National Lampoon's Vacation is a 1983 comedy film directed by Harold Ramis and starring Chevy Chase, Beverly D'Angelo, Randy Quaid, Dana Barron and Anthony Michael Hall. The film features numerous others, such as comedians John Candy and Imogene Coca, model Christie Brinkley, and Jane Krakowski in smaller roles.
The screenplay was written by John Hughes, based on his short story in National Lampoon Magazine, Vacation '58 (the screenplay changes the year to 1983). The original story is a (reportedly) fictionalized account of his own family's ill-fated trip to Disneyland (changed to Walley World for the film) when Hughes was a boy. The success of the film helped advance his screenwriting career.
National Lampoon's Vacation was a significant box-office hit, earning more than $61 million in the United States with an estimated budget of $15 million. In 2000, readers of Total Film magazine voted National Lampoon's Vacation the 46th greatest comedy film of all time. It is widely considered to be the best film in National Lampoon's series of Vacation films, and continues to be a popular film and a staple on cable television channels. It also currently garners a 97% "fresh" rating on Rotten Tomatoes.[1] A "Wally World Water Park" opened in Canada several years after the release of the film.
Plot
Food additives researcher Clark Griswold (Chase), wanting to spend more time with wife Ellen (D'Angelo) as well as children Rusty and Audrey (Hall and Barron), decides to lead the family on a cross-country expedition from the suburbs of Chicago to the wonderful "Walley World" — billed as "America's Favorite Family Fun Park" — in Los Angeles. Although Ellen wants to fly, he insists on driving, so he can bond with his family. While meticulously planning his trip via computer, he is harassed by Rusty guiding an on-screen Pac Man to eat the dotted route – until Audrey counterattacks with a ship from Asteroids. The Griswolds' vacation goes awry before it starts.
Arriving to pick up the new car he purchased for the trip, Clark is informed by the dealership that the "Antarctic blue super-sports wagon with the CB radio and the optional rally fun pack" he distinctly ordered has not arrived. He is then conned into accepting a behemoth Wagon Queen Family Truckster — a hideous metallic pea-green station wagon. Actually a modified Ford Country Squire, the gaudy car is clad in faux wood paneling, excessive bodywork, and features eight headlights. Clark initially protests and refuses to take possession of the car until he learns that his trade-in has already been flattened in a car crusher. "You think you hate it now, but wait 'til you drive it", says salesman Ed (Levy) helpfully. Arriving home, the engine roughly diesels on after shut off, and the air bag (clearly made from a garbage bag) deploys for no reason. When Ellen questions him, he finds himself repeating the dubious justifications heard at the dealership, and appears convinced that the Family Truckster is just the car they need. Clark brushes off Ellen's last-ditch attempt to persuade him to fly to California instead, and the next morning they depart.
Reaching East St. Louis, the Griswolds quickly become lost in a deteriorated neighborhood and pay $10 for useless directions, while their car is being tagged with the words "honky lips" and their hubcaps stolen. Continuing west, Clark falls asleep at the wheel and the car careens off the highway, through a small town, and stops (conveniently) in a motel parking lot. They stay overnight, where Ellen tries to enjoy a hot (and revealing) shower, until she is scared by Clark (in a homage to the infamous shower scene from Hitchcock's Psycho).
Meanwhile, Clark has had a series of on-road flirtatious encounters with a voluptuous young woman (Brinkley) driving a flashy red Ferrari 308 GTS; he casually flirts with her while Ellen dozes in the passenger seat, and (again) nearly wrecks the car. Later, the two go skinnydipping in the motel swimming pool in Arizona, but Clark is again frustrated when the entire motel is aroused by noise. Fearing repercussion from Ellen, Clark is surprised (and pleased) when she instead strips down to join him.
