CADDYSHACK (1980) **1/2 There can't be too many more inviting targets, for a comic, than golf clubs. Courses, clubs. There are so many things about it that are just laughable, starting with the sport itself, I mean, where would you start? Harold Ramis hits them all, and invents several new ones. It all seems so politically incorrect now-the ubiquitous drugs and sex, but I remember thinking at the time that it was one of the few films to capture mainstream America as it really was. Ted Knight's psychologically bloated and myopic, and hypocritical, judge is such an excellent cartoon that he's entirely accurate. He is more precise than reality in the sense that dispensible characteristics are entirely dispensed with. There were (are) thousands of that guy lurking the fairways! Cindy Morgan is also precisely on point as the rich bitch who enjoys watching bullfights on acid. Think about that one for a minute. Chevy Chase seemed really cool at the time, but watching the film again I think it had a lot to do with his Saturday Night Live portfolio. I mean, yeah, his character is pretty cool, but also hopelessly flawed in ways that don't perhaps strike you when you're 18. There may be a fine essay written someday on the vast expanse of potential vulgarities, and when it is written I wouldn't be surprised if the Bill Murray and Rodney Dangerfield characters are presented as boundary markers. What kind, I'm not certain. The boundaries that should not, or must, be passed? The barriers within which vulgarity can (ambivalently) be appealing? Dangerfield is wonderful for reasons that mainly have to do with who he's making fun of; Murray is the heart of the blue-collar American Dream, making up stories, strategizing a promotion to yet another horrible job, and rolling "Bob Marley joints" in an effort to make it all happen.
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