Twenty-one years after its debut in 1978, the movie "Animal House," co-authored by Chris Miller '63, is still one of the most popular comedies ever - and the film has recently been thrown back into the national limelight, mentioned in many national news broadcasts after the revolutionary Social and Residential Life Initiative was announced by the Board of Trustees in February.
Highlighting debauchery and general chaos in fraternity houses, much of the plot of "Animal House" is based on Miller's own experiences in Dartmouth's Alpha Delta fraternity. The fraternity brothers in "Animal House" rebel against the administration and Dean Wormer, who decrees that there will be "no fun of any kind."
Miller recently wrote a column in The Washington Post regarding the the College's residential and social life initiative, which includes making students' social lives "substantially coeducational."
In his column, Miller questioned what is wrong with "good, old-fashioned frat house fun." He contended that college is a time to have fun and be wild after leaving your parents' home and before settling into the constant responsibilities of adult life.
"You kind of have a very short window, which is your four years of college to go crazy, and everyone should go crazy in their life," Miller said in a recent interview with The Dartmouth. "If you're going to be a well-behaved, under-control person your whole life, you're going to miss something vital."
Miller attributes the film's continued popularity and success to its universality and ability to be related to by many people.
"Inside every college student hiding somewhere is an anarchist that resents authority," Miller said. "In 'Animal House,' they not only talk about opposing authority, they not only fantasize about it - they actually do it. And I think that is something people love."
But contrary to what many may think, Miller actually supports many of the points in the Trustee's Five Principles.
"I think a lot of what they're shooting for in those Five Principles are good things. I like the notion that men and women should learn to get along better with each other," Miller said.
He also said he supported the idea of decentralized dining with smaller, more intimate meals settings that foster conversation.
"The exploration of new modes of social behavior that is then approved by the students can't hurt," Miller said.
But Miller also said the method in which the principles and vision for residential and social change were established and announced by the Trustees seemed authoritarian and left students without a say.
"I don't like to see people pushed around. It sure looked as if people in positions of authority and power were saying you will do this, and all I could think of were various dictators," Miller said.
Miller stressed that each person should be allowed to make his or her own personal choice - something that is increasingly difficult as colleges watch their students more carefully in order to protect their images.
"When it comes down to who do you live with and under what circumstances, and do you drink a lot of beer, or not drink a lot of beer - I don't think that's anyone's business but your own, unless you're harming people," Miller said.
In the recent media attention surrounding the Trustees' announcement barely a reference has been made to Dartmouth without drawing some comparison or reference to "Animal House."
However, Miller said although many of the features of the movie are based on events that took place in his fraternity house in the '60s, the Dartmouth of today has little in common with the mythical Faber College of "Animal House."
"As far as Faber College as it's presented in the movie bearing any resemblance to the Dartmouth of today, I doubt if there is any," Miller said.
He pointed out that the movie has always been more about the mindless fun of his fraternity days than a reflection on the College at which the events took place.
He also emphasized that the movie was written in the late '70s, and the story was just as much social commentary as it was entertainment, with the Deltas representing the counterculture and the Omegas representing the establishment and Dean Wormer as an incarnation of Richard Nixon.
However, Miller still stands by his stories of the crazy events that occurred here at Dartmouth during his time here, and those times are what he based the movie on. He said that the craziness of "Animal House" was actually crazier in real life.
"This is a Hollywood movie. Hollywood movies clean things up. The truth was far more hilarious and horrifying in terms of behavior," Miller said.
Discussing his own days of debauchery at the College in a previous interview with The Dartmouth, Miller said Green Key was the best weekend of the year.
He said the scene in the film in which John Belushi pours mustard all over himself originated from a Green Key incident after a brother discovered an industrial sized mustard bottle Sunday morning of the weekend as a party at AD was still in full swing.
After covering himself in mustard, the brother went around on all fours biting women's behinds and shouting, "I am the Mustard Man."
The movie scene when a Delta Tau Chi brother skis down the stairs and the band breaks out in "Shout" was another real-life Green Key occurance.
Miller mentioned another Green Key weekend when a brother who had been Parkhursted for a term came up for the party-filled weekend.
"It was an occupational hazard being in the house that you'd get thrown out of school for a term," Miller said. "Mumbles did. But he was coming up for Green Key Weekend."
Miller said Mumbles left Massachusetts with a case of beer in the car and drove north while drinking the beer. Everytime he saw a dog by the side of the road he put it in the car. By the time he reached campus the vehicle was packed with pups. Mumbles roared onto the AD lawn and dogs poured out of the car.
Miller said, another brother, Al, after climbing onto the second floor balcony and discovering a dog on the second floor, tried to cram it into a filing cabinet drawer labeled "D."
