National Lampoon’s Vacation (1983)

Directed by Harold Ramis. Starring Chevy Chase, Beverly D’Angelo, Anthony Michael Hall, Dana Barron, Randy Quaid, Imogene Coca, Miriam Flynn, John Candy, Christie Brinkley, Eddie Bracken. [R]

Road movie comedy shows the various humiliations suffered by the typical suburban family unit, the Griswolds, as they travel cross-country in a tacky station wagon to get to West Coast amusement park, Walley World (a blatant stand-in for Disneyland). John Hughes built the screenplay around his own short story published in National Lampoon magazine; by design, an episodic lark, and as expected, a hit-and-miss affair with a lot of very funny parts sitting between the dry spells and misfires. Despite a few instances of alarmingly bad behavior (including an unpunished close call with infidelity), Chase plays the Griswold patriarch an amiably goofy family man, positioned less as a send-up of “wholesome” American values than just a well-meaning screw-up with a bad luck streak. Most of his immediate family are set up to be “straight men” and voices of reason, but Quaid and Coca both have riotous supporting turns as a white trash cousin and crotchety aunt respectively. The fact that this trip ends up having a body count proves that good taste and realism aren’t high on the minds of the filmmakers, though it shows astonishing restraint compared to the slew of vulgar, mean-spirited comedies that sprung up in its aftermath. Eugene Levy, Brian Doyle-Murray, and Henry Gibson all have bit parts. Followed by four sequels.

69/100