National Lampoon's Vacation
Directed by Harold Ramis
- comedy
- adventure
The story
Clark Griswold is on a quest to take his family to the Walley World theme park for a vacation, but things don't go exactly as planned.
What it’s like
Bright, sun-saturated suburban daylight gives way to long stretches of highway glare, dusty motel rooms and the flat orange glow of a cross-country summer, with the camera mostly locked in wide, unhurried compositions that let the chaos play out in the frame. The sound is a jangly, late-seventies pop-and-station-wagon soundtrack, with the family's bickering and car-radio noise filling every gap. The vibe is loud, warm and sweetly exasperated: a comfort-comedy road trip that suits a lazy weekend afternoon, a family-holiday mood, or background laughing on a long drive. Pacing is brisk and episodic, with a series of escalating mishaps that build toward a sentimental payoff, and the emotional register stays affectionate even as the father's stubborn determination keeps running into trouble. Comedy is slapstick and physical, with mild crude jokes and a few sharp moments of humiliation, but there is no real violence, gore or sexual content, and the frustration is played for laughs. It is for people who want a gentle, good-humored family comedy about wanting too much from a holiday.
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