The talents of director John Landis and Saturday Night Live’s irrepressible John Belushi conspired to create a rambunctious, subversive college comedy that continues to resonate.
Director John Landis put himself on the map with this low-budget, fabulously successful comedy, which made a then-astounding 62 million dollars and started a slew of careers for its cast in the process.
National Lampoon’s Animal House is set in 1962 on the campus of Faber College in Faber, PA. The first glimpse we get of the campus is the statue of its founder Emil Faber, on the base of which is inscribed the motto, “Knowledge Is Good.” Incoming freshmen Larry “Pinto” Kroger (Tom Hulce) and Kent “Flounder” Dorfman (Stephen Furst) find themselves rejected by the pretentious Omega fraternity, and instead pledge to Delta House.
“The movie is vulgar, raunchy, ribald, and occasionally scatological. It is also the funniest comedy since Mel Brooks made The Producers.”
—Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times
