Animal House totally encapsulated for me what fraternity life was like at the time, albeit an extreme dramatized version. I saw scenes and people depicted in the film, as if they were lifted from my own experiences. It was that true to form. So, the script for the movie was written from the collective college experiences of the writers. To analyze it 40 years after the fact for social/political overtones and identify it as some historical marker in that regard is bunk. Ty Burr is over thinking the import of the movie, while also placing his own imprint as to some meaning that wasn't there, except only in his imagination.