Summer Celebration: Ernest Goes to Camp

I mentioned last week that we’d be going camping this month, and we are, but only figuratively so if you’d packed all of your gear in preparation for a month of roughing it in the wilderness with me, just know that I’m absolutely the worst choice in camping buddies. Seriously, I have no useful skills that would help in a wilderness survival situation. However, there was a time, several moons ago, when I actually got kind of excited about the great outdoors, and the adventures that it offered. That was mostly for social reasons, but at least I was outside doing nature-y stuff, or whatever people do when they don’t have access to indoor plumbing. As such, I figured that it might be fun to ring in the summer by looking at a series of movies that center around camping. I’m not very good at it, but it can be fun to watch others bumble through the process. So without further adieu, let’s roll out our sleeping bags, bait our fishing lines, and build a campfire as we officially ring in the summer camp season with our first summer celebration film. Those are all camping things, right?

In order to really understand this movie, you really have to understand Jim Varney, and the character Ernest P Worrell. Varney started building the Ernest persona first on television, and then started transitioning the character over to the big screen as popularity began to grow. I’m sure there are a ton of tropes built around this character, but Ernest is the happy go lucky hero who is always down on his luck, and who always gets caught up in bizarre situations quite haplessly. He’s goofy, he’s plucky, and despite whatever may happen throughout the film, everything always turns out okay for him.

This film is the first feature length Ernest film ever to come out, and it was working overtime to entrench that formula that makes Ernest films so fun to watch. Ernest has a job for which he’s totally unqualified. He’s frustrated because he feels like he should be promoted, but keeps getting passed over. Also standard to the formula is the enabler friend who knows that he can achieve more as long as he works hard and believes in himself. It’s all very optimistic. In this particular case, Ernest is working for a summer camp (A theme that you’re going to find common throughout every film over the next month. Don’t say that you were never warned.). He works as a maintenance guy, and the movie does a great job showing how disgusting his work can be, but in the most entertaining was possible. The Ernest films are chock full of slapstick and this one is no exception. It’s all very entertaining. Gross though it may be, Ernest tries to keep a chipper attitude through the whole ordeal even though his real aspiration is to be a camp counselor.

This is an area where the movie borrows quite a few tropes. For instance, all of the counselors are frat boy, Top Gun types who wear the same Ray Ban sunglasses, and act like, well, frat boys. Also, the camp is owned by a Native American tribal chief, and the main protagonist in the film is an evil CEO who wants to forcibly take the camp in order to mine valuable ore from it. These are all pretty standard fare for your 80s comedy, but they work so it’s something that we can give a pass to. At any rate, Ernest gets a chance to be a counselor when the camp is forced to take on a group of delinquents from the juvenile detention center as a subsidization agreement. This is yet another trope that the film borrows. The heroes are, obviously, going to be the rejects of society. It’s still pretty common today probably because folks like an underdog story. But, Ernest picks them up from jail, and then he has to bond with them. This is made more difficult because the other compers keep framing the bad kids for doing bad things so the delinquents spend most of their time doing manual labor that the camp should have been hiring contractors to perform.

However, Ernest is able to finally build a rapport with the boys because let’s face it, who wouldn’t like Ernest? Everything seems to be looking up, and then the aforementioned mining corporation swoops in to forcibly start demolishing the camp, and mining for stuff. I have an honest question at this point because it’s a running theme that I see in a lot of 80s films, but did we just all hate the idea of corporate America in the 80s? Did Reagan just turn us all completely off to big business. I mean, I know things are pretty out of control, but couldn’t we have come up with some other scapegoat villain? It all seems a little lazy if you ask me. Moving on, everyone in the entire camp is basically useless, except Ernest, Ernest’s closest friends at the camp, the delinquents, and the bullies of the delinquents. This group formulate a plan to ‘save’ the camp through a series of acts that I’m pretty sure would constitute destruction of property. Also, Ernest had been duped into getting the chief to sign over the land to the business. They had lied and said it was an environmental conservation petition, which, honestly, would be pretty easy to argue in court, but these knuckleheads decided to do things the illegal way instead. And indeed, the CEO is eventually arrested for fraud, but I guess the damage would have been done by that point. Oh well… It’s still hilarious to watch.

Ernest and his buddies come up with a plan to sabotage the mining efforts, non-lethally, of course, and begin their reign of terror. There are a couple of fun gags that get thrown in here that you really have to watch the movie to truly appreciate, but Ernest has a couple of friends who act as the camp’s chefs, and the one has been trying to perfect his ‘masterpiece’ dish, which he calls Eggsaronious. It’s disgusting, but, apparently, it’s also highly flammable because they use some to take a bulldozer out of commission. Also, Ernest has a pet snapping turtle that keeps biting him on the nose all through the movie, and Ernest decides to use his turtle, and a ton more as an ambush tool by dropping them on the workers, and letting snapping turtles do what snapping turtles do best. Now, these are tiny turtles, but holy crap! Have you seen what a snapping turtle can do with its maw?! Those things are vicious! But the gags are built up well throughout the film, and the payoff is satisfying, as well as fun to watch. Eventually, the gang run all the workers off the campsite, but the CEO guy just doesn’t know how to take no for an answer, and he tries to shoot Ernest. However, Ernest has been endowed with the protective powers of the ancient ancestors by the chief, and the CEO just can’t shoot old Ernest. This all ends in the CEO being carted away in bracelets, and the day being saved! And then we’re shown the camp back to capacity and everyone having fun because this is a feel good movie. Even the rejects have earned some respect, and are able to finally enjoy their experience to the fullest potential, and of course, old Ernest is the newest camp counselor. YAY!

Okay, this is not going to be a mind blowing film for anyone watching. I know usually we delve into more meaty stuff on this blog, but this movie is the epitome of the popcorn movie. It’s extremely lighthearted, it’s got plot, but it’s really light on that plot, in other words, you don’t have to pay super close attention to keep up, and in general, it’s really funny. It’s fun to watch as well. The humor hits well, the story is just engaging enough to be entertaining, and the acting is mediocre in that way that is endearing instead of annoying. What really sets this movie, and the others we’ll be looking at this month, apart from more contemporary films is that it’s a straightforward comedy film. Yes, it tries to have a message, but for the most part, it’s just humor for humor’s sake. You don’t see that very often these days due to the globalization of the film industry. Comedies are dying because foreigners just can’t grasp American humor, and the comedies that we are getting are so steeped in a particular bit of the current zeitgeist that they age terribly. I can really appreciate that this film, although old, still makes me laugh just due to the sheer fact that it’s so silly. It’s a great pick-me-up when you need an easy laugh, and a relatively mindless experience, but it packs enough under the surface that you might just be surprised. Give it a watch after you’ve roasted your s’mores! And stay tuned to next week as we look at our next ‘camping’ experience!