Review of PCU

PCU (1994)
8/10
Let's protest against protesting
19 October 2013
Warning: Spoilers
Upon first hearing of this movie my initial thoughts were "not another sex-romp comedy in the vein of Animal House." Well, I guess once again I was wrong. My friend said that this movie is very close to what campus life is like in the 1990's. Having sat through numerous 1980's sex romp comedies, such as Revenge of the Nerds and Fraternity Vacation, I was not to keen on seeing it again. Upon seeing this movie I realised that the sex romp comedy has gone out of fashion now and college comedies are not going to be as stereotypical as they previously were.

My friend's comment about PCU Pit Party being an accurate rendition of 90's campus life is pretty correct. One of the major differences between Australian Universities and American Universities is that in Australia our students do not live on campus (or they at least don't in Adelaide University, and I believe that is the same across Australia). This is probably because Australia is a very urbanised nation and those who go to university generally live in the city surrounding it, though this is not always the case. My friend who recommended this movie to me lived for a year in a college and his parents lived in the city as well.

A pre-fresh comes to Port Chester University (PCU) just before the year ends so that he may see what campus life is like. He has been assigned to the pit, a very run down boarding house were all of the politically incorrect live. While he is there he manages to anger the protesters, the militant Negroes, and all of the students who are frantically typing out their thesis's to meet the Monday deadline, but this isn't the plot of the movie. The Pit, being where all of the people who snub political correctness live, are offending a lot of people and the president of the University wants them out so that some preps might move in. Thus they must first raise $7000 to pay their damage bill and then get rid of the president so that they might remain where they live.

The main thrust of this movie is an attack at political correctness. The title, PCU, seems to even bring out this theme. This movie is said to be a 90's version of Animal House, and the big thing in the 90's is political correctness. I guess the thrust of this movie is that political correctness can be very bad when taken to the extreme. Here we are not looking at insulting Negroes or removing gay rights, but rather making a mockery of how far some of the rabid feminists take it. The movie seems to use the word person in a way where it goes from being politically correct to being stupid.

There are two main antagonists in this movie, the preppies (bascially rich kids), and the womanists. There are also the protesters who basically protest about anything and really do not have any true cause, but they are more comical than anything else. In fact I guess the womanists are comical in a way, but they are rabidly anti-male, and this is taken to the extreme as there is no real reason behind their cause. It is interesting when one of them discovers that males are not all that bad because if you actually be friendly to them then they will give things to you. The other thing is their protest at the "penis party", claiming that it is a symbol of male oppression. The advertisement that they did not like was "everybody gets laid at the Pit". The ironic thing is that not only is the band called "Everybody gets Laid", but the name was thought up by a woman.

The final thing we see is the stupidity of all of this protesting. The speech at the end, which is typical of such movies, has the main character plead to the students to put their differences behind them and to protest against the establishment. In the end this movie is an attack against the establishment and it points towards the establishment for creating the whole idea of political correctness to create dissension among the masses. While the masses are fighting over their own individual rights, the establishment - as portrayed by the preppies and the president, are able to work their wicked schemes. I guess in the end the theme of this movie is that political correctness has its place, but one can go overboard in applying it.
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