Caddyshack is a 1980 U.S. comedy film directed
by Harold Ramis and written by Brian Doyle-Murray, Harold Ramis
and Douglas Kenney. It stars Chevy Chase, Rodney Dangerfield,
Ted Knight, Michael O'Keefe and Bill Murray. Doyle-Murray also
has a supporting role.
The film was Ramis's first feature and was a major
boost to Dangerfield's film career: he was previously known
mostly for his stand-up comedy. Grossing almost $40 million
in the U.S. alone (16th highest of the year) it was the first
of a series of similar comedies.
In 2000, Caddyshack appeared on the American Film Institute's
list of the 100 funniest American films. In 2005, a line from the
movie was chosen by AFI for their list of the top 100 movie quotes
from U.S. films.
Set primarily on the golf course at Bushwood Country
Club, the story is a farcical clash between classes, on one side the
wealthy and privileged and on the other, the anarchic, young and noisy.
The club is represented by the chronically uptight Judge Smails (Knight)
and opposite him the vulgar, noisy, witty self-made man Al Czervik
(Dangerfield) and a group of caddies including Danny Noonan (O'Keefe).
Ty Webb (Chase) is a well-to-do but unassuming golf savant who blithely
plays both sides of the brawl. Out of the fight, but periodically
crossing paths with the others, is Carl Spackler (Murray), a lunatic
assistant greenskeeper locked in an increasingly armed death-struggle
with a gopher.
The plot, such as it is, hinges on two key golf matches.
In the first, Noonan wins a college scholarship and the favour of
Smails. The second is an illegal high-stakes gambling match which
forces Danny to side either with Czervik or Smails, at the end of
which Spackler dynamites the majority of the course trying —
unsuccessfully — to kill the gopher.
Caddyshack shares a similar feel to Animal House (1978),
also co-written by Ramis and Kenney. A belated sequel in 1988, Caddyshack
II, was not well received by critics or the public. |