Latter-day gangsters ape what they've seen in Scarface and The Godfather, yuppies take cues from Wall Street, and college students learn the ropes from Animal House. Directed by John Landis and shot by Charles Correll, ASC (The Winds of War, Star Trek III), the anarchic frat-boy comedy has become, over the past 25 years, a scripture of sorts - not only for the subgenre it spawned (recently on view in Road Trip, Old School and Van Wilder), but also for the subculture it spoofs. Indeed, for nearly three generations of graduates, the college experience hasn't been complete until one has participated in - or at least witnessed - some sort of Animal House-inspired excess. This rather perfunctory "Double Secret Probation Edition" doesn't offer many interesting additions to the mythology, but it almost doesn't matter. Most viewers, guffawing through the film with an old college buddy or two, will provide their own commentaries anyway.

It's easy to forget that Animal House - released in 1978 but set in 1962 - was originally intended to be an American Graffiti-style period piece, based on its makers' own college misadventures. (Well, maybe not originally. As co-writer Harold Ramis confides in a documentary supplement, the very first treatment - provisionally titled "Laser Orgy Girls" - set Charles Manson loose in a sexed-up high school. The producers vetoed the idea.) In addition to the Oldies soundtrack, the filmmakers went out of their way to dress their locations with Sixties-style automobiles, costumes and props. In the roadhouse bar scene, frat newbie Larry "Pinto" Kroger (Tom Hulce) shrieks, "The Negroes stole our dates!" - a dated remark, even for 1978. And when dastardly Dean Wormer threatens the Delta House with expulsion - which meant getting drafted - the looming shadow of Vietnam flickers briefly in the periphery.

The main reason for the movie's longevity is that it's simply hilarious. Nearly every scene has become a comedic classic, from the infamous food fight (which actually lasts for just three seconds) and the fad-igniting toga party to the topless sorority pillowfights and the dead horse in the dean's office. The film's dialogue has saturated pop culture to such an extent that phrases such as "Assume the position!" and "Thank you, sir, may I have another?" are tossed around by people who haven't even seen the movie, and subsequent hits like Ferris Bueller's Day Off and American Pie (not to mention those ubiquitous Girls Gone Wild videos) would be unthinkable had Animal House not set the bar for young people behaving badly on film.

But while the picture itself seems to be immortal, many of its cast and crew have passed into obscurity, a fact queasily evinced in the disc's "Where Are They Now?" feature. Rather than highlight his actors' lackluster post-House careers, Landis takes an ill-advised "mockumentary" approach and interviews each of them "in character" at cringe-inducing length. Oddly, little tribute is paid to the late John "Bluto" Belushi, who played Animal House's signature role but barely lived long enough to enjoy his stardom. Furthermore, the disc's "animated anecdotes" caption feature, included in lieu of a commentary track, is spotty and redundant. But the talking heads/clip show feature "The Yearbook: An Animal House Reunion" is actually quite engaging, especially when Bruce "D-Day" McGill recalls the animal house he ran in his hotel room during shooting: "This was the Seventies - there was no AIDS, coke was okay ... it was great!" And James "Hoover" Widdoes recounts a disastrous cast trip to a University of Oregon frat party, at which he accidentally sparked off a drunken brawl: "Getting all our asses kicked a week before shooting started was a good thing." Still, the movie is definitely the main attraction here, and Universal's capable widescreen transfer does Correll's contrasty photography proud.

Rest assured that with another academic year in full swing, Animal House is already finding - and inspiring - another generation of fans.

- John Pavlus