Hey everyone, my name is Anthony and welcome back to my Movie Review.
Well, the summer is here since June 21st, so while im doing some movies in recent years, I felt like to going back in time to do the reviews for both fun and for my pick that I wanna share with you all. But you know what I like to pick? An underrated favorite from my experience or even from my parents (or both?). So, lets go back in time from the beginning of the 80s when we had some best one, some questionable ones, and of course, an underrated film that it didn’t have a great run, but becoming a cult following that we always love, with this one in today’s review.
“Caddyshack” is a 1980 sports comedy film that was written/directed by the late Harold Ramis (in his directorial debut), co-written/produced by Douglas Kenney, and co-written by Brian Doyle-Murray.
In order to know about this this, lets go back in time in the 1970s when we introduced the writer and producer of this movie, Douglas Kenney. After being graduated in 1968 in Harvard University (when he was a member of Signet Society, the president of Spee Club and editor of The Harvard Lanpoon) and published his parody novel called “Bored of the Rings” with his buddy Henry Beard, he, along with Beard, decided to working together to make parodies, but unlike MAD Magazine (which is a parody on many pop cultures), they made their own parody magazine, but more towards sophistication, surreal, relatable and satirical, and they called it “National Lampoon”. Founded in 1969 (nice…!) and first published in 1970, this humor magazine was a huge deal for breaking the boundaries of comedy that it poke fun of in satirical ways like a fictional stories, a fake comics and more. Of course, with the success of National Lampoon, its no stranger that several people who’re involved from the magazine would build up their careers from sketch comedy show like Saturday Night Live and of course, going to the Hollywood like John Hughes’s buildup career (which he’s my favorite filmmaker since Vacation, Planes, Trains and Automobiles and couple more), and of course, Kenny would jumping in to writing his first passion project to the big screen with Harold Ramis came in to co-write (along with Chris Miller) and John Landis that we all know, National Lampoon’s Animal House.
With the success of Animal House for to poke fun of college frats vs authorities with great reception and box-office hit, Kenney and Ramis are planning to write the next movie along with then new production team called “Orion Pictures”. But the problem came when they were stuck to figuring out what kind of story was about, whereas Ramis wanted to make a parody about American Nazi party, while Kenny suggested about a Buddhist monks who takes down airplanes with mind powers, none of them got greenlit, but one idea were picked up. Enter Brian Doyle-Murray, the older brother of Murray brothers, stepped in for his own idea to share. It was based on Doyle-Murray’s experience when he worked as a caddie in Indian Hill Club on Winnetka, Illinois, to which surprisingly, Ramis and Bill Murray liked that idea, since they were also used to be caddies when they were teens. And Ohhhhh boy, while they’re filming in Florida, but production was an utter chaos from what I’ve heard, mainly they were constantly having a party whenever the filming were done perfectly, especially when they brought drinks and cokes that it feels like a real life Animal House (without the frats vs authorities). As Peter Berkrot puts it, “the fuel that kept the film running”, based on the mention of nose candy in the production. And as one of the producers puts it “The production of Caddyshack is like daycare without supervisor”, which makes me wondering how Harold Ramis felt when making this movie with all the chaos and snorting sugars involved, perhaps the same goes to Douglas Kenney, but that’s just me, then again, this is Ramis’s first film he ever directed. However, despite Kenney was anticipating for his finished product, all good things tragically came to at end for what happened to the co-founder of National Lampoon, but il save it before my final opinion.
When Caddyshack too the swing with golf club on July 25th, 1980, it was like a Double Bogey, it has a very mixed reception that, while it has a good idea for relatable story and jokes, but ruined from lack of direction a nearly non-existent story. And the box-office isn’t as great as Animal House, with earning $60M over between $4.8-6M. But I think the reason why the box-office didn’t went well, its because this movie came out one month after the overly successful parody movie “Airplane!” with Jim Abrahams and Zucker Brothers (which I actually like this movie).
Of course, as time went on, it ended up becoming a cult favorite for anyone who’ve seen this. Better yet, its not just cult favorite, but an underrated classic, even RottenTomatoes gave it 73% based on 62 reviews, with fun characters, relatable stuff and memorable quotable lines.
