"Animal House" 1978

“Animal House”

Kevin Bacon has been in a lot of movies. Enough that he has a game in which you can connect any other actor to him within six movies. But where did he start? As a frat boy in “Animal House”. His most distinctive scene being his initiation into the Omega house.

Chip: [being spanked as part of Omega's initiation] Thank you, sir! May I have another?

This movie is set in the early sixties. John F. Kennedy is in the White House and it is hip to be young. Delta House is the worst house on campus.

Dean Vernon Wormer: Greg, what is the worst fraternity on this campus?
Greg Marmalard: Well that would be hard to say, sir. They're each outstanding in their own way.
Dean Vernon Wormer: Cut the horse$hit, son. I've got their disciplinary files right here. Who dropped a whole truckload of fizzies into the varsity swim meet? Who delivered the medical school cadavers to the alumni dinner? Every Halloween, the trees are filled with underwear. Every spring, the toilets explode.
Greg Marmalard: You're talking about Delta, sir.
Dean Vernon Wormer: Of course I'm talking about Delta, you TWERP!

There is a great cast.

Stephen Furst is Kent Dorfman, soon to be known as Flounder.

Hoover: Kent is a legacy, Otter. His brother was a '59, Fred Dorfman.
Flounder: He said legacies usually get asked to pledge automatically.
Otter: Oh, well, usually. Unless the pledge in question turns out to be a real closet-case.
Otter, Boon: Like Fred.

Thomas Hulce is Larry aka Pinto. He is a little naïve.

Boon: I want you to fix Pinto up, but it's got to be a very special girl.
Pinto: Look, you don't have to...
Boon: Now, she should be good-looking, but we're willing to trade looks for a certain... morally casual attitude.
Katy: You mean you want someone he can screw on the first date.
Boon: Well put. You see, Pinto's never been laid.
Pinto: Hey!
Boon: What'd I say?

Peter Riegert and Karen Allen play Boon and Katy. Boon still loves being in a fraternity, Katy is ready to move beyond college.

Boon: Where are you going? We just got here.
Katy: No, Boon, you just got here. I've been downstairs for an hour entertaining some kid from Pig's Knuckle, Arkansas.
Boon: Umm - maybe we could drive up to your folks' place this weekend.
Katy: Oh, fabulous. My car filled with your beer buddies going up to empty my parents' liquor cabinet. It's too depressing to think about.
Boon: No! Just gonna be you and me. And Otter and another girl.
Katy: Is this really what you're gonna do for the rest of your life?
Boon: What do you mean?
Katy: I mean hanging around with a bunch of animals getting drunk every weekend.
Boon: No! After I graduate, I'm gonna get drunk every night.

James Widdoes is Hoover. He seems the most together of the Delta House gang. He works hard at keeping things together.

Hoover: Hey are you guys coming down?
[Boon and Otter look at Hoover]
Hoover: There happen to be 50 people downstairs waiting to try and get into this fraternity. Otter, you are the rush chairman. I think you should be present at the rush party.

Tim Matheson is Otter. He’d made his career in a range of Disney produced movies and Otter is a far cry from his G-rated days.

Otter: Let me give you a hint. She's got a couple of major-league yabbos.
Boon: Beverly!
Otter: No. But you're getting warmer. Here's another: "Oh God, Oh God, OH GOD!"
Boon: Marlene! Don't tell me you're gonna pork Marlene Desmond!
Otter: Pork?
Boon: You're gonna hump her brains out, aren't you?
Otter: Boon, I anticipate a deeply religious experience.

But the true scene stealer is John Belushi as Bluto, who gives one of the greatest motivational speeches in movie history.

Bluto: Hey! What's all this laying around stuff? Why are you all still laying around here for?
Stork: What the hell are we supposed to do, ya moron? We're all expelled. There's nothing to fight for anymore.
D-Day: [to Bluto] Let it go. War's over, man. Wormer dropped the big one.
Bluto: What? 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: [to Boon] Germans?
Boon: Forget it, he's rolling.
Bluto: And it ain't over now. 'Cause when the goin' gets tough...
[thinks hard of something to say]
Bluto: The tough get goin'! Who's with me? Let's go!
[Bluto runs out, alone; then returns]
Bluto: What the f**k happened to the Delta I used to know? Where's the spirit? Where's the guts, huh? This could be the greatest night of our lives, but you're gonna let it be the worst. "Ooh, we're afraid to go with you Bluto, we might get in trouble." Well just kiss my a$$ 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 ba$tards. Now we could do it with conventional weapons, but 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: [stands up] Yeah, I agree. Let's go get 'em.
Boon: Let's do it.
Bluto: [shouting] "Let's do it"!
[all of the Deltas stand up and run out with Bluto]

There are many more characters I could name and quote. So much happens in this movie. It launched the National Lampoon movie franchise. And it launched the career of Kevin Bacon among others. And it started a craze that lives on at colleges all over the country.

Eric 'Otter' Stratton: You guys up for a toga party?
John 'Bluto' Blutarsky: Toga! Toga!
Eric 'Otter' Stratton: Ah, I think they like the idea, Hoov.