The movie
Show notes
Directed by Ivan Reitman (his first major motion picture) Written by Len Blum, Daniel Goldberg, Janis Allen, and Harold Ramis (Egon from Ghostbusters) Starring Bill Murray (in his first starring role), Harvey Atkin, and Kate Lynch. Released June 29, 1979. Budget of $1.4M ($5M in 2020) Box Office: $43M ($154M in 2020) Gross: $4.16M ($149M in 2020) At one time was the highest grossing Canadian film in the United States and Canada. Rotten Tomatoes: 72% IMDB: 6.2/10 Bill Murrays costume were his own clothes. First of 6 collaborations with Harold Ramis in many roles, the others being Stripes, Caddyshack, Ghostbusters 1 & 2, and Groundhog Day. Filmed at an actual, working summer camp, Camp White Pine in Ontario. Plot: We open at Camp North Star, a cut-rate summer camp. Tripper giving a silly wakeup announcement. It cuts to an obviously boring, monotonous meeting. The old 80’s trope of the nerdy head guy, and the cool counselor (Bill Murry, Tripper). Showing the kids loading the busses, we’re introduced to Rudy, Spaz, and the rival summer camp, Camp Mohawk. SW: The ending of the announcements prepped me for this movie, Bill Murray flushing the toilet. The intro montage is SUPER 70’s/80’s campy. At the busses, some terrible acting. How old are the girls talking about getting smokes, 12-13? Hope it gets better. Funny stuff BM says to the reporter, stalk and kill a bear, sexual awareness week. Annoying theme song, kids screaming, “are you ready for the summer” The next few scenes are a lot of exposition; the first day at camp, establishing a social pecking order. Shows the viewer all the various cabins from the young children to the “jail bait” cabin. They move to lunch where the director is trying to talk, but the kids don’t want info, they want gossip, so the a girl stands up and shares the gossip with everyone, ending with Wendy being everyones wet dream. An intracamp soccer game, establishing the relationship between Tripper and Rudy occurs. SW: First day: nerd kid unzipp
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