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 American University, I would probably have answered beer. Yes, I know I sound silly and that 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 we imagine an American college with beers 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? I am aware that I am simplifying this fact (not every teenager around the world has the same stupid dreams), 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 field, 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 along the film. Two opposite binaries work in this movie; Richard and Van, they 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, on the other hand Van is a party animal. The way fraternities are represented is immeasurably exaggerated: the clothes they wear, their hair, the way they treat freshmen students. They’re the rich bad guys. In contrast Van, although rich too (this is an interesting point) is the cool guy and the only thing he wants is to help his friends. I would also like to analyze another fact portrayed on the film, race. At a 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, is this accidental? Of course not, this is not and innocent choice. Lots of American college films use black or latin actors as supporting actors, but they are just the white male main character’s best friend.


In my opinion Vin Wilder is a perfect example of how simplifications are made and how we just accept them. These kind of film just try to simplify a complex and rich environment like an American College, and they just help to fed the common topic that students just have sex and beer in their minds.