We aren't Van Wilder

If someone had asked me one month ago what the first idea that would come into my head when I thought about an American university, I would probably have answered beer. This reasoning is not true for all college students but I guess that I am another victim of American college films. Since John Hughes started making films like “Weird Science” or “The Breakfast Club” in 1985 a great amount of “acne-films” have helped to feed teen’s imaginations around the world. Why do people imagine college with beer and cheerleaders? Why do teenagers around the world dream of becoming the local football star and marry a blond cheerleader even if they have never played football before? This might be a simplification, but these identifications do happen. Besides mediocre plots and flat characters, these films represent an interesting phenomenon in popular culture. Why does this Americanization of the ideal college happen? Why are these stereotypes made? What binaries work in these movies? There isn’t a unique answer for these questions; cultural studies work on a slippery slope, however, I have analyzed a film called “Van Wilder” in order to provide an approach to these issues. Van Wilder has been in college for more than seven years and he doesn’t want to graduate yet. From this common plot follows 90 minutes of easy gags and a fussy love story. Everything is stereotyped. Van Wilder falls in love with Gwen Pearson, the blonde but smart journalist who is trying to write an article about the life and the popularity of Van. However, the preppy Richard Bagg, Gwen’s boyfriend, is always trying to make things difficult for Van. There are constant references to sex and alcohol throughout the film. Two opposite binaries work in this movie; Richard and Van are both struggling to get the perfect girl. The two characters represent two different ways of life. On the one hand, Richard wants to become a doctor and he is the leader of one of the most prestigious fraternities on campus, and on the other hand Van is a party animal. The way fraternities are represented is immeasurably exaggerated: the clothes they wear, their hair, and the way they treat freshmen students. They’re the rich bad guys. In contrast, Van is the cool guy and the only thing he wants is to help his friends.

Another stereotype portrayed in the film is race. At first glance this film tries to be politically correct and show a multiracial college community. Van’s best friends are a black and Hindu student. However, this is not an accidental choice. Lots of American college films use African American or Latin actors as supporting actors, but they are just the white male main character’s best friends.

Van Wilder is a perfect example of how simplifications are made and how people just accept them. These kinds of films just try to simplify a complex and rich environment, like an American College, and they just help to feed the common idea that students only think about sex and alcohol.