The Great Outdoors

Dir: Howard Deutch

1988

*****

Howard Deutch’s 1988 comedy The Great Outdoors is one of my favorite 80s comedies but one of those great films that no one ever talks about. Many still don’t realise that it was a John Hughes movie, indeed, the iconic director wanted to direct the film himself but couldn’t due to time constraints. It stars two of the 1980s giants of comedy; Dan Aykroyd and John Candy. The story is nothing out of the ordinary but it was a vacation that looked so much cooler than any holiday the rest of us could ever hope to go on. The film starts with the Ripley family. Chicagoan Chester "Chet" Ripley (Candy), his wife, Connie (Stephanie Faracy), and their two sons, Buckley "Buck" (Chris Young) and Ben (Ian Giatti), are on vacation at a lake resort in Pechoggin, Wisconsin during the summer. All is going as planned until Connie's sister, Kate (Annette Bening in her movie debut), Kate's investment broker husband, Roman Craig (Aykroyd), and their twin daughters, Mara and Cara (Hillary and Rebecca Gordon), crash the vacation. The families are chalk and cheese but they have their similarities. As a child I saw this as a kids film, what with Hughes writing large chunks of the film for the younger characters, but now as an adult I see that it can also be seen as a 30-somethings film. I’m slightly depressed now that I realise I am older than both Candy and Aykroyd’s characters. The families don’t quite get along but they try. On the first night the family sit around the campfire and they start sharing ghost stories. Chet tells the group of a man-eating grizzly bear that he met face-to-face when he was younger. Chet says that while he and Connie were honeymooning at the same lake, he was attacked by a giant grizzly bear. When he fired at it with a shotgun, the buckshot shaved the hair off the top of the bear's head and from that day on, it was known as the "Bald-Headed Bear" of Claire County. Everything is set up for later scenes, you see them coming but you still get excited about them. After Roman pulls Chet around the lake on an impromptu water ski ride with his rented speedboat, tensions between the families erupt. Chet is ready to pack up and go home, just as his teenage son Buck tries to romance a local girl called Cammie (Lucy Deakins). The budding romance goes well until Chet is challenged to eat the Old 96'er (a 96-ounce steak) at a family dinner which Buck is forced to attend, breaking their date. The world before mobile phones. The Old 96’er scene will make you hungry at first and then sick as a dog within minutes. Buck tries to apologize to Cammie for being late, but Cammie refuses to speak to him. Connie and Kate bond at a local bar when the conversation drifts to Kate's challenges of being wealthy. Later, just at the peak of tension between families, it emerges that Roman has made a bad investment and is broke. He has not told Kate and was planning to hit up Chet for the cash. Later, during a thunderstorm, the twins wander off and fall into a mine shaft. Chet and Roman find them, but the claustrophobic Roman is reluctant to descend into the tiny mine shaft. After some encouragement from Chet, Roman summons up all his courage, while Chet goes in search of a rope to pull them out. Upon realizing that the mine is stocked with old dynamite, Roman takes his daughters and climbs out of the shaft on his own. When Chet returns with the rope, he is horrified to discover the "Bald-Headed Bear" lurking in the mine. It chases him back to his house, smashes through the door, and rampages through the house. Wally (Robert Prosky), the cabin owner, bursts in with a loaded shotgun while Roman tries to hold off the animal with a fire poker and an oar. Chet takes the gun and shoots the bear, blowing the fur off its backside. Roaring, the bear runs out of the house. How they got a fake bum on the back of a bear I will never know but it was hilarious. The next morning, the two families part on good terms. Unbeknownst to Chet, Connie has invited Roman's family to stay with them until they can get back on their feet. Cammie and Buck make up and end their summer romance, as Buck and his family head back to Chicago. It has everything a teenager could want from a summer and every adult will wish they could afford to take their families on such a holiday these days. It is one of the few 80s films that were great then and the level of nostalgia you get from watching it now is just as strong. It isn’t about ageing well either, it is a timeless comedy. The youth of today will probably disagree but then I’m not sure they’re even aware that the film exists. Dan Aykroyd and John Candy worked brilliantly together, they stared in several films together but never as closely as this and it was – and still is – an absolute joy to watch. Their timing is impeccable, they clearly have the same sense of humour but never compete with one another. They know each other’s strengths and play to them, meaning that they are both on top form and are clearly having a great time. All this is evident when watching the film and I believe their laughter was real. John Hughes wrote some brilliant films, some of the most iconic of the 1980s but for me The Great Outdoors is his unsung gem.