Caddyshack (DVD)

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Caddyshack is set in the prestigious and exclusive Bushwood Country Club and is the story of Danny Noonan. A young caddy from a poor background he is working to earn enough money, or win a scholarship so that he can go to college. But that isn't the point of the film and serves only as a central plot thread to hang all the other parts off. The film is a vehicle for the Saturday Night Live boys and ...
...funniest role.

Caddyshack is a very eighties film (even the theme song is sung by Kenny Loggins) but it comes from the same stable as National Lampoon's Animal House and this was their golden age. If you're a fan of eighties films (you know who you are) I'd be amazed if this wasn't one of your favourite films from the period.

Just to clarify things a little. I said this was the best golf film ever made and it is. That ... more

Long, long ago on a review site far, far away (although not that far away if you get my drift) a popular and, previously at least, well respected film reviewer made a fatal error of judgement in one of his reviews. His name was christianfilmcritic, known to his friends as christianfilmcritic, and the review was for the film Tin Cup.

The fatal error of judgement he made was to suggest that The Legend of Bagger Vance was the greatest golf film ever made. I know, I couldn't believe it either. From any other writer such nonsense would have resulted in a crisp Not Helpful, but I know him of old and I have a lot of respect for the large body he has built up over the years, large body of work that is. So albeit with certain misgivings I overlooked this aberration and put it down to overtiredness, or too many orange Smarties perhaps.

The point is, as everyone knows, the greatest golf film ever made is Caddyshack. I'm going to repeat that so that there's no confusion: the greatest golf film ever made is CADDYSHACK. See, I even capitalised it for the sake of clarity. Despite repeated pleas for him to correct his mistake no retraction was forthcoming so I am forced to put the record straight. Right here, right now.

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Caddyshack is set in the prestigious and exclusive Bushwood Country Club and is the story of Danny Noonan. A young caddy from a poor background he is working to earn enough money, or win a scholarship so that he can go to college. But that isn't the point of the film and serves only as a central plot thread to hang all the other parts off. The film is a vehicle for the Saturday Night Live boys and was one of their first forays into the movies. Directed by Harold Ramis it starred Chevy Chase and Bill Murray, as well as stand up veteran Rodney Dangerfield. Now, before you walk away muttering I should point out that this is the film where Chevy Chase was funny (yes, the only film) and was back in the day when Murray was at the top of his comedy game.

Other story threads run through the film; the golf course has become infested with gophers and assistant green keeper Carl Spackler (Murray), a brain fried Vietnam vet, is tasked with getting rid of them. Multi-millionaire Al Czervik (Dangerfield) is the loud, crass guest of another member who wants to buy the club so that he can build condos on it, to the horror of club captain and co-founder Judge Smails (played by TV stalwart Ted Knight). Finally, there is the clubs annual tournament played between Smails, Czervik and Ty Webb (Chase) the rich son of the clubs other co-founder. None of these stories are important though, you're not meant to care too much about any of the plots. The whole film is an extended, bigger budget SNL sketch playing to the relative strengths of the cast.

The three comic leads do not share a lot of screen time together, instead they are each given several scenes of their own where they get to play off the 'straight men' in the cast. The exception being Murray, who is usually on his own mumbling crazy stuff to himself. Chevy Chase is not much of an actor and is usually too one dimensional and self satisfied to carry a film on his own but here he really gets it right. He plays his rich playboy character very well and is genuinely funny throughout. Rodney Dangerfield doesn't need to do much more than be himself (or at least his on-stage persona). He dominates every scene he's in and his loud, obnoxious delivery plays perfectly against the stiff, self important members. As with Chase, a whole film of Dangerfield can be trying but when used episodically as he is here it works perfectly.

Now, Bill Murray does have the talent and charisma to carry a whole film, he always has done. In that respect it's strange that his part here is probably the smallest of the three and almost a cameo but he still manages to make it one of the great comedy characters. He very rarely shares screen time with the others and it was only at the last minute that a scene between him and Chase was written in. A good job too as it is one of the funniest in the film.

