CANR
WORK TITLE: The Future Was Now
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CITY: Los Angeles
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COUNTRY: United States
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LAST VOLUME: CA 358
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PERSONAL
Born ca. 1969; children: Charlie and Rooney (twins).
EDUCATION:Connecticut College, B.A. (honors), 1991; Northwestern University, M.S.J., 1992.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Journalist, critic, media host, and writer. Reuters News Agency, Jerusalem, Israel, reporter, 1992; Entertainment Weekly, New York, NY, entertainment journalist and film critic, became senior writer, also hosted weekly Sirius XM show, 1993-2019; freelance writer and editor based in Westport, CT, 2019-22; Netflix, Los Angeles, CA, editorial manager in film, 2022-23. Has appeared in documentaries, including Love, Lust, and the Undead and Teen Spirit: Teenagers and Hollywood.
WRITINGS
Contributor to periodicals, including AARP, Esquire, Fast Company, Inc., New York Times, Sports Illustrated, and Vanity Fair.
SIDELIGHTS
Chris Nashawaty is a journalist and film critic. [open new/revised]Originally from Boston, he attended college in Connecticut and earned a master’s degree in journalism from Northwestern University, in Illinois. For twenty-five years he was a journalist and critic for Entertainment Weekly, rising to the position of senior writer and hosting a weekly radio show. He has also worked for Netflix. Nashawaty has appeared in documentaries on film-related topics, including Teen Spirit: Teenagers and Hollywood (2009) and Love Lust & the Undead (2011). His favorite film of all time is Jaws, which he described to the Los Angeles Public Library as “a perfect movie.”[suspend new]
In his first book, Crab Monsters, Teenage Cavemen, and Candy Stripe Nurses: Roger Corman, King of the B-Movie, Nashawaty looks carefully and critically at the career of one of Hollywood’s largest and most notorious personalities, moviemaker Roger Corman. Corman has long had the reputation of making cheap, schlocky movies filled with rubbery monsters, half-naked women, and unlikely plots designed to titillate while appealing to the lowest common denominator. In some cases, Nashawaty admits, this reputation may be deserved. In many others, however, Corman displayed genuine artistic vision and careful craftsmanship that should have earned him a place as one of the twentieth century’s most influential filmmakers. In his book, Nashawaty delves deeply into these instances to make the argument in Corman’s favor. “I can’t think of anyone else who has had the same sort of longevity and is as much of a throughline of the past 60 years of Hollywood. Corman may not be a household name, but he is probably the least known, most influential figure in the last half century of Hollywood,” Nashawaty told interviewer Christian Blauvelt on the Web site Hollywood.
Corman, Nashawaty notes, is indisputably one of the most prolific and consistently successful independent moviemakers in the film industry. Over a career spanning more than sixty years, Corman has produced hundreds of films, some geared solely to exploit whatever subject was popular in Hollywood at the time, others designed to convey a message, and still others intended to evoke the atmosphere and elegance of literary classics. For example, Attack of the Crab Monsters is an early low-budget monster movie, while his more recent CGI-effects-laden efforts such as Sharktopus are modern-day equivalents. Corman’s adaptations of Edgar Allan Poe masterpieces, such as Masque of the Red Death and the Tomb of Ligeia, starred Vincent Price and presented creditable interpretations of Poe’s macabre works. Other films, such as Little Shop of Horrors, received favorable attention even from Corman’s critics.
In addition to Corman’s artistic accomplishments, dubious or not, he is also credited with introducing several actors and directors who later became powerhouses in the movie industry. His early films gave chances to performers such as Jack Nicholson, Dennis Hopper, William Shatner, Pam Grier, and Bruce Dern. He gave opportunities as well to prominent directors such as Martin Scorsese, James Cameron, Ron Howard, Peter Bogdanovich, and Francis Ford Coppola.
Crab Monsters, Teenage Cavemen, and Candy Stripe Nurses includes Nashawaty’s own critical assessments of Corman’s work along with commentary from some of the notable actors and directors who got their start as participants in Corman films. “These first-hand accounts are chronologically compiled between narrative interludes by author Chris Nashawaty and a dazzling array of vivid movie posters, frame grabs and on-set photos. They paint a portrait of an affable, penny-pinching filmmaker who used his Stanford engineering education to learn the ins and outs of making money from movies primarily aimed at teenagers, cinema’s juiciest demographic,” commented Spectrum Culture contributor Josh Goller.
