accepted adj

1 generally approved or compelling recognition; "several accepted techniques for treating the condition"; "his recognized superiority in this kind of work" [syn: recognized, recognised]

2 generally agreed upon; not subject to dispute; "the accepted interpretation of the poem"; "an accepted theory" [syn: undisputed]

3 generally accepted or used; "accepted methods of harmony and melody"; "three accepted types of pump"

4 judged to be in conformity with approved usage; "acceptable English usage" [syn: acceptable]

5 widely or permanently accepted; "an accepted precedent"

6 widely accepted as true or worthy; "the accepted wisdom about old age"; "a received moral idea"; "Received political wisdom says not; surveys show otherwise"- Economist [syn: received]

English

Pronunciation

Verb

accepted

1. past of accept

Accepted is a 2006 comedy film. The plot centers around two groups, one of which is a group of high school seniors, who after being rejected from all the colleges to which they had applied, proceed to "create" their own "college". The other group is composed of fraternity freshmen who attend a prestigious university nearby.

The plot adversity is created through dynamics which the Dean of the nearby prestigious university attempts to use one of his students to assist him in this endeavor to acquire adjacent and abutting realty to expand its campus to create an adjacent park-like expanse, and the recalcitrant upstarts whose "college" (housed in an abandoned psychiatric hospital) begins to flourish and who refuse to facilitate the sale of their leasehold to the university. They call their college "South Harmon Institute of Technology" ("S.H.I.T.") and proceed to develop a facility, a curriculum, and a faculty, and thereby ultimately are accorded provisional accreditation by the state board of education when this is satisfactorily demonstrated.

Though presented as a light comedy, the film's undertone throughout is highly critical of the U.S. college system (and the college ranking system).

Plot

The plot begins with Bartleby Gaines (Justin Long), a persuasive high-school senior who, among other pranks, creates fake IDs. He is stunned when he is rejected by every college he applies to. In an attempt to seek approval from his father (Mark Derwin), who believes that Bartleby is doomed to failure in society if he fails to get into college, Bartleby creates a fake college, the South Harmon Institute of Technology. He is aided by his friend Sherman Schrader III (Jonah Hill), who has been accepted into the prestigious Harmon College, and fellow rejects Rory (Maria Thayer), Glen (Adam Herschman) and Hands (Columbus Short).

Bartleby takes steps to facilitate his very thorough father. He has Sherman create a fully-functional website. Arriving at the conclusion that a campus is required to continue the ruse, Bartleby leases an abandoned psychiatric hospital adjacent to the campus of Harmon College and renovates it to look like a college campus. When his father insists on meeting the Dean, he hires Schrader's uncle, Ben Lewis (Lewis Black), to play that role.

The seemingly innocent ploy quickly spins out of control when the website automatically accepts any applicant, and so hundreds of students enroll after their attempts to enter other colleges were similarly rejected. Bartleby realizes that these people have nowhere else to go, and so lets them believe that the school is real. After being disenchanted with the status quo, he has the students make up their own classes and be their own teachers.

Meanwhile, the Dean of the nearby Harmon College, Dean Richard Van Horne (Anthony Heald), makes plans to construct the Van Horne Gateway, an adjacent park-like "buffer zone to keep intellect in and ignorance out". He dispatches Hoyt Ambrose (Travis Van Winkle) to free up the nearby properties in preparation. When Bartleby refuses to relinquish the lease for the South Harmon Institute of Technology property, Hoyt sets to work trying to reveal the college as a fake. In a sub-plot, Bartleby also vies with Hoyt for the affections of Harmon College student Monica (Blake Lively).

Hoyt manages to expose South Harmon Institute of Technology as a fake school through Sherman, who is attempting to join his fraternity. After having Sherman beaten up, Hoyt forces him to hand over all the files he has created for the Institute. He then contacts all the students' parents to expose the school as a fake. The Institute is quickly shut down, but Sherman had taken the initiative to file for accreditation beforehand, giving Bartleby a chance to make his school legitimate.

At the accreditation hearing, Bartleby makes an impassioned speech about the failures of conventional education, convincing the board to grant his school a one-year probation to test his new system. The Institute is started up once again, with Sherman and Monica now attending. In the final scene, Dean Van Horne's BMW explodes as he walks towards it. The camera pans to a shocked Bartleby and another student (Jeremy Howard) who had wanted to learn to "Blow shit up with my mind", who says "Told you!"

Reception

Accepted was released only to mostly negative reviews with a average score of 36 from Rotten Tomatoes. Despite the negative reviews, the film made a respectable sum estimated $10,023,835 during its opening and $36,323,505 at its time of closing on October 19, 2006.

Origins

The idea of a school with this vulgarism as its acronym is not new. In his 1978 autobiography, The Camera Never Blinks (p.17), Dan Rather repeated an "underground" (and untrue) story that his alma mater, Sam Houston State University, had once been known as "Sam Houston Institute of Teaching" or "Sam Houston Institute of Technology".

Cast

Soundtrack

• "U-Mass" by Pixies
• "Gravity Rides Everything" by Modest Mouse
• "The Hives - Declare Guerre Nucleaire" by The Hives
• "Bole 2 Harlem" by Bole 2 Harlem
• "Eleanor Rigby" by David Schommer featuring David Jensen (originally by The Beatles)
• "TKO" by Le Tigre
• "Where Do I Begin" by The Chemical Brothers feat. Beth Orton
• "Sherman's Way" by David Schommer
• "Keepin' Your Head Up" by The Ringers
• "(Don't You) Forget About Me" by David Schommer (Originally by The Simple Minds)
• "Holiday" by Weezer
• "Let The Drummer Kick" by Citizen Cope
• "To Be Young (Is to Be Sad, is to Be High)" by Ryan Adams
• "You Think We Suck" by Ape Fight

Other songs not included on the soundtrack:

• "Close to Me" by The Cure plays in Bartleby Gaines room whenever the disco ball comes down
• "Holiday" by Green Day. There has been some confusion over the fact that Weezer and Green Day each have a song by the title "Holiday" in the movie, but only the Weezer song is on the official soundtrack.

• "Blitzkrieg Bop" by The Ramones is played at a party held at South Harmon, and Bartleby sings the majority of it on stage. The DVD also featured a music video of the song featuring the casts and crew.
• Don't Stop by Fleetwood Mac is played during the high school graduation party.

Video and DVD release

The movie was released on VHS and DVD on November 14, 2006, in both Widescreen and Fullscreen.

External links

• Official movie site
• The Ringers - Featured Movie Band Site
• Accepted at the Internet Movie Database.

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