Review of Caddyshack (1980) by James O — 25 Jun 2011

Hey guys remember Caddyshack? That delightful little comedy that starred Chevy Chase...oh he was a side character? Well remember that film from the man that's brought us so much joy with his hilarious one liners Rodney Dangerfield...oh he was a one dimensional side character as well? Well remember that classic that finally gave the spotlight too Mary Tyler Moore alum and comic genius Ted Knight...oh he was the one dimensional antagonist? Well remember that movie that made a star out of good old Bill Murray...oh he was in the movie for about fifteen minutes? Who the fuck starred in this the animatronic gopher?????? Guys truth of the matter is Caddyshack was a comedy at the dawn of the 80s written by that cranky old guy who voiced the Flying Dutchmen in Spongebob, a co founder of the horribly dated National Lampoon magazine and the ridiculously overrated Harold Ramis aka the Nerdy Ghostbuster. It was in fact about a young caddy trying to find a way to finance his dreams for college but the film was so easily distracted by its crude, lazy, one dimensional side cast that its pretty damn easy to forget that. The film was loosely based on the writers real summer experiences and the conditions in filming it were so unstructured that normally amicable Ted Knight got really pissed about how Dangerfield, Chase and Murray all improved their way from minor to major roles in the film which fits in well with the actors screen hogging reputations especially Chase. Hell Bill Murray was not even scripted Ramis just liked him from SNL and told him to wing it even the famous "Cinderella Scene." But surely the hectic nature of the filming nature must have paid off right? After all some bona fide like Miller's Crossing and Apocalypse Now have been filmed in less than favorable conditions with steadily growing irritated casts. And besides critics seemed to like this movie alright and too a lot of people it's one of the greatest comedies ever made it can't be all bad right? Let's take a look with random live action cartoon interjections.

Our film is about a young college bound caddy named Danny Noonan (Michael O'Keefe who's performance while not completely DOA lacks the star making zeal for this kind of picture) who comes from a lower middle class family and being only a caddy for local eccentric Ty Webb (Chevy Chase who I actually like sometimes but here is allowed to be far too indulgent). However he sees an opportunity for success when the caddy who won the country clubs caddy scholarship dies and with a little brown nosing to rich and powerful Judge Smails (Ted Knight who gives easily my favorite performance of the cast as a fuddy duddy with anger problems). The stakes are heightened however when local real estate loud mouth Al Czervik (Rodney Dangerfield who really does give his definitive movie performance here) places a huge bet over a golf game with Smails and Danny is forced to choose his path in life and Smails faces off with Ty and Al. Yeah I know emotionally gripping, and truly profound stuff here.

I want to like this movie I really do, I love all of the actors involved even the ones I think are probably assholes like old Chevy and the humor and counter cultural sensibilities are trying oh so very hard to reach me. But the movie is drowned in a sea of ADD and inflated egos. You can totally see how the film was supposed to function as the story of Danny and Smails with every other major character especially Bill Murray's "Carl" as minor to cameo appearances and I dare say it might have even been better, more focused and with a more worthwhile story to tell. True some great performances would have been lost but you look at the possibilities here and almost weep for the comedic golf coming of age story that could have been. Meanwhile Chevy, Rodney and Bill are all very obviously improvising with varying degrees of success. Dangerfield is the most successful floating in and out of the film spouting obnoxious one liners that stir up the comedic pot and give us the best out of Ted Knight as he becomes increasingly deranged and a lot of the one liners are actually really funny. Billy Murray meanwhile is trying way too hard to be the Bluto Blutarsky out of place oddball comic relief of this movie that it's painful especially how much he fails. He's just not given much to work with and this character is too far out of Murray's loveable smart ass bounds to be good or memorable. His tired, well worn subplot of chasing after a gopher on the golf course who consistently outwits him is damn near agonizingly familiar and uninteresting, Murray's only laughs coming from scenes where his character voyeuristicly observes golfers and acts out his fantasies. Chase however is easily the most insufferable as he tries way to hard to be a mysterious, eccentric, ladies man and counter cultural icon none of which he possesses the likability to be. I enjoy Chevy Chase as the asshole and even as the prat falling goofball like in National Lampoons Vacation Movies and Fletch, but the man is a tool who became famous for making pathetic ploys for attention on SNL by falling out of his chair like Gerald Ford. Scenes in here where he dispenses sage advice, mediates and woos the admittedly sexy Cindy Morgan are alarmingly annoying and won't make him any fans. Though I did like the scene where Carl and Ty meet, since the tension between Chase and Murray (who have hated each other since their SNL days, this being the only scene in movie history they appear in together) is damn near palpable.

This movie scores some intermittent laughs to be certain, and over the years has accumulated a large following but even though I myself enjoy it somewhat I can't on any level call it a success. The jokes aren't always on par the scene with the Baby Ruth being painfully stupid and unbelievably overrated and as a work of story telling the movie fails on all conceivable levels of effectiveness it's just sad. It's not even like it's a good piece of film making either, the shots are often kind of grainy feeling like a 70s TV show instead of an 80s block buster, and the audio quality especially when it comes to adding up to the scenes sometimes it being incredibly unclear which character is talking. Plus it wasn't supposed to look real but I HATE that stupid fake looking little gopher I want to punt its little puppet ass into a water hazard. Still any movie to gather such a religious cult like following and keep it for thirty years must have done something right and its not the most painful experience ever so I say it's still worth a watch or two. If nothing else just to say you have.