Campus Life in the Movies: A Critical Survey from the Silent Era to the Present

Hollywood films have presented audiences with stories of campus life for nearly a century, shaping popular perceptions of our colleges and universities and the students who attend them. In the process, these cinematic depictions of campus life have even altered the attitudes and behavior of college students themselves, serving as both a mirror of and a model for collegiate attitudes and behavior. One can only imagine how many high school seniors enter college today with the hopes of living the proverbial Animal House or PCU Greek experience, or how many have worried over the SAT and college admissions after watching more recent movies like 2004's The Perfect Score. This book explores themes of college life in 680 live-action, theatrically released, feature-length films set in the United States and released between 1915 and 2006, evaluating how these movies both reflected and distorted the reality of undergraduate life. Topics include college admissions, the freshman experience, academic work, professor-student relations, student romance, fraternity and sorority life, sports, political activism, and other extracurricular activities. The book also includes a complete filmography and 65 illustrations.