Gunga Galunga: Caddyshack is 30 years old???

“It was when people didn’t have any idea what drugs could do to you. I’m going to answer that like I answer that to everybody. It was Florida. It was 1979.” – Scott Colomby portrayed caddie Tony D’Annunzio in Caddyshack

And with that quote, Colomby perfectly illustrates the debaucherous scene 30 years ago (!) when Harold Ramis and Doug Kenney teamed up to make a movie which took much deserved shots at the stodgy reputation of country club golf to task and openly and hilariously mocked it with devilish glee. The enduring legacy of the classic flick is shocking in light of the fact that the film was widely panned upon its release and barely given a second thought all those years ago. But as have been proven many times, a movie’s ascension to the status of cult classic usually has little to do with initial fanfare, mainstream success or even perception of quality. But Caddyshack has thankfully endured and to this day, one can still hear people reciting their favorite scenes from the movie, even while hanging out in the locker rooms during PGA Tour events.
So it’s got that goin’ for it, which is nice.

One of the Tour’s biggest fans of the movie is one Tiger Woods, who has seen it about as many times as the number of mistresses he has accumulated. When informed at Memorial earlier this year that this summer marks the 30th anniversary of the release of the most popular golf movie ever, Tiger’s face lit up, something that doesn’t happen quite as often as it used to:

“Is it really?” he asked.

“I don’t remember the first time (I watched it). As for how many, I’d have to say pretty close to a hundred by now,” Woods said. “I’ve got a bunch of lines but for some reason you kind of remember the more times you go through. It’s the little things. That’s what makes the movie so great.”
He was asked if he’d worn out the DVD yet.
“I’ll just buy another one,” he said. He can buy the new Blu-ray edition.

CBS golf analyst David Feherty on the film’s enduring legacy:

“For my money, the true measure of a movie is how accurately you remember the scenes,” says out-of-the-tee box CBS commentator David Feherty, who insists the movie changed the way people look at golf. “Every sick bastard I know can recite at least half the Caddyshack script. Then there are some people who quote from it and don’t even know what they’re quoting from. It’s become part of the modern vernacular.”

Hank Gola of the New York Daily News has written a lengthy and enlightening write-up regarding Caddyshack’s 30th anniversary, a sobering fact which makes me feel really, really old. It also motivated me to pop the DVD in to once again enjoy the hilarity of the movie that went on to become one of the best sports films ever made.
Cinderella story outta nowhere, indeed.

On 30th anniversary of Caddyshack, we haven’t stopped laughing at Bill Murray and Rodney Dangerfield [New York Daily News]