As for my experience? My parents remember this movie long years before I was born, they loved it for how funny it was from memorable actors and jokes, I’ve heard about it, but didn’t get to see it, which it wouldn’t be until I eventually bought both DVD from couple years ago, and digital version on YouTube and… It ended up being listed of my “Rewatch films” list, because… I think my parents were right, I actually enjoyed it, but as a reviewer, I can give my thoughts what I like, share some interesting facts and even some downside of this movie.
So, with all that said, can Caddyshack still holds up as an underrated classic, or is this film should be fed to gopher?
Well, lets find out.
The Story
For a movie about the caddies and rich golfers, you would expecting to give some interesting plot and show the club building itself? Well, yes and no, at least some writing can be good.
The movie begins in the house of Noonan’s family, which we see the family are… Dare I say, crazily crowded…! Though the only one who’s focus on, is Danny Noonan, a high school student who’s anxious on his future, mainly because he needs to raise money for his college, or he’ll be living in hell of menial job. What kind of job he has? Why, working as a caddie on Bushwood Country Club, which he mainly following his caddie duty to any rich golfers. While at the same time, he also going in point of view in his goal from follow the order from Elihu Smails to have a hard time to connect with, such as when he’s going on relationship with Maggie O’Hooligan and Lacey Underall, but its up to him to see to keep his caddie career going without screwing up his life.
Yeah, while I find the concept to be pretty nice and relatable, but its just that after the first act, the narrative is completely gone missing, even the direction is mismanaged that we never get a continuation of the plot or so. Which in the original script, its meant to be a slice-of-life story to focus on Danny and him only, but what happens next is that the story became unfocused when we have sorta all-star cast in this movie like Chevy Chase, Bill Murray, Ted Knight and Rodney Dangerfield. Which pretty much means we’re supposed to focus on Danny that we can relate of trying to get himself to the ground for his future, but its leaning towards four stars in this movie. But im not saying the writing is bad, but its the execution how the direction of narrative focus was thrown out, but it does have a redeeming qualities, such as how we have Danny depicted as a point of view protag to see what’s going on at country club from rich golfers and the craziness with caddies, you can feel Danny being seen as an outsider for what we just witnessed. That’s one thing that I like, we like to have a protagonist being a point of view characters for what we see some fun and chaotic stuff going on and its up to us to figuring out, if execution of the plot could’ve gone better. But of course, since this is a sports comedy film, its no stranger that it has a memorable jokes and gags in this movie, mainly with memorable comedic dialogue from Al Czervik, a fun angering reaction from Judge Smails or even commenting and improvising moments with Carl Spackler. Speaking of the latter, the movie has a subplot where Carl was tasked to hunting down the gopher for ruining the golf course, which is up to Carl to hunt down the annoying little rodent, which, even if it has nothing to do with the plot (kinda for the climax), but find it to be funny and entertaining to see Carl tries to taking down the gopher, but failed in hilarious fashion as trying to watering gopher from the water hose or misses the gopher with his rifle with a punchline of “FREEZE GOPHER!” (I can’t help to saying that punchline in out of context, because its so funny from its timing). But of course, there’s also the swimming pool which looks fun and normal at first, but much like Animal House, the caddies went in to make a chaos, but one of the caddies threw a chocolate bar in to easily mistaking it as a “DOODIE!!”, but who’s gonna clean the pool? Why none other than Carl himself, like he just took a bite like nothing happened (that is so funny and relatable how no one can tell the difference between chocolate or a poop, especially at the end with a bite on a soggy chocolate). And lastly to bring up another fun part is when Al Czervik sees Smails celebrating 4th of July and takes his action by piloting the yacht in reckless way, along with throwing a butt load of punchlines in Al’s commentary, such as an incoming plane that he though he got hit by Amelia Earhart, a flock of jet skis that he thought its “Hell’s Angels”, and of course, it ends with blaming at Elihu for scratching his anchor after dropping it. Its always the timing for the build up the craziness going to give us some of the funniest and entertaining scenes in the movie, along with memorable dialogue or even a punchline.
While the story feels M.I.A. due to focus on high profile actors at the time, but its just the writing is pretty good for its point of view development, something that we can relate, and it has the funniest jokes and gags in the movie, especially with the subplot about trying to hunting down the gopher, however more on the latter later.
The Presentation
Like I said before, the movie’s budget costed around $4.8M to $6M, which is doubled(?) than Animal House, and the presentation of this movie is pretty good, for not-so low budget film.
Unlike Animal House, which was filmed in LA, California,, this movie was filmed all the way down to Florida (minus Noonan’s family house and Czervik’s condos, which they were filmed in LA), mainly because they don’t want to getting a constant meddling, but like I said before, the production was a Fuster Cluck with party and nose candy.
While it is a low budget film, I will say the filming locations are pretty nice looking from courses or maybe even outside of Bushwood Club like the chaotic swimming pool or even dock with yachts (though the latter was filmed not on the dock, but an outdoor restaurant called Rusty Pelican). While it has a pretty good shots from the views, but they did a good work with some shots from the timing of the jokes and such like the aforementioned swimming pool and dock for yacht club, but even the same goes to like indoor party in Bushwood.
Of course, the movie also brought some nice practical effects in this movie. This is thanks to one of the OG employees of Industrial Light and Magic named John Dykstra, ranging from rain effects, flying golf ball, one of greens’ flags getting sucked down to finally, the puppet of the gopher. It was originally going to be done with hand-puppet, but eventually build a small animatronic puppet gopher for both out of surface to the underground, which I find the gopher work is pretty cute, despite making him a nuisance for messing around in greens (I like to briefly mentioned the idea of the gopher was suggested by the executive producer, Jon Peters. Its hesitant at first, but Ramis said this will fits in for subplot for Carl). And finally, the climatic explosions were done in nearby Fort Lauderdale–Hollywood International Airport, despite some thought there was a plane crash occurred in misunderstood.
While its pretty simple to explain, but we can give credit that the way they filmed and effects are pretty good for what they pulled, even for small budget.
The Characters
Despite the story is lacking, you think the characters will be enjoyable and relatable from the get-go? No doubt on that.
Lets starts off with the main protagonist in this movie, Danny Noonan (played by Michael O'Keefe), he’s a college student who works as a caddy in Bushwood for the sake of his career, however, he’s anxious that he needs to raise money for his potential future or going downhill in dead-end job. I find him to be pretty nice and relatable, he’s more down to earth student who just wants to raise more money for his college without falling down to menial, especially he’s also act like a point of view that we can see what kind of crazy stuff going on in Bushwood from crazy party-like nature of caddies to confrontation between the snob leader of the country club and a slob for party nature. Though sometimes he can unfortunately get himself into negative effects like sticks too much with Judge Smails that make him feel like he’s in rich life or even being a jerk of his bad responsibility, especially for building up with chemistry with Irish waitress Maggie. While I find him pretty good, but like I said before, he’s gotten nearly less focused when we have high profiled actors in the movie that they ended up became the focus than Danny’s journey. Though in fairness, il give an appreciation for O’Keefe of his performance for being an outside to see the crazy stuff and trying to connect with.
Lets start get to the four main appearances in this movie (Sorry, Danny), starting with Ty Webb (played Clark W. Griswold himself, Chevy Chase), he’s a wealthy son of one of the founders of country club, along with showing his zen personality for being both gentleman and giving advice. I find him a pretty nice character too, he plays sorta like a mentor to Danny when it comes to shows for gentle play or even rooting for him for the future of his college, especially he likes to be good and squeakily clean thanks to his zen personality. Chevy did a good work of his performance for his gentle with a sense of humor personality.
