially
Faber College has one frat house so disreputable it will take anyone. It has a second one full of white, anglo-saxon, rich young men who are so sanctimonious no one can stand them except Dean Wormer. The dean enlists the help of the second frat to get the boys of Delta House off campus. The dean's plan comes into play just before the homecoming parade to end all parades for all time.
Gateway Scenes
Act 2, toga party
The toga party sequence. Otis Day and the Knights. "Shout."
Pure joy. If this doesn't make them smile, nothing will.
Act 3
Bluto's "Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor?" speech.
Belushi's greatest twenty seconds on film.
Starring
John Belushi, Karen Allen, Tom Hulce
Where to Watch
via JustWatch →
