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Old School

Old School is a comedy motion picture released by DreamWorks SKG in 2003, about three thirty-somethings who seek to re-live their college days by starting a fraternity, and the tribulations they encounter in doing so. The film, which stars Luke Wilson (Mitch), Vince Vaughn (Beanie) and Will Ferrell (Frank), was directed by Todd Phillips and written by Phillips and Scot Armstrong.

The movie was envisioned by Phillips as a comedy parallel to the cult-classic Fight Club. It is considered a forerunner to the frat pack since three of its stars are core members of that group.

This film is number 16 on Bravo’s “100 Funniest Movies”.

Plot Notes:
Mitch, the protagonist, is an everyday sort of guy. In this respect, he holds a job while pursuing the family life with a dog and a serious girlfriend. However, once he comes back from a business trip he is shocked to find out that his girlfriend takes part in orgies with a variety of people. She claims it’s purely sexual but nevertheless Mitch doesn’t want anything to do with her any longer. Thus, he rents a house on the college campus which will later become the headquarters for his fraternity.

Mitch’s friend Frank gets married but it is immediately evident that there are structural tensions between the couple. Their marriage lasts no longer than a couple of days. Frank gives his all to be a good husband, but he is unable to sustain married life. The cataclysmic cause of his marriage’s demise is his drunken streak through the neighborhood to the quad. Frank is kicked out of his house and thus goes to Mitch’s house to crash.

He returns home one evening to overhear a blow-job instructor (Andy Dick) saying what he believes are inappropriate things to his wife. Frank attacks the effeminate man, who drops Frank to the floor with a karate move.

Mitch encounters his high school crush, Nicole, at Frank’s wedding party. However, he doesn’t make a good impression with her, as he exhibits his inebriated state by spilling hot coffee on her dress. To make matters worse, he attempts to fix his mishap by sticking his hand up her dress so that he could get the stain out. Luckily, she forgives him the next day. Mitch’s other best friend Bernard throws a party for Mitch so that he could get his mind off his ex-girlfriend. Called Mitch-a-palooza, the rapper Snoop Dogg performs Eric B & Rakim’s track Paid in Full at the large house party. This party is a huge success and also puts Mitch and his friends at the top of the college social scene. The party “gives them street-cred” as Bernard says.

Unfortunately though, the next morning Dean Pritchard enters Mitch’s house and tells the guys that the house is specifically designated for social services and community housing. Therefore, Mitch, Frank, and Bernard must fulfil the Dean’s criteria in order to keep Mitch’s house. For this reason, it is Bernard’s idea to start a fraternity that is open to anyone. The Dean is a childhood acquaintance of the guys, but since he was the butt of most of their pranks his actions throughout the movie are vindictively rooted. He makes it his aim to destroy the fraternity. Although Mitch is initially reluctant to accept the notion of turning his house into a fraternity, he is essentially obliged to agree with the idea. The fraternity thrives from the start, an initiation rite involving certain lengths of rope, with one end tied to thirty-pound cinderblocks and the other tied to each initiant’s genitalia, and a procedure wherein each initiant must drop his cinderblock from a high building precipice, and which is supposed to symbolize each initiant’s trust—that the ropes are long enough to allow each cinderblock to reach the ground below with rope length to spare. One initiant (Jerod Mixon), however, has a unfortunate, and ostensibly unplanned, experience involving a loose manhole cover and a deep vertical access shaft. Mitch gets coined “the Godfather”. He still tries to keep his work life and fraternity life apart. Regardless, he is approached by countless people even at work who want to become members of his fraternity. The fraternity is an outlet for the stress and boredom that is associated with the monotonous nine-to-five lifestyle for many members.

However, the guys’ dreams are constrained. The death of one of the fraternity members certainly doesn’t help matters, but the main obstacle is still Dean Pritchard. The fraternity is boarded up by the Dean because he claims the group violated an assortment of university policies. He also claims that the students who participated in the non-sanctioned fraternity are subject to expulsion. Nonetheless, Mitch finds out that the group has the right to bypass this legality by completing a series of activities that range from academics and athletics to community service, debate and school spirit. The men are able to complete all of the activities successfully but since the deceased member of the fraternity was still on their roster, the group’s averages were brought down. Consequently, Dean Pritchard tells them the university’s decision stands.

Frank is able to obtain a tape that reveals the Dean bribing a female student with admission to Columbia Law School (a promise the Dean happily broke when she confronted him after the school rejects her) since she is head of the student board that approved of the fraternity’s campus status. Accordingly, the Dean’s credibility is destroyed. With this fact, it is hard for the university to withhold their decision and they decide to reinstate the fraternity’s charter. In addition, the fraternity’s old house is replaced with Dean Pritchard’s house (definitely an upgrade). Despite Bernard and Mitch withdrawing from the fraternity, Frank maintains his ties and persists with his leadership in the organization.