Next, we have Elihu Smails (played by the late Ted Knight), he’s the elitist founder of his country club that he wants his property to be peaceful and strict without the chaos, hence why he’s been often referred as “Judge Smails”, but whenever if its not going on the way, he gets cranky easily in confrontation with his funniest reaction. I find to be also pretty good, seeing how he’s a cranky boss who cares so much about protecting his country club without causing the chaos, otherwise he’ll be crazily mad that he’ll always stand on the ground to never mess with him for playing golf or even telling those caddies to quit messing around, or else. Of course, its worth noting that this is Ted Knight’s final role for this movie, though understandable for his age, but did a pretty good job for being a villainous protective and funny from his confrontation and his delivery.
Then we have Al Czervik (played by the late Rodney Dangerfield), he’s a New Rich on both real estate developer and golfer from his colorful party nature for being Smails’s worst enemy. Its safe to say that pretty much steals the show that he likes to joining golf for throwing money of his will of party and even betting, the latter of which that Smails is always refusing to pay up for gatekeeping his property, even if it didn’t matter that Al always like to play for tons of cash for his real estate, let along with his unique gadgets in his gold bag and of course, his crashing party, especially for giving us his memorable lines from questioning over striped hat, annoying Smails for betting or even accusing him for scratching his anchor. Its also worth noting that this is Rodney Dangerfield’s first acting role in feature film, even if he was like in his age of late 50s, its mainly because he was well-known of his stand-up comedy in late 60s to the 70s. Aside for his possibly dead nervous, but he did a great and fun work of his role, even though he plays just like when he’s in stand-up comedy for being loud and unapologetic.
The last but definitely not the least is Carl Spackler (played by Bill Murray), while I like Al Czervik, but Carl is also best part of this movie, since he’s both funny and relatable for the way he was written and delivered, he’s living in a crummy life as a greenskeeper for taking good care of country club, thanks for being told about the gopher is on the loose, he starts out as being shy, perverse and somewhat miserable, but after the days for failing to hunting down a gopher, you can can see Carl is going insane in his absolute desperation to take down the gopher, like the scene where his sanity builds up with crushing clay gopher with his creepy, but funniest laugh (Sheesh, at least Elmer Fudd has his limits, eh?).
I should also like to point out that I saved last part (outside of story and presentation) is the famous scene where Carl and Ty talked together during the buildup climax, its completely unscripted and both fascinating and fun to watch, which im pretty sure Ramis thank that this will be an opportunity to have a screen time with both Bill and Chevy based on their different personalities (even for the first and only time they act together on the big screen). But the behind the scenes was a different story, because back in SNL days, Chase and Murray hated each others so badly that always have an argument or even a fight, but when both of them were in this movie, they played well and professionally without a fight, which im sure some crew members were scared if the same scuffle occurs, but they played nice and fair, so good for them for possibly bury the hatchet. Though from what I’ve found it, it was originally going to have two scenes with Ty and Carl, not just before the climax, but the scene where Carl demonstrates how to play golf after showing up with his greenskeeper tractor. While this scene is nice, but it kinda ruins the preparation of the climax, which probably explained why this supposed scene was cut, aside brought it back for TV airing.
As for the rest, I find some characters can be funny, some for the plot purposes or some are just… There.
There’s Maggie O'Hooligan (played by Sarah Holcomb, but sadly in her last role due both mental struggle and substance abuse) who’s Danny’s girlfriend when they first met in Bushwood, Lacey Underall (played by Cindy Morgan) who’s Smails’s neice who’s easily making golfers or caddies getting distracted from her beauty (despite the lack of motive she has, before she sleeps with Czervik), Tony D'Annunzio (played by Scott Colomby), one of the caddies, but made as a bitter relation to Danny (which I wish we wanna see more, but again, due to major stars took over, we never get to see more), Spaulding Smails (played by John F. Barmon Jr) who’s Smails’s grandson for causing troubles, and Lou Loomis (played by Brian Doyle-Murray, you know, the same guy who came up the idea of this movie) who’s the manager of caddie shack in Bushwood.
While the story is lacking, as I’ve said before, but the characters with jokes, the deliveries and the way they’re written are pretty good that makes them enjoyable and relatable. For the most part.
SPOILER ALERT, for those who haven’t seen this movie, if you don’t mind
The final act is where we get the continuation story, but again, more towards the main stars than the main caddie Danny.