Nashawaty points out that one of Corman’s most valuable qualities was his ability to see trends and identify areas of interest that the major studios could not see or were not able to address quickly. Early on, Corman recognized teenagers as a viable and lucrative market for Hollywood films, a fact the larger studios were slow to realize. In later years, he understood the need for product in the early days of VHS tapes and rushed forward with movies geared to satisfy that burgeoning appetite for portable entertainment. Corman knew his formula well, and he used it repeatedly and to great effect to produce material that was perhaps not great film, but was entertaining, satisfying, and profitable.
“As an enthusiastic ode to colorful, seat-of-your-pants filmmaking, this one’s hard to beat,” remarked Rob Christopher in a Booklist review. New York Times reviewer Jason Zinoman called Crab Monsters, Teenage Cavemen, and Candy Stripe Nurses the “antithesis of Corman’s movies: lavishly produced, tastefully polite, exploiting no one. It mixes oral history with critical essays and colorful photos in an occasionally clumsy narrative.” Nashawaty’s account of Corman’s life and career “is not only totally and completely gratifying, it does the man and his history absolute justice,” commented Matt Molgaard for Horror Novel Reviews.
[resume new]Asked by Sports Illustrated to write an article to commemorate the thirtieth anniversary of the film Caddyshack in 2010, Nashawaty gathered so much material he turned it into a book. He told the Los Angeles Public Library, “I was a teenager in the 80’s, so movies like Caddyshack and the John Hughes movies and Stripes and Animal House were really formative for me.” After interviewing Bill Murray and Chevy Chase—who had a few crazy stories to share—and learning how chaotic the production was, Nashawaty realized that “there was a bigger tale to tell here about this whole decade of comedy, and how this movie embodies both the best and the worst of that decade.”
“Caddyshack”: The Making of a Hollywood Cinderella Story situates the cult-favorite 1980 film’s origins in the offices of Harvard’s Lampoon in the mid-1960s, where Caddyshack’s foremost writer, Douglas Kenney, served as editor. He later cofounded the National Lampoon, and satirical comedy rose in prominence through the 1970s, when Murray, Chase, Rodney Dangerfield, and the other stars of Caddyshack were honing their comedic personae. The film was a joint creative effort undertaken by NBC’s Saturday Night Live, National Lampoon magazine, and Second City, a Chicago comedy troupe,as a follow-up to Animal House. Yet Harold Ramis, directing his first film, lacked firm control over the production, and certain participants indulged in cocaine use. Kenny and Warner Brothers expected a flop, and the critical reception was muted, but the style of comedy as well as the novel filmmaking helped cultivate the longtime devotion of highly entertained baby boomers. On a somber note, Kenney died in an accident shortly after the film was released, at age thirty-five.
Reveling in Nashawaty’s “hilarious” depiction of the freewheeling production, a Publishers Weekly reviewer found that “Caddyshack” proves both an “entertaining showbiz chronicle and, by the conclusion, an unexpectedly moving tribute to Kenney’s short life and lasting comic legacy.” In Booklist, David Pitt observed that Nashawaty’s “prose is lively, and his exhaustive research is bolstered by interviews,” making for a “wonderful celebration of a passionately loved film.” A Kirkus Reviews writer called Nashawaty’s book “an eye-opening pleasure for Caddyshack fans.”
Zooming in on a single standout season in the history of filmdom is Nashawaty’s next book, The Future Was Now: Madmen, Mavericks, and the Epic Sci-Fi Summer of 1982. With the impact of Star Wars (1977) echoing through the science-fiction landscape half a decade later, a set of eight films—Blade Runner, Conan the Barbarian, E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial, Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior, Poltergeist, Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, The Thing, and Tron—pushed the boundaries of the genre in different directions. Each film experienced ups and downs in production, with schedules stretched and budgets ballooning. Creative differences between Ridley Scott and Harrison Ford resulted in Ford’s now-famous monotonal narration of Blade Runner. The stunts in Mad Max 2 necessitated a constantly idling ambulance; poor reviews of Star Trek II nearly wrecked the franchise; and Arnold Schwarzenegger was determined to emerge from Conan the Barbarian a genuine star. Tron made waves by mixing novel special effects with Shakespearean gravitas, and E.T. outpaced Star Wars to become history’s highest-grossing blockbuster. Among the book’s many interviewees are Jamie Lee Curtis, William Shatner, and Steven Spielberg.
