National Lampoon’s Vacation

Summary

“Poor little thing… probably kept up with you for about a mile or so…”

Warner Bros. has been steadily releasing classic comedies onto the 4K format. Last year they gave us the classic National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation, and this year they have given us National Lampoon’s Vacation to celebrate its fortieth anniversary. Growing up, this film was constantly played on television. I saw it countless times in an edited form that removed all the cursing and any nudity sitting in the living room with my family. It was on television very often, and there were only so many channels, so it was a pretty safe pick. My personal favorite Vacation film is Christmas Vacation, but the original Vacation picture is arguably the best family road trip picture ever made. 

Written by John Hughes and directed by Harold Ramis, the film was a blockbuster success for actor Chevy Chase. Chevy’s movie career had already had highs (Foul Play, Caddyshack) and lows (Modern Problems, Under the Rainbow.) Vacation was a big success with a $60 million box office versus a $15 million budget. Ramis was fantastic at bringing the best out of the talent he worked with and had already shown his abilities with Chevy Chase on the classic Caddyshack. Vacation made Chevy Chase a bankable star again in a big way and spawned a series of films that would define the actor. I have owned the old VC-1 encoded Blu-ray that Warner put out forever ago for years and it is an adequate way to enjoy the film, but I was extremely excited to see what the film would look like remastered in 4K.

The plot revolves around Chicago native Clark Griswald (Chevy Chase) and his family – wife Ellen (Beverly D’ Angelo,) daughter Audrey (Dana Barron) and son Rusty (Anthony Michael Hall) – as they attempt to make a trip cross country from Chicago to California to visit the Wally World Theme Park. Clark has envisioned an ideal trip in which the family takes in well known sites on their journey culminating in the bliss of visiting the famed theme park. From the beginning, nothing goes according to plan. For starters, Clark’s arctic blue sports wagon he has ordered from a dealership has not come in and he is bamboozled by a car salesman (Eugene Levy) into driving away in a peat green station wagon. Driving across the country, Clark and his family are forced to deal with vandals in St. Louis, a surly bartender in Dodge City, and when they stop to visit their trailer trash Cousin Eddie (Randy Quaid) and his family, they are cajoled into taking their cantankerous Aunt Edna (Imogene Coca) and her mean tempered dog Dinky back to Phoenix. As Clark navigates the trip, he also has his gaze diverted by a beautiful blonde in a Ferrari (Christie Brinkley) who seems to be interested in him despite (or because of) his being married. Hilarity ensues as Clark tries to make the best of his vacation with his family, and gradually becomes more and more hysterical in the process.

National Lampoon’s Vacation is in my eyes the definitive American family road trip film. John Hughes was an exceptionally talented writer who understood exactly how to mine family experiences for great comedic effect. The film’s script was based on a short story he had written about a family road trip in the Fifties. Hughes understood vividly the numerous difficulties that can occur in travel and simply exaggerated them into the least desirable situations possible. The script finds Clark constantly spending far more than he budgeted and very little going according to plan. Hughes did this again with his classic road trip comedy Planes, Trains, and Automobiles, which also found humor in the worst possible travel situations. At the center of the script is a strong understanding of the family dynamic. It is quite obvious that the family, despite its many quirks (and even despite Clark’s troublesome wandering eye,) is a family that cares about each other. In Vacation, Hughes did not write characters that reveled in sarcasm so much as he wrote about a family with good intentions who are simply trying to make the best out of a very bad trip. The madness that consumes Clark to continue to press on as everything goes wrong is something very real for fathers. I myself have exemplified some of these traits on my own vacations with my children where I continue to press on to “have a good time” even when things have descended into chaos and it is obvious that no fun is to be had. The script by Hughes understands the perspective of every family member to where every viewer can relate, whether from the perspective of a child or a parent. It was a unique talent that Hughes demonstrated often in his films. The situational comedy in the film is fantastic with numerous scenes that will linger in the minds of viewers long after the movie is over. There are ample reasons why the film has attained classic status.

