Landscaping Changes

Rating: 10/10 (14 May 2003)

Caddyshack was distinctive in shedding light on the fact that it doesn't take a great script to produce an eminent movie. The film was originally planned out to be more oriented around the youthful character Danny, played by Michael O'Keefe. Being Harold Ramis' directorial debut it was not shocking to see a slide of importance from the youthful Danny Noonan to his search for a male role-model. The script claimed O'Keefe to be the main character; however he noticeably took a back seat to the slapstick comedic performances of Bill Murray, Rodney Dangerfield, Ted Knight, & Chevy Chase.	With a cast of this irrepressible quality it was simple to adhere to the demands for improvisation and omitting lines for more comedic séances. O'Keefe's character Danny Noonan was still the essence of the film by bringing out teenage-life issues such as college and poor grades. At Noonan's age, society and other forces create the need for a decision to be made about his future. Much like most other teens he had no clue and was searching for guidance. That guidance came through golfer Ty Webb who played more of a father figure role to Danny. Comparatively, Danny favored Ty as a role model rather than his own father whom seemed more of a typically oppressive figure. This was an important tie in with the audience because it is typically how all members of this age range view their parents in middle class suburbia. Even with a drastic changing of the tides with the script, O'Keefe could still be considered the star of the movie due to the fact that his character was the most sought after by the camera. However, the big name comedians slated on top of him even on the cover-box, leading to a less successful future than at first he had aspired. After Caddyshack, O'Keefe virtually fell of the face of Hollywood, only making minor appearances in some later blockbuster films such as The Pledge, Ghosts of Mississippi, and The Glass House. Never having a truly successful independent starring role O'Keefe is still searching over twenty years since his first starring character as Danny Noonan. On the flip side of the spectrum Bill Murray's character became an icon for the picture when at first Carl Spackler was slated to have fewer lines than a sheet of notebook paper. With Murray's uncanny ability to improve his Spackler took on a whole new dimension. From the background into the foreground, Spackler became as popularly associated with Caddyshack as Smails, Webb, and Noonan. As a result, Bill Murray's career outside of Saturday Night Live sky rocketed. He went on to star in an esteemed list of films such as Stripes, Ghostbusters, What about Bob, Groundhog's Day, Rushmore, and many more. Noonan's antagonist D'Azunnio was originally scripted as the second leading man. However with Knight and Dangerfield grabbing attention with their non-stop hilarity he quickly sank into the shadows. It was obvious that this film was a great success due to the improvisational skills of Knight, Murray, Dangerfield, and Chase. However the toll that was taken was to the careers of O'Keefe and his fellow youthful co-stars. Personally, I am grateful though because a series of movies starring Bill Murray sound much more appealing than Michael O'Keefe. Then again, I guess we'll never know.