“Clark W. Griswold”: Icon of a bygone era
By Ken Knight
Anyone who has seen John Hughes’ 1983 comedy film National Lampoon’s VACATION remembers the affable, hard-working husband/father character of “Clark Griswold” (played by actor Chevy Chase) who seeks to take his wife and two kids on a continent-crossing road trip to the (fictional) “Wally World” Fun Park near Los Angeles. In the early 1980s when the film was released in theaters, it was a hit comedy with an R-rating (due to profanity and actress Beverly D’Angelo’s nude shower scene) aimed at adults who might subscribe to the mishap-humor in a “family life” setting.
Over 25 years later, the premise of this film is still funny and enjoyable for its off-color shenanigans (and politically-incorrect scenarios) but it also serves as a “reflection” for men who fail to see the typical American family (of four or five) in similar vein like he did back in the good ol’ days of yesteryear. The fictional character of Clark Griswold is an overly-optimistic but educated man who is the sole breadwinner for his family, his attractive wife Ellen a stay-at-home wife and mother of their son Rusty and daughter Audrey, both of whom love their parents even if they deride them as “weird” from time to time as teens often do (but the parental respect remains, even in this comedy flick!).
The character of Clark is smart despite his clumsiness and affable naiveté on many common-sense issues, clearly the head of his household as we notice how his decisions rule the roost, usually getting everything he wants done even if the results are not what he intended (comedy plotline) with his wife and kids tagging along regardless, bitching and moaning but doing what Clark sets out to do nonetheless! From inner-city thugs, corrupt local mechanics, an irritating leech of an Aunt in his backseat who dies on him, a freeloading cousin named Eddie taking half his cash, and a smoking-hot sexy blonde driving a Ferrari (Christie Brinkley) prick-teasing him along the highway….Clark and his clan make it to “Wally World” by his sheer perseverance and reckless audacity all the while his wife and kids wanted to give up and go home. Comical and entertaining Clark is for his wit and bumbling naiveté outside his comfort-zone, the character is a MAN who takes-charge of his family and provides for them while denying his own fun. His wife and kids follow his lead because he always manages to lead them to the sunshine despite the rigmarole of mishaps in between. Clark W. Griswold led his family on what he called a “pilgrimage to see a moose” (the moose mascot of “Wally World”) with all the tenacity of Don Quixote, and entertaining us for 2 hours in the process!
Comical as Clark is to watch on screen, the archetype male he represents is today seen by many in a slowly collapsing western civilization as a “dinosaur”, “misogynist”, and even “oppressor” then scoffed at by the younger generation who might (or might not) catch the movie VACATION on Blue-Ray or late night Cable-TV. Clark Griswold for all his funny actions and mishaps was the patriarch of his family of four, the husband and father whose primary purpose in life was to provide for his wife and two growing children, even if it meant working longer hours to keep their lifestyle intact.
If VACATION was to be re-made by Hollywood today, I would suspect the plot would be scripted differently in order to provide the “corrected” view of family life for the Griswolds and better appeal to a “wider audience” (i.e. women and teens) and it might likely go something like this…. Clark would be living in an apartment following an unexpected divorce from Ellen where she cleaned up in Family Court with full-custody of Rusty and Audrey as well as the house and ¼ of her ex-husband’s income in alimony and child support since she was a “stay-at-home” wife all those years, subsequently turning Rusty and Audrey against their father who incessantly plans to take them with him to “Wally World” during “his weekend”. Clark’s ex-wife Ellen would discover his plan to take the kids to Wally World and naturally be furious about such an adventure, getting her new boyfriend to go sabotage it somehow and follow them along the way (and if the boyfriend fails to thwart her Ex-husband’s plans for “family fun” she will get a new boy-toy to take warm showers with her instead). Yes, Generation-Y audiences might laugh at such a premise, enjoying the sight of Clark as the defrocked husband and father, “exchanged” for a boyfriend-thug and half his assets taken out from under him without Clark having done anything wrong besides….getting married in the first place!!
My point is this: fictional stories, movies, and their iconic characters like Mr. Griswold are fast becoming “icons” of a bygone era, examples of what family life used to be like for real (not funny mishaps that normally wouldn’t happen) when a man was the head of his house, and provided for his wife and children cheerfully without fear of it all coming to a devastating divorce soaking and end-game thievery that Marriage 2.0 has delivered (without anything to laugh about). Perhaps the fictional example of the comical but seriously-dedicated “family man” of Clark W. Griswold with his loyal wife and kids might be the final televised example of the lost family-man of a bygone era….that is, if there will be anyone of intelligence left in the “modern family” decades to come.
Ken Knight is a Feature Contributor at WWW.MONDO-VIDEO.COM and the Author of “THE MIDNIGHT SHOW~ Late Night Cable TV Guy-Flicks of the 80s” as well as a new zombie-apocalypse novel entitled “DIRGE”.
