Caddyshack (1980)
A few months ago, I was watching Harold Ramis, the director of Caddyshack, discussing this movie and he said it was basically a modern day Marx Brothers movie. I didn't totally understand what he meant at the time, but I was watching Bill Murray be interviewed last night about his influences and he made me realize what Ramis was saying.
Murray said that he was a huge Marx Brothers fan and probably subconsciously took some of their physicality and made it part of his acting style. You have to feel totally comfortable in your own body to be a great visual comedian. Groucho would infiltrate someone's personal space and that would throw off their sense of balance and make him look bigger in the movie viewer's eye. Murray definitely tries to incorporate that into his style of acting. The way he swoops in on women in his movies or goes right after a potential domineering personality by trying to outmaneuver him. In Groundhog Day, "Ned, Ned Ryerson" and thrust his hand into Ned's hand for an unwelcome handshake.
So I started doing the mental math of Ramis' statement about Caddyshack. Rodney is definitely Groucho with all his bullshit and fast talk. Is Ted Knight Zeppo? But that doesn't really work, because Zeppo wasn't the bad guy. Zeppo would be Michael O'Keefe, the straight man who always looked to get the girl. No Knight was one of those nameless stooges that the Marx Brothers always laid waste to.
Bill Murray has to be Harpo here. He's not silent of course, but his verbal skills are hurt by his time in Vietnam. And Chevy Chase is Chico. Which kills me to say it, but he is a secondary flimflam man to Rodney's Groucho. Filled with great one-liners of his own.
Judge Smails: You know, you should play with Dr. Beeper and myself. I mean, he's been club champion for three years running and I'm no slouch myself. Ty Webb: Don't sell yourself short Judge, you're a tremendous slouch.
That's a perfect fit for "Aw, you can't fool me. I know there's no such thing as Sanity Claus."
And what makes the comparison even more perfect, while the Marx Bros. made movies about war and football and horse racing, I don't think they ever had a golf movie, which is the perfect sacred cow target for their anarchic ways.
I always liked Caddyshack when I was a younger, but as it has grown in stature in people's minds over the years, it has in mine as well. Of the 4 great Bill Murray movies of that era, Meatballs, Caddy, Stripes and Ghostbusters, it has moved up from third to second in my estimation. G,C,S,M. If Ramis and co-writer Brian Doyle Murray (Bill's brother) were consciously trying to make a new Marx Brothers film, then it rises even higher for me.
The Freditor
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment