National Lampoon's Vacation, sometimes referred to as Vacation, is a 1983 Technicolor comedy film directed by Harold Ramis and starring Chevy Chase, Beverly D'Angelo, Randy Quaid, Dana Barron, and Anthony Michael Hall. John Candy, Imogene Coca, Christie Brinkley, and Jane Krakowski appear in supporting roles.
The screenplay was written by John Hughes, based on his short story "Vacation '58" which appeared in National Lampoon. The original story is a fictionalized account of his own family's ill-fated trip to Disneyland when Hughes was a boy. The success of the film helped advance his screenwriting career.
The film was a box-office hit, earning more than $61 million in the US with an estimated budget of $15 million, and received widespread acclaim from critics. In 2000, readers of Total Film voted it the 46th greatest comedy film of all time. It is widely considered to be the best film in the Vacation series, and continues to be a cult film and a staple on cable television. As of August 8, 2014, the film has received a 95% "fresh" rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
Plot
Clark Griswold (Chevy Chase), wanting to spend more time with his wife Ellen (Beverly D'Angelo) and children Rusty (Anthony Michael Hall) and Audrey (Dana Barron), decides to lead the family on a cross-country expedition from the Chicago area to the Los Angeles amusement park Walley World, billed as "America's Favorite Family Fun Park." Ellen wants to fly, but Clark insists on driving, so he can bond with his family. He has ordered a new car in preparation for the trip, but the dealer (Eugene Levy) claims that it will not be ready for six weeks. Clark is forced to accept a Wagon Queen Family Truckster, an outsized station wagon, as the car he brought to trade in has already been hauled away and crushed.
During the family's travels, they run into numerous mishaps, such as being tagged by vandals in a rundown area of St. Louis, while Clark is tempted numerous times by an attractive young woman (Christie Brinkley) driving a flashy red Ferrari 308 GTS. They stop in Kansas to visit Ellen's cousin Catherine (Miriam Flynn) and her husband Eddie (Randy Quaid), who foist cranky Aunt Edna (Imogene Coca) and her mean dog Dinky on the Griswolds, asking them to drop her off at her son Normy's home in Phoenix. After stopping at a decrepit and dirty campground in Colorado for the night, Clark forgets to untie Dinky's leash from the bumper before driving off the next morning, killing the dog. A police officer pulls the Griswolds off the road and angrily lectures Clark over animal cruelty but accepts Clark's apology.
While Ellen and Clark argue, they become stranded in the desert, and Clark eventually finds a mechanic who extorts the rest of his cash from him to fix the car. Frustrated, they stop at the Grand Canyon; when Clark cannot convince a hotel clerk to take a check, he takes cash from the cash register and leaves the check. Leaving the Canyon, they find that Aunt Edna has died in her sleep. They tie the corpse to the roof of the car, wrapped in a tarp. When they reach Normy's home, they discover he is out of town and leave Edna's corpse at the back door. Clark eventually meets the Ferrari driver at a motel and goes skinny-dipping with her in its pool, but they are discovered by the family before anything can happen. Ellen forgives Clark, and the two go skinny-dipping instead.
Despite the family's misfortunes and the begging of Ellen and the kids, Clark becomes obsessed with reaching Walley World. They finally arrive the next day, only to find the park closed for repairs. Clark, slipping into madness and realizing that all his efforts have been for nothing, buys a realistic-looking BB gun pistol and demands that park security guard Russ Lasky (John Candy) take them through Walley World at gunpoint; Ellen and the kids follow, attempting to placate Clark. Eventually a SWAT team arrives, along with park owner Roy Walley (Eddie Bracken). Roy understands Clark's impassioned longing to achieve the perfect vacation, bringing back memories of his own childhood years ago. He decides not to file criminal charges against the Griswolds and lets the family and the SWAT team enjoy the park as his guests.
The ending credits show various pictures of the Griswolds' vacation as well as the fact that, unsurprisingly, they decide to fly home.
