Dorkus americanus

To commemorate our nation's birthday, HBO appropriately ran "National Lampoon's Vacation" today. What kid from the '80s can't relate to this? It still holds up very well. The timing between Chevy Chase, Beverly D'Angelo and Anthony Michael Hall is so ripe and the movie does such a great job of making fun of Americans while embracing them at the same time. Who knows how to capture middle class white America in the 1980's better than John Hughes? He wrote this script. Who's dad wasn't a little like Clark W. Griswald during the scenes where the rest of the family wants to give up and go back to Chicago and he goes on his tirade about screaming, "We are going to have so much fun we are going to be whistling 'Zip-A-Dee Doo-Dah' out of our asses!" In the next scene the son, Rusty, lays his hand on Clark's shoulder and asks, "Are you okay Dad?" to which Clark replies after breifly staring at the hand like it is a black widow, "DON'T TOUCH!"

The visit to the relatives house is also full of classic moments like Cousin Eddie grilling hamburger helper patties minus the meat, giving Clark the white vinyl pimp shoes and dumping the ornery old Aunt Edna on the Griswalds for the remainder of the trip. Imogene Coca is as brilliant as the cantankerous Edna as Chevy Chase is the semi-sleazy, but lovable, dorky Clark.

Clark: Real tomato ketchup, Eddie?

Cousin Eddie: Oh, nothing but the best.

The movie is packed with eighties-isms like the camcorder the size of a briefcase, the design of the family truckster (I swear my aunt and uncle had that car), video arcade references galore, a "Chariots of Fire" moment toward the end and the best -- Clark Griswald's line of work is food addititives. How much more American could this movie be?

Another great moment is when Clark gets lost in the desert and Ellen, on the phone, says to the authorities, " I'm not sure of his exact height and weight. All I know is that the man was a saint with children and a genius with food additives and he was... Clark!," as Clark walks up the the station in a heat-enduced daze.

An interesting bit of trivia from IMDB:

• The "Family Truckster" is a modified Ford Crown Victoria wagon. It was based on what have been called two of the ugliest cars of all time, the Dodge Aspen and the Plymouth Volare

• In the Walley World scenes, Anthony Michael Hall is taller than Beverly D'Angelo, than from previous scenes in the film where he matched her height. This occurred because Hall grew three inches after principal photography, and the ending was re-shot months later, after the initial ending failed with test-audiences.

• Rusty is assumed to be the older of the Griswold children; however, Dana Barron and Anthony Michael Hall are actually the same age.

A mystery commenter who goes by the handle 'Spirit of '75' adds:

Personally, I love the beginning of the car trip when Clark and Ellen are singing their car tunes (Beverly D'Angelo does have an amazing voice for those "Hair" fans out there). The 'rents are jazzing it up while the kids roll their eyes in the back seat, then put their headphones on and it fades into "Blitzkrieg Bop." Classic!