Chevy Chase was perfectly cast in the film. As I mentioned in my Christmas Vacation review, when I think of Chevy Chase, my mind immediately goes to this role. Chevy Chase will always be Clark Griswold to me. One of the brilliant aspects of the casting of Chevy Chase was that Chase was such a hip presence on SNL, but he did have a somewhat preppy persona that the filmmakers realized could be shaped into a square fatherly persona. Chevy Chase makes Clark Griswold a perfect everyman substitute for every father in the country. This is my favorite Chevy Chase performance aside from his perfect reprisal of the role in Christmas Vacation. Beverly D’Angelo is similarly well cast in the role of Ellen. She is the perfect foil to the outrageous antics that occur. Both Anthony Michael Hall and Dana Barron are solid in the roles of Rusty and Audrey. Michael Hall’s delivery as Rusty has always stood out as on-point and perfectly dry to me. Randy Quaid steals the film in his scenes as Cousin Eddie, even though he would bring the character to life more vividly and memorably in Christmas Vacation. Imogene Coca is wonderful as the overbearing and inconsiderate Aunt Edna. She gets a lot of laughs out of her role. For supporting roles, Eugene Levy, John Candy, Christie Brinkley, Eddie Bracken, Brian Doyle-Murray, and James Keach all have wonderful moments in the film. James Keach in particular makes me laugh whenever he shows up in the film. Harold Ramis directs every actor with ease to bring out the best in their performances. Ramis was a very talented director of comedies, and this remains one of his best movies. I am extremely pleased that Warner has brought the film to 4K so that I can retire the antiquated Blu-ray!

Video

Presented in Native 4K in its original aspect ratio of 1.85:1 (for the first time on home video,) National Lampoon’s Vacation looks much better than ever before. As I mentioned above, the VC-1 encoded Blu-ray from some years back was always a totally suitable way to view the film, but the new 4K image blows it out of the water. I have watched the film on a 60” television where I thought it looked really nice, but watching the film on my Epson 4K projector is where the film really shows just how good of a transfer this is. Keeping in mind that the film is only going to look as good as its source material, which was never trying extremely hard to show off, this transfer looks fantastic in all the areas that count. Grain is extremely well resolved. Color reproduction is true to the source and brings out the best elements of the original cinematography. Fans will be very pleased.

Audio

Warner Bros. has presented National Lampoon’s Vacation with a solid  remastered DTS-HD MA 2.0 track. This track capably brings to life the original sound design of the film, but is obviously limited by virtue of being a split Mono track. I would have been agreeable to an expanded 5.1 track, but beggars can’t be choosers. The biggest issue that will make fans of the film upset is that this edition still fails to bring back the Pointer Sisters’ song “I’m So Excited.” While I don’t personally find this to be a huge deal, it is still worth mentioning. The track itself sounds nice and clean and is very easy to understand.

Supplements: Unfortunately the longer feature looking back on the film from the 30th anniversary Blu-ray is not present on the 4K disc. The included Movies Anywhere code does feature that supplemental content, but it is a missed opportunity to include it here.

• Audio Commentary – director Harold Ramis with actors Chevy Chase, Randy Quaid, Anthony Michael Hall and Dana Barron, and Producer Matty Simmons.

Overall Scores:

Video – 4.5/5 

Audio – 4./5

Supplements – 2/5

Overall – 4.5/5

Forty years later, National Lampoon’s Vacation remains the definitive family road trip film. Harold Ramis capably directed the fantastic script by John Hughes and delivered some of the most relatable characters to ever grace a comedy. Chevy Chase embodied the role of Clark Griswold and it became his definitive role over the course of three more movies (with Christmas Vacation being arguably the best.) Beverly D’ Angelo, Anthony Michael Hall, and Dana Barron are all enjoyable in their parts. The supporting cast is fantastic with memorable performances by Imogene Coca, John Candy, Eugene Levy, Christie Brinkley, and James Keach. The picture has earned its classic status as a great American comedy. Fans of the film will be extremely pleased to see how much better the film looks in the UHD format. The Pointer Sisters song “I’m So Excited” is still replaced in the film by “Little Boy Sweet” by June Pointer which is a bit of a disappointment for those that have fond memories of those sequences. This release sadly sheds some supplements from the 30th anniversary Blu-ray, but the digital copy allows viewing of those supplements on the Movies Anywhere app. This is the best way to own the film at this time, and the Best Buy steelbook with the original art would be the preferred artwork for my library, so make sure you look into that before you make a purchase. Recommended!