Cast
- Chevy Chase as Clark Griswold
- Beverly D'Angelo as Ellen Griswold
- Imogene Coca as Aunt Edna
- Anthony Michael Hall as Russell "Rusty" Griswold
- Dana Barron as Audrey Griswold
- Randy Quaid as Cousin Eddie
- Christie Brinkley as the Girl in Red Ferrari
- John Candy as Russ Lasky
- Eddie Bracken as Roy Walley
- Brian Doyle-Murray as Kamp Komfort Clerk
- Miriam Flynn as Cousin Catherine
- James Keach as Motorcycle Cop
- Eugene Levy as Ed the Car Salesman
- Frank McRae as Grover
- Jane Krakowski as Cousin Vicki
- John P. Navin, Jr. as Cousin Dale
- Nathan Cook as Man Giving Directions
- Mickey Jones as Mechanic
- John Diehl as Assistant Mechanic
- Michael Talbott as Cowboy
- James Staley as Motel Clerk
- Dennis Freeman as Head of Security
Production
Walley World
In John Hughes' original short story, the theme park was Disneyland. Because of this, all of the names were altered to soundalikes. Walt Disney's Disneyland became Walley World,itself a good-natured parody of the Anaheim location. The name of the mascot, Marty Moose, is reminiscent of Disney's Mickey Mouse.
Walley World is represented in the film by Santa Anita Park in Arcadia, California and Six Flags Magic Mountain in Valencia California. Santa Anita Park's large parking lot and blue-tinged fascia serve as the introduction scenes, while all park interior scenes were shot at Magic Mountain. The two roller coasters seen in the film are Revolution, which can be recognized by the vertical loop, and Colossus, the double-track wooden roller coaster.
Wagon Queen Family Truckster
The Wagon Queen Family Truckster station wagon was created specifically for the film. The Truckster is based on a 1979 Ford LTD Country Squire station wagon and heavily modified. The car was designed by George Barris, and lampooned American cars of the late 1970s. The Truckster features a pea green paint scheme; fake wood paneling; eight headlights, four on each side in a rectangular cluster (taken from another Crown Victoria/Country Squire, but inverted); a grille area largely covered by bodywork having only two small openings close to the bumper.
Music
The film's music was composed by Ralph Burns, featuring original songs by Lindsey Buckingham. A soundtrack album was released in 1983. While it did not chart, Buckingham's single "Holiday Road" reached number 82 on the Billboard Hot 100.
- "Holiday Road" â€" Lindsey Buckingham
- "Mister Blue" â€" The Fleetwoods
- "Blitzkrieg Bop" â€" Ramones
- "Deep River Blues" â€" Ralph Burns
- "Summer Hearts" â€" Nicolette Larson
- "Little Boy Sweet" â€" June Pointer
- "The Trip (Theme from Vacation)" â€" Ralph Burns
- "He's So Dull" â€" Vanity 6
- "Christie's Song" â€" Ralph Burns
- "Dancin' Across the USA" â€" Lindsey Buckingham
Sequels
National Lampoon's Vacation spawned a number of sequels:
- National Lampoon's European Vacation (1985)
- National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation (1989)
- Vegas Vacation (1997)
- National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation 2: Cousin Eddie's Island Adventure (2003)
- Hotel Hell Vacation (2010)
- Vacation (2015)
With the exception of Christmas Vacation 2: Cousin Eddie's Island Adventure, each sequel saw Chase and 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). In July 2013, Barron explained that because Hall was committed to shooting Weird Science, European Vacation Director Amy Heckerling requested both Griswold children be recast. 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. 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, Flynn and 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 Vegas Vacation and later spoofed it in a 2008 DirecTV commercial inter-spliced with footage from Vacation, recreating the famous swimming pool scene.
Each sequel also manages to reference Walley World in some way.
In July 2012, it was announced that Ed Helms of The Hangover fame would star as an adult Rusty Griswold in the upcoming film, simply titled Vacation. This new film follows Rusty, who now has his own family, on their own misadventures as they travel cross-country to Walley World, which will be closing forever. John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein will write and direct the film. The remake was postponed indefinitely due to creative differences. Filming eventually began in October 2014 and Helms posted a photo of him with Chase and D'Angelo, confirming the two original stars will reprise their roles as Clark and Ellen Griswold. Cousin Eddie, a mainstay of the first five films, isn't expected to appear in the film due to Randy Quaid having lived in Canada under refugee status since 2010. The film is expected to be released on October 9, 2015.
Legacy
- HomeAway, Inc. hired Chevy Chase and Beverly D'Angelo to reprise their roles once again in an advertisement campaign to be aired during Super Bowl XLIV.
References
Notes
External links
- National Lampoon's Vacation at the Internet Movie Database
- National Lampoon's Vacation at AllMovie
- National Lampoon's Vacation at the TCM Movie Database
- National Lampoon's Vacation at the American Film Institute Catalog
- National Lampoon's Vacation at Rotten Tomatoes
- National Lampoon's Vacation at the 80s Movie Gateway
- "Vacation '58" by John Hughes (online text)