Caddyshack
Directed by Harold Ramis
- comedy
The story
At an exclusive country club, an ambitious young caddy, Danny Noonan, eagerly pursues a caddy scholarship in hopes of attending college and, in turn, avoiding a job at the lumber yard. In order to succeed, he must first win the favour of the elitist Judge Smails, and then the caddy golf tournament which Smails sponsors.
What it’s like
Bright, sun-bleached summer daylight over manicured fairways and sprinklers mist, shot in loose, unfussy compositions that let the comedy play out in wide frames. The sound is a bouncy late-seventies mix of pop-rock and easy-listening pulled into montage bursts, with cartoonish sound effects punching up the gags. The vibe is sunny, irreverent and rowdy, with a lazy-afternoon looseness that suits a casual weekend watch, a group movie night, or something easy to put on while half-listening. Pacing is episodic and sketch-like, moving from one set piece to the next, with the emotional core a scrappy kid trying to get ahead in a world that looks down on him. Intensity is mild: crude jokes, sexual innuendo, a brief pool-party nudity gag, slapstick mayhem and a big comic explosion at the end, but no real gore or cruelty. It is for people who want a sunny, silly comedy with a working-class underdog and anarchic, improvised-feeling energy.
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