An overnight stop in Coolidge, Kansas, to visit Ellen's cousin Catherine (Miriam Flynn) and her husband Eddie (Quaid) only increases the complications for everyone: Eddie hits Clark up for money and then desperately foists crotchety old Aunt Edna (Coca) and her vicious dog Dinky on the Griswolds, so they can drop her off at her son Normy's home in Phoenix, Arizona, since it's "on the way". Cousin Eddie's son Dale (John P. Navin Jr.) introduces Rusty to pornography and masturbation, while his sister Vicki (Jane Krakowski) shows Audrey a shoebox full of pot and boasts that her daddy thinks she's the best at French kissing. (This line was apparently changed to "science teacher" for some re-released versions.) Both children apparently find their encounters thought-provoking, if disturbing.
Once again on their way, the family stops at a picnic area, only to discover that Dinky the dog has urinated on the picnic basket. Everyone is revolted — except Aunt Edna, who shrugs off the flavor and continues eating. After leaving the smelly "Kamp Komfort", in South Fork, Colorado, they learn from an enraged motorcycle policeman (James Keach) that they have driven off with Dinky still tied to the rear bumper. The deceased dog apparently kept pace with the car "for a mile or so".
Lost in the desert, low on gas and arguing with Ellen, Clark crashes through closed road barriers and sails into the air, wrecking the car. Before leaving the family and setting off across the desert for help, Clark shares a beer with Rusty, (This too was re-edited for some networks, When Clark goes to drink the beer, it's empty, though, Rusty never is shown drinking it. Yet Clark still tells Rusty not to let Ellen smell the beer on his breath.) and reassures him that he's in charge; taking a swig, Clark finds that there is nothing in the can and heads off to find a pay phone or a gas station.
Clark is soon delirious and lost in the desert, until fortuitously finding his way to a gas station, not far from where he started. There, he is reunited with the rest of the family, but is swindled out of his remaining cash ("$500 for four bald tires and a tow") by dishonest mechanics — one of whom also happens to be the local county Sheriff. At the Grand Canyon, Clark is rebuffed trying to cash a check at the El Tovar hotel, eventually going so far as an unsuccessful attempt to bribe the uncooperative hotel clerk. Frustrated and ignored, Clark slams his hands on the desk, whereupon the hotel's cash register pops open. Clark cleans it out, but leaves the $1,000 check.
Off again, Rusty and Audrey soon discover that Aunt Edna is not napping, but has died in her sleep. Everyone protests against riding with the dead Aunt Edna inside, so Clark wraps the body in a tarp, and straps the rigor mortised cadaver to the roof of the car. Arriving through a heavy downpour, the Griswolds find Normie is out of town, so Aunt Edna's body is left propped up in a lawn chair in the backyard. The gang thoughtfully leaves a pinned-on note explaining what has happened.
Disillusioned by the disastrous turn of events, Ellen and the kids beg to return home, before anything else can go wrong. Clark, however, is now grimly determined to see his vacation through, and insists they press on. The next day, the Griswolds finally arrive at Walley World — only to find the parking lots strangely silent and empty.
At first congratulating themselves for arriving early, they soon encounter a giant talking statue of Marty Moose, whose goofy cartoon voice tells them, "Sorry folks! We're closed for two weeks to clean and repair America's favorite family fun park!" Clark angrily punches the statue in the nose, caving it in and causing a slurred repeat of the message.
Incredulous and now completely bonkers, Clark buys a realistic-looking BB gun and returns to the park, where he holds security guard Russ Lasky (Candy) at gunpoint, and demands to be allowed into the park. The Griswolds ride several rides with Lasky in tow, while everyone tries to feign enjoyment to placate the obviously out-of-control father. Eventually, the SWAT team arrives.
Clark and his family are about to be arrested when owner Roy Walley (Eddie Bracken) himself intervenes, opting not to press charges after hearing Clark's impassioned epitome of the "American Vacation" — and about the nearly two weeks of living hell the family has spent trying to drive to Walley World from Chicago. Walley identifies with Clark's predicament, recounting his own hellish experiences taking his family on vacation years ago. At last, the Griswolds, now guests of the owner of Walley World himself, can enjoy their vacation, as the film's final scene implies.
