Back to School
By Peter John Gardner
There were three things running through my mind while watching Back To School:
a) Rodney Dangerfield's character in this film is nearly the exact same character that he played in Caddyshack. They even use a still from Caddyshack in the opening montage.
b) How the heck did they get Kurt Vonnegut to appear in this film? Was he friends with Rodney Dangerfield or something?
c) Is Downey's character supposed to be gay?
None of these thoughts are relevant to this entry, but I had to put them somewhere. Back to School is a 1986 Rodney Dangerfield vehicle that is actually pretty enjoyable and has managed to age surprisingly well over the years. When he discovers his wife cheating on him at a party, wealthy retail tycoon Stanley Melon (Dangerfield) decides to go visit his son in college to find solace. Upon his arrival, Melon finds out that Melon Jr. is considering dropping out, so in order to show solidarity with his son, he decides to register for school with him. Downey's role here is Melon Jr's eccentric, communist (?) roommate. He isn't given much to do in the film other than hang around Melon Jr. all the time.
And as they say, hilarity ensues.
Back To School is the second Downey Jr. movie in a row to feature Oingo Boingo on the soundtrack, and not only do they also appear onscreen performing at one of Melon's parties, but singer Danny Elfman (you know, the guy that scores pretty much every Tim Burton movie) composed the score. Late comedian Sam Kinison also has a small role as a professor even though his role is essentially Sam Kinison in a suit, and in a weird coincidence, the guy who played Paulie in all of the Rocky films plays Dangerfield's limo driver/bodyguard in this film. He still looks, talks, and acts like Paulie in this film. One has to wonder if that's what this guy is like in real life.
And how the fuck did they get Kurt Vonnegut to appear?
Stanley Melon is a smart businessman, and this is reiterated throughout the film. During his first day of economics class, Stanley is correcting the professor and informing the class of ways to cut costs when starting a new business. Stanley's a smart guy, and a point that film makes is that not everything you need to know in the world is learned in a classroom. Two years after graduating college, I can honestly say that I think I've learned more useful things about life post-college than before. University is the first step into the real world, a place where a young adult can be exposed to other ideas that they might not otherwise have the opportunity to, but it is still a relatively sheltered environment. While in school, students are still interacting with other students and not the average Joe Six-Pack who has no idea who Kurt Vonnegut is. So it goes.
On the flip side, Melon's character also demonstrates some of the negative qualities that one who grew up in the real world without any college experience could have. He thinks he can buy his way out of anything, and he doesn't "have the time" to read books.
I fucking hate when people say that they don't have time to read books. Yes, you do. No one says you have to read a book all at once, and there is so much more you can get out of a book than a movie. To me, this is the equivalent of an overweight person that says they don't have time to exercise. Bullshit. If you have 15 minutes to go through the McDonald's drive-thru, you've got 15 minutes to go for a fucking jog around the block every day. College theoretically eradicates the laziness to learn from people.
At the end of the day, it's a combination of both sides that make for a balanced person, I suppose. There's the hard lessons that ones learns in the real world, but college teaches people to structure what they know and what they learn, forces hard work of a different kind. One could hire Vonnegut himself to write a paper about the work of Kurt Vonnegut like Dangerfield's character in the movie, or they could read his work themselves and get absorbed in his genius. One could also learn about widgets and fictional labor costs in class, but it isn't until you're actually faced with a real life version of the task that you learn the complications that arise from it.
