DVD Reviews

Caddyshack – Blu-ray Review

By Jeff Swindoll Jun 8, 2010, 16:53 GMT

The greenskeeper is about to start World War III--against a gopher. The judge plays to win but his nubile niece has her mind set on scoring her own way. The playboy shoots perfect golf by pretending he is the ball. And the country club loudmouth just doubled a $20,000 bet on a 10-foot putt. Insanity? No. Caddyshack. Chevy Chase, Rodney Dangerfield, Ted Knight and Bill Murray tee off for a ...more

Talk about a Cinderella story, Caddyshack is one of the all time funniest comedies.  It certainly made several of the actor’s star ratings fly high and did wonders for the career of fledgling director Harold Ramis, who had scored big writing Animal House.  

The Bushwood Country Club is a land of haves and have-nots.  The haves include the snooty Judge Smails (Ted Knight) who sees Bushwood as his own personal domain.  Ty Webb (Chevy Chase) could also be considered a have being a millionaire playboy, but he’s much too mellow and not as snooty as the high-strung Smails. 

One of the have-nots is caddy Danny Noonan (Michael O’Keefe) who is in need of the caddy scholarship to guarantee that he gets into college.  Webb, Noonan, and others are smitten when Smails’ sexy niece Lacey (Cindy Morgan) starts cruising through the club. 

Smails is exasperated when self made millionaire “condo king’ Al Czervik (Rodney Dangerfield) starts hanging around Bushwood.  Another pest around Bushwood is a burrowing gopher that assistant groundskeeper Carl Spackler (Bill Murray) is charged with exterminating. 

When Czervik challenges Smails to a high stakes golf match, Carl’s pursuit of the rampaging rodent will come to a head but a comedy classic will be born.  

Caddyshack is certainly no doodie.  It comes up in many “best comedies” lists and added fire to the careers of Rodney Dangerfield, Bill Murray, Chevy Chase, and director Harold Ramis.  As well as bringing new interest to old pros like Ted Knight and 1930s film star Henry Wilcoxon, memorably aping religious epics as Bishop Pickering. 

The real plotline of the show was to focus on the teenage crazies that occupied the caddy shack, but as the adult cast was populated with funnier adults the focus of the film happily shifted.  It’s hard to think that Rodney Dangerfield was basically an unknown movie commodity up until this point. 

It was deemed a great risk casting him, but it would make the standup comedian a movie star and finally get him some respect.  Bill Murray and Chevy Chase weren’t exactly big star names either at this point, but the success of Caddyshack would do a lot to change that. 

The film’s pedigree, standing, and classic status just cannot be denied.  What also cannot be denied are all the shenanigans that went on behind-the-scenes.  Drugs and booze flowed freely after hours and it seemed a wonder that the film actually got done.

When done the rough cut was four hours and it was only the addition of a mechanical gopher that went through all of the main stories that brought the film together.  The film was critically savaged but time has been kind to Caddyshack (Ramis tells a hilarious story about it getting 2 stars in TV Guide, but years late getting 3 stars, and speculates that like a fine wine it gets better as it ages!).    

Caddyshack is presented in a 1080p high definition transfer (1.85:1).  Special features include the 80 minute “Caddyshack: The Inside Story” (high definition) that aired on the Biography Channel, the 30 minute “Caddyshack: the 19th Hole” (standard definition) from the previous DVD release, and the 2 minute original trailer (standard definition).  

Tee up and don’t scream “rat farts” to the heavens, as Caddyshack has come to Blu-ray.  It’s the best that it’s ever looked (check out how those reds pop and Cindy Morgan never looked better – vavoom). 

Both the snobs and the slobs are honored in the great special features found on the disc.  It’s a hole in one, too bad it didn’t come with a bowl of soup.  

Visit the DVD database for more information.