For Jay Roach, the director of the Austin Powers films, that movie was “Groundhog Day,” in 1993. For Jake Kasdan, the director of “Orange County,” it was “Stripes,” in 1981, and, even more powerfully, “Ghostbusters,” in 1984. For Adam Sandler, it was “Caddyshack,” in 1980. And for Peter Farrelly, who directed “There’s Something About Mary” with his brother Bobby, it was “Animal House,” in 1978.
These comedies have several things in common. They attack the smugness of institutional life, trashing the fraternity system, country clubs, the Army—even local weathermen—with an impish good will that is unmistakably American. Will Rogers would have made films like these, if Will Rogers had lived through Vietnam and Watergate and decided that the only logical course of action was getting wasted or getting laid or—better—both….
Another thing these films have in common is that they were all directed and/or co-written by Harold Ramis. Ramis also acted in “Stripes” and “Ghostbusters” and directed the movies “Vacation” and “Analyze This.” Anyone who saw these films as a teen-ager can probably still quote from one of Ramis’s signature tongue-in-cheek pep talks, which resemble John F. Kennedy’s “Ask Not” speech turned inside out. In “Stripes,” for instance, Bill Murray exhorts his fellow-soldiers by yelling, “We’re not Watusi, we’re not Spartans—we’re Americans! … That means that our forefathers were kicked out of every decent country in the world. We are the wretched refuse. We’re the underdog. We’re mutts. Here’s proof.” He touches a soldier’s face. “His nose is cold.”
