Directed by: John Landis
Starring: Donald Sutherland, John Belushi, Karen Allen, Kevin Bacon, Mark Metcalf, Stephen Furst, Tim Matheson, Tom Hulce
Continuity mistake: During the classroom scene, Donald Sutherland writes the word "Satan" on the board. In the first shot, the "t" in Satan in directly over the crease on the chalkboard. In the next shot, it is clearly on one side of the crease. (00:18:00)
Dean Wormer: Fat, drunk and stupid is no way to go through life.
Trivia: Faber college, where the movie takes place, was actually the University of Oregon in Eugene.
Question: Near the end, when Dean Wormer and Mayor DePasto are in the grandstand, officially launching the parade, there is an elderly gentleman in the background (also in the grandstand, about 2 levels up, on the left side of the screen) who is making odd, excited gestures and comical facial expressions. His appearance and odd mannerisms are so striking that he draws my attention away from the dean and the mayor every time that I've seen this film, and that's a lot of times. Surely, director John Landis must have been aware of the gentleman and his antics in the background through multiple takes, so it would seem Landis intended the peculiar distraction. Who was that gentleman, and was there any significance to his appearing in the scene?
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Answer: Sometimes these things get left in because it's simply the best take. (The child covering his ears before the gunshot in "North by Northwest," for example.) It could also be that John Landis cast the extra because he wanted someone with goofy expressions in the crowd. He simply could have told the extras "Ok, be excited that you're at a parade," and that's how this extra did it.
Captain Defenestrator