After conversation about keep misadventure in secret for Danny’s scholarship (after he slept with Lacey, much to hilarious dismay from Elihu’s reaction) and Maggie’s pregnancy was just a misunderstood for Danny being a jerk (yeah, the whole false pregnancy is out of place), things are about to get interesting, where Al Czervik shows up with Lacey for his constant show up as a guest, mainly he would like to stay more for fun, but Judge Smails, being sick and tired of Czervik’s presence, he chooses to announced the developer will NEVER promoting Al for membership, leaving Czervik argues that, if he isn’t gonna be a manager, then he’ll buy Bushwood for takeover. This leaves a battle of insults between two rich people, but Ty broke up the argument to ask them about the choices, which Al eventually suggest they shall have competition of team golf match between Judge Smails and his partner Dr. Beeper (played by the late Dan Resin) vs Al Czervik and Ty Webb, the latter who’s reluctant at first, but accepts the deal to win the match for $40K after doubling the original wager of $20K. Meanwhile, our old friend Carl is setting up his ultimate weapon, by creating rodents out of clay as a distraction to a gopher, but what gopher doesn’t know are the clay are made with plastic explosives from Carl’s detonation.
And thus brings us the climax of 2-vs-2 golf match, whoever has lowest strokes, wins the big money. As the match begins, it got a lot of attention both employees of Bushwood and Caddies to see the exciting match for money, despite when Judge Smails has secretly cheats by move the ball with his foot, much to disgust to Danny (as Smails’s caddie) for being forced to remain silent by judge for what he just seeing. Aside the employees and caddies are throwing crazy bet in excitement from situation out of game or watching the climatic game, Ty and Al are falling behind from Smails and Beeper, that is until they decided to doubling the winning price from betting to $80K, much to regret to Czervik in concern. But after Al swung his ball that got backfired from ricochet to his arm, he flops himself over his broken arm (aka pretending to getting hurt from foul in the middle of the game), causing Al wanting to call a draw, but got rejected that the game must go on, unless Al and Ty are looking for substitute (aka replacing over Czervik), Ty eventually picked Danny for replacement, much to dismay for Judge Smails which it’ll revoke Danny’s scholarship, while Al tells him if win, it’ll worth more for a while, so Danny accepts to joining Ty and Al’s team. While Danny doing his best to play golf (much like when he wins in Caddie Day golf tournament), while Ty is struggling in a hilarious fashion his ball being stolen by a bird (tho only good luck in Haiti) or even fall flat after took a swing. After all the holes, this bring them to the last hole in putting and both teams were tied, while Beeper missed the hole with two strokes, but Judge Smails, with summoning his trusty putting club called “Billy Baroo”, he ends up shoot and scored to the hole (Oh wait, this is golf, not hockey…). As for opposite, Ty was hopefully to get in the hole, but ends up in the same way as Beeper, so Danny is the last hope to win the match. But before Danny is about to hit the ball, Al Czervik make a last minute betting to Double or Nothing if Danny wins, which Judge Smails accepts the final bet. But once Danny hits the ball… The ball stops in small inches in edge of the hole, leaving Smails and Beeper celebrates their winning. But the celebration didn’t last long when Carl pulls the trigger of his detonator to start blowing up nearly everywhere in his desperation to kill the gopher! So. Man. Explosions! With explosions that causing a small earthquake, Danny’s ball manages to fall in the hole, declaring Birdie and victory on both Danny, Ty and Al to beat Beeper and Smails.
In the end, while Carl secretly walk away from the area to cover his ass, Al demands Judge Smails to pass the money for the endgame, which Elihu easily refuses to give it away. But of course, due to Smails being a sore loser, Czervik calls Moose and Rocco to punish him, pretty much ensure him to pay up, while Al celebrating that its time to get laid and party in celebration and lived happily ever after. And some how… The gopher has survived from the explosion with dancing “Im Alright” by Kenny Loggins (gotta love this song both the opening and the ending).
