PCU

PCU was released the year I was born (1994), but this is the first time I’ve seen it. I’m not entirely sure how well-remembered the film is nowadays, but it has a 47% on Rotten Tomatoes so I suppose I know how others feel about it.

My boyfriend warned me about this film as we got ready to watch, citing that the take-down of the activist groups on campus were upsetting. As an activist, a progressive, a feminist, yadda yadda, I was nervous. And as all of that, I feel a little wary of saying how much I loved this movie. Now let me explain.

Screenshot from trailer

For those who haven’t seen the film, PCU stands for some university name, but the ~cool kids~ call it Politically Correct University in jest. Our audience surrogate and protagonist is a young, eager, incoming first-year who is thrust into the university environment by rooming with one of the members of the ragtag fraternity-flipped-on-its-head group The Pit (perhaps one of the reasons I identify with this film is because this group of weirdos reminds me so much of my fraternity, the gender-inclusive, literary-arts fraternity of Delta Psi Xi, aka St. Anthony Hall). Besides The Pit (which consists of men and women, with some racial diversity), the university is strongly divided by other groups: the Balls and Shaft faux-fraternity (very norm-core, would love to be a fraternity again but frats have been outlawed), the radical feminists, the vegans, the causes of the week. The Pit scoffs at all of them. Shenanigans ensure. You get the gist. *spoiler* In the end, The Pit encourages an uprising of the students against the authority figures, claiming that the division among them is exactly what they want.

Screenshot from trailer

Now there are some very legitimate problems with this film:

• It’s a total straight white dude film. It features straight white dudes, is for straight white dudes, and I’m pretty certain it was written by straight white dudes.
• It pokes fun at the norm-core conservative Balls and Shaft group, but doesn’t really align itself with meaningful, progressive ideals…in fact it actively pushes against those (see meat-drenched vegans), choosing instead to (almost) promote inaction over action–which, for the record, is a fallacy; inaction does not exist, it is a choice that ultimately promotes the way things currently are.
• It seems to roll its eyes at issues that are legitimately important

Despite those things (which are usually reason enough for me to have an unpleasant taste in my mouth) I loved this movie.

• It makes fun of what I find so unbearably frustrating in the college activist community:
  • So much supposed care for an issue but so little action that actually changes it (no, sharing a link on social media doesn't give you an excuse to do nothing else)
  • An air of superiority that prevents meaningful interaction with those who are unintentionally ignorant
  • "Causes of the week"
  • A stressful atmosphere that makes others feel that they must "walk on eggshells" and be wary of joking
• It features an inclusive group of ~frands~ who enjoy life beyond fighting against something. They are unified because they like each other, not because they are all the same.
• The women are totally autonomous and not hyper-sexualized
• It encourages unity among the students to fight against the authorities and this is what the administration most fears–they’re down to play along with the game of the well-behaved students, but only to keep their powers at bay
• It’s a goofy, fun movie with all of the charm of a 90s college/high school comedy

Screenshot from trailer

So yes, this film is dated and has some major cringe-worthy components but it is also something deeper, something fun, and something that encourages young people to come together. This film could easily be remade today, and made well, from a different viewpoint, and with the definite acknowledgment of the importance of progressive values while still poking fun at the problems found in activist groups. Let’s see people within the groups poke fun at themselves a little instead of an outsider with nothing to lose (see hetero white dude movie) poking fun at them.

Watch the trailer here