There are several standout set pieces in the film and it is these scenes that make the film worth watching again and again. Czervik's opening scene in the pro shop is one, where he flashes the cash and the brutal one-liners to the shock of the staid members and again later at a formal dinner where he manages to insult everyone from the chef upwards. Cobb's Zen like golf discussions with Danny and his date with the lovely Lacey Underall (niece of Judge Smails) give Chase just the right amount of space to be funny without becoming his usual annoying self. And every scene with Spackler is a display of comic genius; Murray just nails the character perfectly, ad-libbing on several occasions it is possibly his funniest role.

Caddyshack is a very eighties film (even the theme song is sung by Kenny Loggins) but it comes from the same stable as National Lampoon's Animal House and this was their golden age. If you're a fan of eighties films (you know who you are) I'd be amazed if this wasn't one of your favourite films from the period.

Just to clarify things a little. I said this was the best golf film ever made and it is. That doesn't mean it is the best film ever made, or the funniest film ever made, or even the best sports film out there (for the record they are The Italian Job, Withnail & I and Escape to Victory, run close by Slap Shot) but it's a damn fine film all the same. In contrast The Legend of Bagger Vance has only one thing in its favour (Charlize Theron in a petticoat since you ask) and that means it doesn't come close.

A lot of people like to include quotes from the film in their review, I don't usually see the point of these as they usually don't mean a lot if you haven't seen it but this film is chock full of great lines so I'm going to include some of my favourites below. To make things a bit harder I'm not going to provide any context or identify the characters saying them. While this may annoy some of you, for those who have seen the film they'll make you laugh so hard you'll probably have to go home early with a note from matron.

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"That's got to be the worst hat in the world. What, you buy that I bet they give you a free bowl of soup. Oh, it looks good on you though"

"Ooooh, Mrs Crane. You're a little monkey woman"

"Be the ball"

"You're not being the ball, Danny"

"Hey baby, you're all right. You must've been something before electricity, huh?"

"You're a lotta woman, you know that? Hey you want to make 14 dollars the hard way?"

"Did someone step on a duck?"

"I've sentenced boys younger than you to the gas chamber. Didn't want to do it - felt I owed it to them."

"Improve your lie sir?"

"Don't count that one, winter rules"

"The world needs ditch diggers son"

"Come on, bark like a dog for me. Bark like a dog! I will teach you the meaning of the word "respect"!"

"Double turds"

"Ooh Billy, Billy, Billy."

"It's a Cinderella story, the boy from nowhere. About to win the Master's. He's got about an 8-iron."

"What you've got to do is cut the hamstring on the back of his leg right at the bottom. He'll never play golf again, because his weight displacement goes back, all his weight is on his right foot, and he'll push everything off to the right. He'll never come through on anything. He'll quit the game."

"Cannonball!"

"So I jump ship in Hong Kong and make my way over to Tibet, and I get on as a looper at a course over in the Himalayas. A looper, you know, a caddy, a looper, a jock. So, I tell them I'm a pro jock, and who do you think they give me? The Dalai Lama, himself. Twelfth son of the Lama. The flowing robes, the grace, bald... striking. So, I'm on the first tee with him. I give him the driver. He hauls off and whacks one -- big hitter, the Lama -- long, into a ten-thousand foot crevice, right at the base of this glacier. And do you know what the Lama says? Gunga galunga...gunga -- gunga galunga. So we finish the eighteenth and he's gonna stiff me. And I say, "Hey, Lama, hey, how about a little something, you know, for the effort, you know." And he says, "Oh, uh, there won't be any money, but when you die, on your deathbed, you will receive total consciousness." So I got that goin' for me, which is nice."

I guess you had to be there, really.

So there you go, hopefully that's put the record straight and let there be no more question about what the greatest golf film is. And don't hold it against christianfilmcritic; he's way better at this than me and far more popular anyway. 

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