I will, despite the story aren’t great for being lacking, but the climax is pretty good to see who’s going to taking over to win the betting game. Aside the whole keeping misadventure part in secret just doesn’t work, and the misunderstood pregnant part just resolved too quickly like nothing happened.
Before I wanna give to my final thoughts, remember when I mentioned before about the quote “All good things tragically came to at end” before starting my review? This is where we’re getting to the unfortunate situation before the film’s release. When Jon Peters suggested the gopher for the final cut with Harold Ramis’s approval for subplot in goofy nature, our familiar producer, Douglas Kenney wasn’t so pleased to have the gopher, mainly because he doesn’t want his passion project kept going without interference from the executive since his experience with Animal House, but alas, because of this, his hope of his next film like this didn’t go very well, he even grew depressed when Airplane came out that because a huge success, pretty much overshadowing his anticipated Caddyshack. During the press conference for the movie, some actors and the people who worked on this movie thought Douglas was no shown, but not before he broke in, completely intoxicated from drinking, and straight up bad mouthing over his project. This situation is the most embarrassing and lowest point of his life. After the movie came with not-so good box-office result and panned reception, Kenney was so upset in depressing mood that he went into vacation in Maui, Hawaii with his girlfriend and his good pal Chevy Chase. This is meant to give him a break from Hollywood to clear his mind from depression over Caddyshack’s failed result and even his substance abuse.
As Chevy and Kenney’s girlfriend flew back to LA, they unfortunately received a bad news, on August 27th 1980, a month after Caddyshack’s release, Douglas Kenney died from falling off from Hanapepe Valley Lookout, a 35-foot (11 m) cliff, and his body was discovered 4 days later. At first, we thought he committed suicide, but the police classified it as an “Accidental death”. When checking at Kenney’s hotel room, they noticed numerous notes with jokes and supposed upcoming projects that Kenney would love to come back his trip. As far as we understand, Douglas Kenney wanted to moving away from Hollywood to take a break to clear his mind and hoping to show his future projects for his comeback attempt for another chance, but having him died too soon after the film’s disappointed result, is just heart broken. But it doesn’t mean we’ll forgetting him, Douglas Kenney was the best comedy writer back in the 70s for his game changing comedy style that we can looking back that we can laugh and we can relate to in various ways from magazine like National Lampoon to movies like Animal House and Caddyshack. Even though he was gone too soon with the age of 33, his legacy will live on that we’ll never forget for his black comedy writing style that he inspired many people for what he’s done.
Douglas Kenney ❤
(December 10, 1946 – August 27, 1980)
And now for my Final Opinion of this film
Overall, while its not perfect for many ways, I still enjoy Caddyshack for fun and share some good stuff how they gave us.
It has nice and relatable plot elements, the presentation looks cheap, but good looking, it has some memorable characters, the acting is fun, the effects are good and the jokes are both enjoyable and funny that we like to see from memorable quotes and visual gags.
While I enjoy this one, but like I said, its suffered numerous problems like lackluster narrative that it supposed to be focus on Danny, but gotten lost when familiar actors joined in, some of the characters could’ve gone better for the execution from the writing and such and some moments like keeping awkward situations in secret and misunderstood pregnancy are both out of place and poorly executed.
Sure its not as great as Animal House, but like I said, Caddyshack earned a cult following that we enjoy this movie from memorable characters, quotable lines and good jokes that we just like to come back to see it since the good’ol days like my parents loved this movie so much before I was born, which I will admit, my parents aren’t wrong after I rewatching it many times. If you’re a fan of National Lampoon or a good’ol 80s comedy movies, I’d say go check it out, just for the sake of humors and memorable parts, despite the lack of narrative. Like I said, even if the movie didn’t received well when it first came up and untimely death of Douglas Kenney, this movie deserves a recommendation to watch for fun and appreciation to the people who worked on this movie.
For my rating, im gonna give this one 7.5/10.
So this ends of my Movie Review, if you guys have your opinion or any suggestions, let me know at comment bellow and support me on KO-FI.com/blackevil.
Thanks for reading, and im Anthony, signing out.
