Caddyshack

Caddyshack: The Making of a Hollywood Cinderella Story by Chris Nashawaty

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Caddyshack, a classic comedy from 1980 featuring Bill Murray, Chevy Chase, and Rodney Dangerfield, has a backstory that is as interesting as the movie itself. And Chis Nashawaty’s book may serve as the definitive chronicle of a drug-addled party that was the filming of Caddyshack.

(Ok. So I’ve never actually seen Caddyshack. But I’ll probably give it a look now. My guess is that I will not be blown away by it because anytime something is billed as a classic or a must see or whatever is about when I realize that my taste and sense of humor is not quite in the same wheelhouse as others. Example: I cannot stand Adam Sandler movies, and shockingly enough, I am not really a 3 Stooges fan, either.)

I hope I’m wrong about how I’ll feel about the movie, because the book is a hoot.

Nashawaty delves into the whole story of the making of the film, how first time director Harold Ramis (Spengler in Ghostbusters) basically tried to make the most of the anarchic wit of his players, including the irrepressible Bill Murray. He starts with the founding of National Lampoon Magazine, (with the strange and ultimately sad tale of Doug Kenney) and how that led to Saturday Night Live and then movies.

But where the book really soars is in the tale of the film shoot in Florida, where the dream of making a movie that would at once be about class warfare but then strangely turn into the tale that somehow involves the use of a animatronic gopher (like I said, I haven’t seen it yet.).

This book is fun, but I will warn the overly sensitive: this movie and everything surrounding it was a product of the 70s. It’s not always a pretty picture.

Now…onto the movie!





View all my reviews