Caddyshack (1980)

"One of those rare comedies where everything clicks. A true classic.  Bill Clark, From The Balcony
"...a gross-out gem, one of the ultimate 1980s flicks...  James Sanford, Kalamazoo Gazette
"Makes a perfect double feature with "Animal House."  Scott Weinberg, eFilmCritic.com
"...you won't forget Bill Murray's turn as a goofball groundskeeper obsessed with blowing a pesky gopher to kingdom come.  Thomas Delapa, Boulder Weekly
"A slapstick comedy featuring a host of great clowns.  TV Guide's Movie Guide

Editor's Note Harold Ramis's directorial debut is a hysterical farce set at the typically hoity-toity Bushwood County club. A send-up of the typical class struggle, it pits the caddies against the establishment with riotous results. This wacky comedy features insanely funny performances from Bill Murray, as the local groundskeeper obsessed with killing off the gophers who are infesting the golf course, as well as Chevy Chase as a wealthy antiestablishment member of Bushwood and Rodney Dangerfield, who shines as a land-shark real estate mogul who couldn't care less about the rules and regulations at the snobby club.

	Bill Murray
	Chevy Chase
	Cindy Morgan
	Henry Wilcoxon
	Michael O'Keefe
	Rodney Dangerfield
	Sarah Holcomb
	Ted Knight
	Brian Doyle-Murray, et. al. - Writer
	Douglas Kenney - Producer
	George Szeptycki - Art Director
	Harold Ramis - Director
	Johnny Mandel - Original Music By
	Jon Peters - Executive Producer
	Stevan Larner - Cinematographer
	William C. Carruth - Editor

This hysterical farce, set against the backdrop of the typically hoity-toity Bushwood Country club, pits the caddies vs. the establishment with riotous results. Danny, a poor kid from the wrong side of the tracks, is struggling to make it as a caddy at Bushwood. Terrified of being a caddy for life, he is dying to win the Bushwood annual caddy scholarship and is willing to do whomever and whatever it takes. The caddies carouse, smoke, and curse their way around Bushwood, wrecking havoc on the uptight rules and regulations strictly adhered to by most of the members of the club. Chevy Chase stars as Ty Webb, a wealthy antiestablishment member of Bushwood who tries to convince Danny that there is more to life than playing by the rules. This wacky comedy also features an insanely delightful performance by Bill Murray, as the local groundskeeper who becomes obsessed with killing off the gophers who have infested the golf course, with bang-up results. When Al Czervik (Rodney Dangerfield) comes to town he sets the country club--and Judge Smails, played by the fabulous Ted Knight--on end with his poor taste, bad humor, and big money. The final showdown between the snobs and the slobs is not to be missed. CADDYSHACK is one of the most-quoted comedies of all time, and with good reason.

"A flute without holes is not a flute; a donut without holes is a danish."----Ty Webb (Chevy Chase)

"Be the ball."----Ty to Danny Noonan (Michael O'Keefe)

"You must have been something before electricity."----Al Czervik (Rodney Dangerfield)

"I don't think the heavy stuff's gonna come for quite some time."----Carl Spackler (Bill Murray)

"It's in the hole!"----Spackler

"Gunga galunga."----Spackler

New York Times
"...A pleasantly loose-limbed sort of movie....You appreciate the effort and the intelligence behind [Murray's performance]..." 07/25/1980 p.C8

Total Film
"...It's freewheeling bonkers brilliance..." 11/01/2003 p.129

Premiere
"Murray's insane, mumbled monologues cracked audiences up for the entire movie." 04/01/2004 p.69

FilmCritic.com 8 of 10
No, they don't make 'em like this any more. Now you just can't make jokes about guys eating boogers and turdlike objects floating in the swimming pool -- not unless you want the FCC coming down on your ass! The absurd humor of Caddyshack is legend enough to merit little additional comment from me, but it's notable for featuring Chevy Chase in one of his most sophisticated roles -- but his deadpan dialogue is only the second-most quotable in the movie, after Bill Murray's infamous Carl Spackler, one of Murray's most ridiculous roles on film. The plot wanders around the golf course and involves a half-dozen elements, but if you simply dig the gopher, the caddy, and the Dangerfield, you're not going to be doing half bad. - Christopher Null

Reel.com 8 of 10
Caddyshack enjoys no small legion of ardent fans. These are the folks who take Chevy Chase's on-screen admonishment to "Be the ball," as a truism, a sort of widely applicable movie wisdom that ranks with the best of those classic quotable 80s movies. Whether or not the film itself merits its cult status almost doesn't matter; if Warner went through the trouble of rereleasing the DVD in a 20th anniversary edition, surely there must be a call for it. While I personally don't think Caddyshack belongs in quite the same league as other comedies of its vintage (Animal House, Meatballs, Stripes and Ghostbusters being the high-ranking members of the pantheon), the new DVD edition is certainly a little piece of heaven for its most exuberant admirers...Whether or not Caddyshack lives up to Ramis' claim that the film is "like a bottle of wine" is left to the future generations who have no nostalgia for watching the film as a teenagers in the 1980s. - Jeffrey Wachs