Rocket1's Full Review: National Lampoon's Vacation
Out of the collective experiences of a nation, National Lampoon’s Vacation1 is a tale about the uniquely modern phenomena of the nuclear family on wheels, which encompasses not just the destination but the departure and the points in between. It is about the urban and natural landscapes and how they relate to each other and the people who travel from one to the other. As it progresses, the journey takes on almost mythological proportions as experiences accumulate and circumstances change. Taking the back roads and interstates of popular culture, the movie is not about the destination but the journey itself. Setting out to find America, the Griswolds and by extension the viewer discover more than expected about their world and themselves.
By its very definition a vacation is an escape from the everyday. It is an escape from the dehumanizing mundanities of everyday life; from used car lots, shopping centers, and pavement; from false smiles and slippery handshakes; from the person the world forces you to be. In taking to the road with his family on an epic trip, Clark Griswold seeks to escape an anonymous life spent in step with the masses. By his own admission he missed a lot by “Spending years and years of his life developing better food additives.” Stepping out of this existence if only for a few days allows him to become a bigger person than he really is. This escape from the everyday becomes a quest of sorts for Clark as he experiments with various identities and realities in his efforts to put as many miles between himself and the world he left behind. In no better place is this illustrated in the scenes with the little red sports car and the blonde paradigm of beauty behind the wheel. It is dreams of the unattainable that allow Clark to see himself in the drivers seat, a place he is not accustomed to, with the arms of this beautiful woman draped around him. It is the same dreams that allow him at a later point in the movie to boast that he owns a hotel chain and is a former CIA agent. By laughing at him we are really laughing at ourselves and because we can do so we acknowledge our own need to escape.
In contrast to the homogenized urban environments where the movie begins and ends, the middle of the films takes place in the places in between, namely the open expanse of the road. There is a good reason why the makers of Vacation chose to take their epic through the American West. It is a land of roads and open space ideally suited for automobile travel. It is a locale that is intimately associated with travel and adventure and fraught with stereotypes. Classic themes of westward bound manifest destiny run throughout the film. Passing through St. Louis, Clark points out the arch, the gateway west. Heading onward through the Western Kansas flat lands the family stops in Dodge City to experience wild west kitsch. Further on, there is Clark standing tall against the backdrop of monument valley, Arizona where one half expects to see a covered wagon go by in the distance. And it is no coincidence that their destination is California. These place places and the ideas they represent play huge roles in the themes of history and popular culture. People flock to such places because they have intimate associations with these places and want to experience what they perceive to be authenticity despite the reality.
In supporting such places, the Griswolds and the people who make them tourist attractions don’t see them in their actual context, but they see such places in the contexts of their mind’s associations. Like so many souvenir stands these places are perpetuated by the stereotypes and assumptions associated with perception. Such tourist traps allow us to ignore the reality of the place and see it through our preconceptions. Upon arriving in Dodge City, Clark’s wife, Ellen, observes that the place, “seems kind of dirty and touristy.” Clark, no doubt picturing cowboys and Indians, just shrugs, and chuckling says, “Oh Ellen. The Wild West was dirty.” Despite these attempts to reach some illusory authentic place, they encounter the same forces of homogenization and consumerism that they left behind . Each stop they make becomes a caricature of itself. Looked at individually these episodes are like post cards of popular culture and roadside kitsch. But when taken together evidence of pattern can be seen. The the used car dealer in Chicago, the Wild West Saloon in Dodge City, and crooked roadside mechanics and are all products of a modern world that exploits those who want to escape it by playing off of their innocent stereotypes.
By escaping the city and the confines of his everyday life, Clark Griswold also seeks to create an experience to bring his family closer together. This is a theme that he lays out from the start and returns to time and again. To him, “the whole point of a family vacation is to spend time together as a family.” Traveling in such a way offers a unique opportunity to do so. In contrast to the often distant and cursory familial interactions of a modern home, the enclosure of an automobile forces extreme physical proximity putting a unique strain on the family dynamic. The very fact that the movie emphasizes this point time and again is a commentary on the modern state of the family. It seems like the filmmakers continually ask why is it necessary to travel two thousand miles from home in order to spend time together. But, by making fun of the conditions that prompted the vacation they answer their own question. The Griswold family goes on with their trip at points solely because they feel it is their duty to smile and have fun regardless of circumstances.
National Lampoon’s Vacation is a film that was no doubt created purely to entertain. However, it derives its ability to entertain value from the cultural stereotypes it exploits. Underneath it exaggerated and often-ridiculous plot lines are currents of authenticity that resonate with the experiences of its audience giving it legitimacy. It makes fun of the modern world and our need to escape it in an honest tale about a common man trying to do just that and keep it all together. By couching their commentary in a Quixotic quest the filmmakers allow the audience to laugh at what is in fact themselves on the screen. By laughing we acknowledge the fact that we live in a world that allows us to ask, “ don’t you want to see the second largest ball of twine on earth, which is only four short hours away?”
Join the Griswolds a typical suburban family on their summer vacation a cross-county trip to their favorite amusement park Walley World. Everything th...More at Family Video
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