‘National Lampoons Vacation’ is probably the movie im least familiar with out of all the ‘Vacation’ series. Growing up it always seemed like ‘European Vacation’ or ‘Vegas Vacation’ were the ‘Late night movie’ of the time and this one, whenever it did get a rare outing always kind of felt a bit weird to me.

In a way thats kind of understandable, given that this is the first attempt at the ‘Vacation’ formula, a lot of elements that would later be refined to near perfection feel a little undercooked in this entry. Theres just weird little moments that either dont feel like they’ve aged *quite* as well other gags in the franchise or times where the characters still kind of feel a bit like a work in progress.

For those unfamiliar with the franchise, ‘National Lampoons Vacation’ follows Chevy Chase and Beverly D’Angelo as Clark and Ellen Griswold and heads of the ‘Griswold’ family. each entry usually focusses on particular vacation that the ‘Griswolds’ will undertake, whether its a tour of Europe, surviving a large family christmas or a trip to Vegas.

Other than key characters (Clark, Ellen, Audrey, Rusty and Cousin Eddy) theres no continuity between the films. realistically you can watch them in any order, and the crux of the humour comes from watching the Griswolds attempt to navigate, what on paper, SHOULD be a pretty straightforward vacation plan…and Clarks volatile mental state essentially acting as a time bomb to when the films will well and truely go off the rails.

‘Vacation’ is probably the most straightforward of the series, with the Griswolds attempting a cross country road trip to ‘Wally World’ (basically a ‘Disney Land’ analogue) with all the highs and lows that come with tossing 2 teenagers, an aggressive dog, a blunt and rude aunt and a VERY volatile driver into a 2400+ mile road trip that will see them shot at in st. louie, robbed at the grand canyon and frequently losing there luggage.

Being completely honest, while this one may be the favourite of the franchise for many people. I struggle really to fully get into this one. The script is simple enough plot wise, but a film like this lives and dies by its pacing and the quality of its jokes, and thats kind of where things started to go a bit off the rails for me.

For a starters, the opening act is VERY slow to get going, theres a few visual gags…maybe one or two moments that I stifled a laugh at, but otherwise it spends WAY too long establishing the cross country premise. its something that realistically is pretty well established in the opening moments of the film. So the need for them to STILL be establishing the road trip premise 25 minutes in, when they said everything they needed to say by the 10 minute mark was a little frustrating.

The second act does manage to pick up the pace, with some higher calibre gags, a bit more ‘multi layer’ humour which I quite enjoyed and a few actually laugh out loud moments. But again, everything moves SO slowly in this film and the actual big laughs are very few and far between…with the more common humour being a mixture of barely smirk worthy visual gags, or jokes that 41 years on, are creaking pretty heavily due to the passage of time.

I also feel that a lot of the humour (particularly state-centric humour) might be lost on me as a European. I dont know much about St. Louie, and after this film. I feel like some in jokes were made that State-side folks may appreciate more.

Mericfully, the film fully finds its groove in the 3rd act, we have some very solid gut busters, the moments of slowdown pretty much resolve themselves and we’re left with a film that ends on a pretty decent high…barring the frankly BIZARRE plot twist in the closing 20 minutes or so where Clark is basically caught about to commit adultary with ZERO hesitation, and the whole things played for laughs…they’ll repeat that gag multiple times across the series. But its always played VERY distinctly that that aspect of things is more in Clarkes mind than an actual real world thing that could have serious consiquences.

On the whole, the scripts fine enough, but the pacing and tonal issues combined with a lot of dated gags, gross out humour and moments where the core characters go BEYOND their comedically demented depictions in later films into being just…mean spirited and unpleasent, was enough to really drag this thing down for me in a big way.

The direction and cine is pretty gorgeous with some captivating creative visions of roadside America. The Grand Canyon sequences are absolutely breathtaking here, and i’d be curious to see how the 4K version of this release really cleans up those scenes because the 15 year old bluray that I own makes them look amazing as it is.

I do have to take some umbridge with Ramis and Hughes however, as quite a few of the visual gags present in this film would end up basically being copy/pasted into scripts written and directed by Ramis and Hughes for the following 10 years. Thats quite naughty…even if the gags that DO get recycled end up being better in the later movies than how they’re handled here.

Shots are well composed and rich in vivid colour. But; as is the case with any comedy, its the editing that can make or break it; and I can honestly say the editing here is definitely up to snuff. With PERFECTLY timed gag pulls and to the frame cuts that make every gag, no matter how bad, land as best as it could do. Its a very well made film on a technical level, and while its maybe a bit safer than later entries. the richness of the scenery is always presented as best it can be.

On the performance front? both Chevy Chase and Beverly D’Angelo have some beyond stunning moments here with perfect comic timing and line delivery, but as mentioned the script here actually presents them as more human and less cartoony/demented than they would appear in later films. As a result it means that Clarks ‘Freak outs’ (a staple of the series) do sometimes go quite a bit harder than they ever would again. And D’Angelo, who pretty much bites her tongue whenever Clark flies off the handle in later entries, here? actually gets to give as good as she gets a few times. These feel like much more well rounded characters than what was to come. But in some ways I feel that kind of ends up being a little dissapointing given that I come to these films for zany hyjinx, and here things are quite a bit more grounded.

Oh, and the scorings a bit weird here too…obviously Lindsay Buckinghams submissons (Holiday Road/We Went Dancing) are absolutely iconic inclusions here, but all the incidental music kind of flip flops between library sounding tracks and strange whirlitzer style pieces that kind of threw me. It feels a little slapped together honestly.

All in all? ‘Vacation’ isnt really my ‘go to’ I dont want to give the impression here that I think this is a bad movie, it really isnt by any stretch! But if you put all the ‘Vacation’ films down in front of me and asked me to pick one. This really wouldnt be my first choice. It has its moments, it looks really pretty and the performances are distinct, unique and have great comic timing. But it is a film thats starting to show a little wear and tear. Im sure anyone whos had to take a cramped car ride will appreciate the shenanigans in this one. But I feel like the best is yet to come.

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/national-lampoons-vacation/