The Problematics: ‘National Lampoon’s Vacation’ Turns 40, The Same Middle Age Of Its Protagonist Clark Griswold

National Lampoon’s Vacation, released 40 years ago this summer (that’s 1983 if you don’t care to do the math) was the fourth movie with the name of the then-popular and ever-outrageous humor magazine in its title. For those of you under the impression that it directly followed 1978’s National Lampoon’ Animal House in that respect, we have the unfortunate duty to remind you of 1982’s National Lampoon’s Class Reunion, which credited screenwriter John Hughes disowned, and National Lampoon’s Movie Madness, also 1982, an ill-advised variant on Kentucky Fried Movie that Lampoon chronicler Josh Karp described as “a cocaine-fueled fiasco.” 

Vacation is very much a National Lampoon film in that it’s adapted, by Hughes, from his short story “Vacation ’58,” which originally appeared in the magazine. But more saliently, to studio excutives one might suppose, it reteamed director Harold Ramis with star Chevy Chase, relatively fresh from their unexpected success with Caddyshack. Caddyshack was not officially affiliated with the Lampoon but Ramis and co-writer Doug Kenney had worked on Animal House, and of all the comedies that tried in vain to capture the particular je-ne-sais-quoi that made House a sensation, Caddyshack seemed to retrieve that vibe effortlessly. 

Its family road trip theme notwithstanding, Vacation never set out to be movie for families, as such. Full of salty language, some female nudity courtesy of its game leading actress Beverly D’Angelo, and a handful of “adult” situations with a dollop of corpse-related humor on top, Vacation was a Lampoon product through and through. Which makes its relatively mild tone (when seen through a 2023 lens) seem kind of surprising. Compared to the Hangover films, and to the grotesque remake of Vacation starring Hangover regular Ed Helms, the overall feel of the Ramis/Chase movie is often, well, mellow.

For instance, the Helms remake chose to make a cheap and grisly sudden-auto-death joke out of the original’s beautiful-blonde-in-a-convertible-on-the-highway leitmotif. Even as Chevy Chase’s cockeyed optimist of a family man Clark Griswold rather senselessly contemplates adultery after meeting said blonde — model Christie Brinkley — at a hotel bar after a fight with the D’Angelo wife and matriarch Ellen, the movie retains a subdued tone. What does Clark want, messing around like this? Well, he’s feeling disrespected and mostly wants attention. Clark’s a goof, with overall good intentions who takes klutzy rather than malevolent action. 

I was revisiting the movie thinking that this subplot would be the most trouble, but it’s hardly that. What is really bad — it was then, and it remains so — is the early point in the road trip where the Griswolds, in their ridiculous new station wagon, take a wrong exit by the Gateway Arch in St. Louis Missouri, and find themselves driving slowly through a section of the city Clark cites to his kids as an example of urban “blight.” In that it’s poor and it’s Black and it’s at least vaguely dangerous. Shades of Bonfire of the Vanities — except Bonfire, the controversial best-selling novel by Tom Wolfe, had yet to be written. Honestly I wouldn’t put it past Mr. White Suit to have adapted his plot point from this movie. 

Everything about the scene makes you want to hide under the couch. The fake jazz-R&B stylings of Ralph Burns’ score as the Black guys start eyeing up the Griswold auto. (Burns, who made some actual jazz records in his time, should have known better.) The Black pimp saying, “Fuck your mama.” The pronunciation of the word “Darnell” as if the name is inherently hilarious. The stealing of the hubcaps. Etcetera. Yes, there is one funny line: Young Anthony Michael Hall, in only his second film, as Rusty, saying to sister Audrey (Dana Barron), “I wonder if these guys know the Commodores.” Suffice it to say, the whole thing makes the “Hey! It’s Otis! He loves us!” scene in Animal House look like a Spike Lee Joint. Okay, not quite but you get my point. 

By the same token, some of the objectionable humor that actually lands is stuff that the writers of such fare as The Hangover would not dare touch today. As when the Griswolds visit the redneck family of Cousin Eddie, played by Randy Quaid, whose screen presence here is relatively stolid compared to what it would become. Eddie’s daughter, Vicki, introduces Audrey to weed, which smooths out the social differences between the teen girls. (John Hughes really believed in pot as a great leveler of disparate communities; see also his Breakfast Club a couple years later.) She also brags to Audrey, “I’m going steady. And I French Kiss.” To which Audrey, trying to sound worldly, replies, “Well everybody does that.” And Vicky shoots back, “Yeah, but Daddy says I’m the best at it.” Judge if you like, but that line nearly produced a spit take from this viewer. In part because of the impeccable comedic timing of the actress playing Vicky, who is…Jane Krakowski, then fifteen and already a comic genius. She’s kind of unrecognizable on account of her curly hair in this, but her manner here — slightly brittle! — definitely harks forward to her immortal turn as 30 Rock’s Jenna Maloney. 

The movie makes an unfortunate return to racism near the end, when Clark, driven to criminality by the shuttered WalleyWorld (the family’s ultimate destination; in Hughes’ original story it was Disneyland, which Warner Brothers couldn’t use because it wasn’t Disney, you see) gets a BB gun and threatens two security guards with it, telling the Black one to “sit” and then “roll over.” What on Earth were they thinking? The fact that so much of the rest of the movie goes down so easily makes these sour notes all the more hard to take. 

Veteran critic Glenn Kenny reviews‎ new releases at RogerEbert.com, the New York Times, and, as befits someone of his advanced age, the AARP magazine. He blogs, very occasionally, at Some Came Running and tweets, mostly in jest, at @glenn__kenny. He is the author of the acclaimed 2020 book Made Men: The Story of Goodfellas, published by Hanover Square Press.