CADDYSHACK
Classic Movie Review

An exclusive golf course has to deal with a brash new member and a destructive dancing gopher.

Review:

Almost 30 years after its initial release, this film is still regarded as one of the funniest comedies ever. Mostly remembered for it's many funny scenes than the actual plot itself, Caddyshack is filled with an ensemble of great moments. The question is do those great moments make a great film? And does anyone really remember who the true main character of the film is.

Here are my top 5 favorite moments in the film:

1) Groundskeeper Carl Spackler (Bill Murray) teeing off on a flower garden while he's doing a mock play by play pretending he's in the masters golf tournament.

In the original script all it stated was that Carl was butchering a rose garden. Director Harold Ramis suggested to Bill Murray to add some improv dialogue in the scene and Murray went off turning a basic scene into a classic.

A very funny piece of writing that had to be reshot because the original actor who was suppose to perform this scene apparently wasn't very good. So Ramis reshot it using Bill Murray and he performed the hell out of it.

3) Mega rich Al (Rodney Dangerfield) dancing, moving and shaking on the golf course.

Every scene with Dangerfield is great and funny, so I just choose this one as the best in the bunch

4) Judge Smails (Ted Knight) going crazy in his own house and destroying everything when he finds out his chosen protege has slept with his niece in his own bedroom.

Ted Knight truly is the heart of this film. Playing the only real villain, Knight performs a brilliant comedic role playing the ultra uptight Judge with a control problem. Take Ted Knight out of this film and you don't have the classic that this film is.

5) Zen master Ty Webb (Chevy Chase) teaching protege Danny Noonan the art of life and getting what you want on the golf course.

Chase has always been the master of wittiness and this scene really shows it. And it also has a lot of great things to say about life in general too.

___________________

Caddyshack was a film that was suppose to be about caddy's on a top golf course. But then Harold Ramis recruited all of his comic friend actors to perform the minor parts of the film! Then those minor parts became major parts and the caddy storyline took a backseat.

But at its heart, this is a coming of age story about caddy Danny Noonan trying to figure out what he wants to do with his life. Danny is pulled between Ti and the Judge. Ti is the liberal and the Judge is the conservative. So who's ideals is he going to choose to set him off on the course of his life? Then you have the funny pranks of the wacky rich guy played by Rodney Dangerfield who sets up the final act showdown. And the assistant groundskeeper played by Bill Murray who is searching to kill the gofer who is messing up the golf course.

So does this film completely hold up as a great film? Not really because the entire plot is so flimsy. But that's the reason why the individual scenes are so funny.

So what Caddyshack really is, is a bunch of funny actors in a film about golf. The director let the actors improv a lot of the scenes and he got a lot of golden moments.

Caddyshack should be remembered in 30 years too.

This film won Best Director and Best Cinematography, and was nominated for five other categories. The screenwriter was nominated, and rightly so. Taken from a short story that first appeared in the Saturday Evening Post in 1933 by Maurice Walsh, Green Rushes, Frank Nugent was able to weave a story rich in subtext and conflict.

The collector’s edition of the DVD includes an interview with Maureen O’Hara where she reminisces about filming The Quiet Man, and is well worth watching.

SUBMIT your SCREENPLAY Voted #1 screenplay contest in the world!	NEW MOVIE REVIEWS Read Today's POSTED REVIEWS	SEE 1000s of PICTURES Best of photos, images and pics	MOVIES YEAR BY YEAR Pages from 1900 to present

YouTube MySpace Facebook Twitter

Return from Caddyshack to home page