Cast
Disney references
Walley World itself is a good-natured parody of Walt Disney's Disneyland, based on the Anaheim location. The name of the mascot, Marty Moose, is reminiscent of Disney's Mickey Mouse (although the statue actually looks and sounds more like Jay Ward's creation, Bullwinkle), and the "Marty Moose theme song" that the family sings in the car is a parody of the Mickey Mouse Club theme song. Finally, Roy Walley himself is a pastiche of both Walt Disney and Roy Disney, right down to the thin mustache.
Actual Walley World
Walley World is represented in this film by both Santa Anita Park and Six Flags Magic Mountain. Santa Anita's large parking lot and blue-tinged fascia serve as the introduction scenes, while Magic Mountain serves all internal-park scenes. The two roller coasters seen in the film (and still operating today) are Revolution, which can be recognized by the vertical loop and Colossus, the double track wooden roller coaster.
Sequels
National Lampoon's Vacation spawned a number of sequels:
With the exception of the last film, each sequel saw Chevy Chase and Beverly D'Angelo reprise their roles as Clark and Ellen Griswold, enduring their unique and unenviable brand of vacation misadventure in various locales. However, the children Rusty and Audrey are played by a different set of actors in each film (except for Audrey in the last sequel). This fact is joked about early in Vegas Vacation: when we first see the kids again, Clark tells them that he "hardly recognizes" them anymore. The various actors were Anthony Michael Hall and Dana Barron in Vacation, Jason Lively and Dana Hill in European Vacation, Johnny Galecki and Juliette Lewis in Christmas Vacation, and Ethan Embry and Marisol Nichols in Vegas Vacation. Dana Barron again plays Audrey in Christmas Vacation 2, but Rusty, like his parents, could not make it for Cousin Eddie's Island Adventure, an NBC TV movie. However, Miriam Flynn and Randy Quaid reprise their roles as cousins Catherine and Eddie, as they did in each film aside from European Vacation. Christie Brinkley reprised her role as The girl in the red Ferrari in the 1997 sequel Vegas Vacation[2] and later spoofed it in a 2008 DirecTV commercial interspliced with footage from Vacation, recreating the famous swimming pool scene.[3]
Each sequel also manages to reference "Walley World" in some way.
Songs
The soundtrack to the film has been released on LP. In 2003, a limited edition CD (20,000 copies, individually numbered) was released at Six Flags Magic Mountain in Los Angeles, where the movie was filmed. The song "Holiday Road" by Lindsey Buckingham was featured in this movie and served as the main theme song. It was also used in two of the sequels: 1985's National Lampoon's European Vacation and 1997's Vegas Vacation.
When the beautiful young woman drives by and flirts with Clark "Little Boy Sweet" by June Pointer plays.
Buckingham also composed "Dancin' Across The USA", another song on the Vacation soundtrack.
As the Griswolds are leaving Chicago, and the camera flies over the car, the Ramones song "Blitzkrieg Bop" is playing.
When Audrey and Cousin Vicki are talking in the bedroom, the song "He's So Dull" by Vanity 6 is playing.
Three times when Christie Brinkley's character is shown, "Little Boy Sweet" by June Pointer is playing in the background, except on some TV edits, where "I'm So Excited" by The Pointer Sisters plays.
While the Griswolds run to the main entrance of "Walley World", Vangelis Chariots of Fire is playing.
The movie also features the "Walley World National Anthem", which is sung by the Griswold family while leaving Chicago (music by Bruce Belland and Roy Rogosin, lyrics by John Hughes, Bruce Belland and Roy Rogosin). The lyrics are:
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Who's the moosiest moose we know?
Marty Moose!
Who's the star of our favorite show?
Marty Moose!
M is for Merry, we're merry you see;
O is for Oh gosh, Oh golly, Oh gee;
S is for Super Swell family glee;
E is for Everything you want to be.
M - A - R - T - Y;
M - O - O - S - E.
What's that spell?
Marty Moose!
Marty Moose!
Marty Moose!
(Hyuk), that's me!
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” |
References
External links
