Caddyshack
When it comes to discussion of what are the absolute greatest comedies of all time, this 1980 release almost always falls into the mix, and it’s easy to see why: Toplined by four legendary comedy superstars along with a slew of offbeat supporting characters and all brought together by director Harold Ramis, a first ballot comedy hall of famer if there ever was one best remembered for co-writing and co-starring in Ghostbusters but whose comic pedigree goes way beyond that in terms of one way or the other being a part of some of the funniest films ever, and Caddyshack may very well be the crown jewel of his achievements. While the script as written was very much a coming of age story about a group of young caddies working at an exclusive country club, what happened during filming was almost an evolution of sorts into near absolute storytelling chaos, reflected beautifully in the finished product in a near ocean of crazed ad-libbing and improvisation from many of the key actors while the film jumps from one subplot to the next, keeping up an amazing pace and never getting boring as we come to know every inch of the humanity of Bushwood Country Club: Chevy Chase as Ty Webb is probably looser than Chase has ever been in a movie (and that’s saying a LOT), playing a mega-rich playboy type with some sort of Zen philosophy when it comes to golfing and life, and manages to get laughs mainly off his completely detached from reality or anything serious personality; Rodney Dangerfield as the crass millionaire with a working class mentality who arrives at Bushwood and upsets the establishment there entirely, throws out one liners left and right and lays comic devastation in his wake whenever he’s onscreen; Ted Knight’s Judge Smails is perhaps the character whose popularity has persisted the most to this day, the old, upper crust, easily exasperated white haired old man in charge of the country club despised by the younger people there because of his insistence on imposing his morality on everyone around him, even as Knight himself plays him so hilariously over the top that you can’t help but love him; and Bill Murray given nearly a whole portion of the movie to himself as the insane, pot smoking assistant groundskeeper who disgustingly lusts after the elderly women who play at the club while also declaring war on a pesky gopher who has been tearing the place apart, going so far as to use automatic weapons and even explosives. On top of these four legends, you have good characters almost all the way down the line, from Michael O’Keefe partially carrying the movie as young caddy Danny Noonan, getting mentored in life lessons from Chase while kissing up to Knight in order to get a caddy scholarship, to Scott Columby’s Italian tough guy and rival to Noonan, Tony D’Annunzio, to co-writer Brian Doyle-Murray’s prickly caddy boss Lou, and maybe best of all Cindy Morgan as Knight’s super sexy AND free spirited niece, Lacy. As the film purrs along from one comic setpiece to another and the story builds to a showdown on the golf course between rivals Dangerfield and Knight, the enterprise successfully retains an idiosyncratic feel of anarchy and even freedom, as Noonan’s ambitions of going to college are somewhat softened to the point to where, well, he’d probably be happier just doing whatever the hell he feels like doing, while Dangerfield and Chase’s hilarious displays of blatent non-conformity wind up giving Knight nothing but fits, and as for Murray, he literally winds up inventing his own form of comedic insanity (as well as his own grass), which are all reasons the film still stands tall today as we wither in the nadir of today’s cinematic comedy offerings, wishing we could find something even half as inventive, inspired, or just flat out funny as this Immortal Comedy Classic…
10/10