Caddyshack is a 1980 American sports comedy film directed by Harold Ramis, written by Brian Doyle-Murray, Ramis and Douglas Kenney, and starring Chevy Chase, Rodney Dangerfield, Ted Knight (his final film role), Michael O'Keefe and Bill Murray with supporting roles by Sarah Holcomb, Cindy Morgan, and Doyle-Murray.

High school student Danny Noonan is anxious about his future, while he hopes to go to college to avoid being stuck in a menial job with no prospects, he is struggling to financially cover tuition.

Meanwhile, mentally unstable greenskeeper Carl Spackler is tasked with killing a destructive gopher driven onto the course by work on the adjacent property development owned by Al Czervik.

Later, Danny wins the Caddie Day golf tournament, earning him an invitation from Smails to attend the christening ceremony for his boat at the nearby Rolling Lakes Yacht Club.

There, Czervik disrupts the ceremony and accidentally destroys the boat, while Lacey seduces Danny and the pair go to Smails' house to have sex.

When his own ricocheting ball strikes his arm, Czervik feigns an injury in hopes of having the contest declared a draw but learns his team will forfeit unless they find a substitute.

At that moment, in his latest attempt to kill the gopher, Carl detonates plastic explosives that he has rigged around the golf course, shaking the ground and causing the ball to drop into the hole, handing Danny, Webb, and Czervik victory.

The film was inspired by writer and co-star Brian Doyle-Murray's memories of working as a caddie at Indian Hill Club in Winnetka, Illinois.

The explosions that take place during the climax of the film were reported at the nearby Fort Lauderdale–Hollywood International Airport by an incoming pilot, who suspected that a plane had crashed.

It was added by director Harold Ramis after realizing that two of his biggest stars, Chevy Chase and Bill Murray, did not appear in a scene together.

While there were some worries about how Chase and Murray would act around one another, due to their rivalry while working together on Saturday Night Live, the two remained friendly and professional with one another throughout the whole writing and filming of the scene.

[5] Murray was working on Saturday Night Live at the time, and was not intended to have a large role but his part "mushroomed" and he was repeatedly recalled from New York to film additional scenes as production continued.

Before the diver took over, she was led to the diving board by the crew and carefully directed up the ladder since she could not wear her contact lenses near the pool and was legally blind without them.

The production became infamous for the amount of drug usage which occurred on set, with supporting actor Peter Berkrot describing cocaine as "the fuel that kept the film running.

[1] The film was met with underwhelming reviews in its original release,[17] with criticism towards the disorganized plot, though Dangerfield's, Chase's, and Murray's comic performances were well received.

Roger Ebert gave the film two-and-a-half stars out of four and wrote, "Caddyshack feels more like a movie that was written rather loosely, so that when shooting began there was freedom—too much freedom—for it to wander off in all directions in search of comic inspiration.

"[18] Gene Siskel gave the film three out of four stars, saying it was "funny about half of the time it tries to be, which is a pretty good average for a comedy.

"[20] Vincent Canby gave it a mixed review in The New York Times, describing it as "A pleasantly loose-limbed sort of movie with some comic moments, most of them belonging to Mr.

The website's critical consensus reads, "Though unabashedly crude and juvenile, Caddyshack nevertheless scores with its classic slapstick, unforgettable characters, and endlessly quotable dialogue.

[24] Christopher Null gave the film four stars out of five in his 2005 review, and wrote, "They don't make 'em like this anymore … The plot wanders around the golf course and involves a half-dozen elements, but if you simply dig the gopher, the caddy, and the Dangerfield, you're not going to be doing half bad.

In 2007, Taylor Trade Publishing released The Book of Caddyshack, an illustrated paperback retrospective of the movie, with cast and crew Q&A interviews.

[35] On June 7, 2001, Bill Murray, Brian Doyle-Murray and their brothers opened a themed restaurant inspired by the film at the World Golf Village, near St. Augustine, Florida.