A Kirkus Reviews writer enjoyed how Nashawaty “merrily dispenses dish” on relations between directors and stars and summed the book up as a “fast-paced, opinionated portrait of a magical stretch … of now-iconic sci-fi and fantasy films.” David Pitt in Booklist hailed the writing as “lively and entertaining” and called The Future Was Now “an absolute must-read for fans of films and books about films.”[close new]
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Booklist, October 1, 2013, Rob Christopher, review of Crab Monsters, Teenage Cavemen, and Candy Stripe Nurses: Roger Corman, King of the B-Movie, p. 12; David Pitt, February 1, 2018, review of “Caddyshack”: The Making of a Hollywood Cinderella Story, p. 10; July, 2024, David Pitt, review of The Future Was Now: Madmen, Mavericks, and the Epic Sci-Fi Summer of 1982, p. 10.
Fast Company, August 22, 2013, Jessica Grose, “From Crab Monsters to Sharktopus, What B Movie King Roger Corman Can Teach Us about Art and Business,” author interview.
Film Comment, November-December, 2013, Sarah Mankoff, review of Crab Monsters, Teenage Cavemen, and Candy Stripe Nurses, p. 79.
Kirkus Reviews, December 1, 2017, review of “Caddyshack”; July 1, 2024, review of The Future Was Now.
New York Times, December 6, 2013, Jason Zinoman, “Guilty Pleasures,” review of Crab Monsters, Teenage Cavemen, and Candy Stripe Nurses.
Publishers Weekly, December 4, 2017, review of “Caddyshack,” p. 52.
Sight and Sound, January, 2014, Kim Newman, review of Crab Monsters, Teenage Cavemen, and Candy Stripe Nurses, p. 105.
Week, August 16, 2024, review of The Future Was Now, p. 22.
ONLINE
Bookreporter, https://www.bookreporter.com/ (April 27, 2018), Stuart Shiffman, review of “Caddyshack.”
Entertainment Weekly, https://ew.com/ (October 20, 2024), author profile.
Hollywood, http://www.hollywood.com/ (September 19, 2013), Christian Blauvelt, “Author Chris Nashawaty Tells How Roger Corman Helped Invent Modern Hollywood,” interview with Chris Nashawaty.
Horror Novel Reviews, http://www.horrornovelreviews.com/ (November 9, 2013), Matt Molgaard, review of Crab Monsters, Teenage Cavemen, and Candy Stripe Nurses.
Los Angeles Public Library website, https://www.lapl.org/ (August 1, 2024), “Interview with an Author: Chris Nashawaty.”
Rich Ehisen website, https://www.richehisen.com/ (March 5, 2019), “A Few Words With: Chris Nashawaty.”
Spectrum Culture, http://www.spectrumculture.com/ (February 25, 2014), Josh Goller, review of Crab Monsters, Teenage Cavemen, and Candy Stripe Nurses.
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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Chris Nashawaty (born 1969)[1] is a former movie critic for Entertainment Weekly. He currently works at Netflix Tudum.[2]
Nashawaty is the author of the book The Future Was Now published in 2024.[3]
Education and career
Nashawaty has a master's degree in journalism from Northwestern University. He also has a bachelor's degree in arts from Connecticut College.
After college, Nashawaty was a reporter for Reuters in Jerusalem. Then he became a writer, editor, and movie critic for Entertainment Weekly (EW). He spent 25 years at EW.
Nashawaty has reviewed a book for The New York Times.[4] He has written for Sports Illustrated.[5] Nashawaty has written for Inc..[6] His article has also appeared in Fast Company[7] and AARP.[8] Nashawaty's writing has appeared in Esquire[9] and Esquire UK.[10]
Books
[icon]
This section needs expansion with: information about the subject/contents of the books. You can help by adding to it. (September 2024)
Anthony Lane reviewed The Future Was Now in The New Yorker.[11] Chris Vognar reviewed the book for the Los Angeles Times.[12] Vanity Fair published an excerpt from the book.[13] Mike Householder reviewed The Future Was Now in The Associated Press.[14] Wired magazine published an adapted excerpt from the book.[15] Hamilton Cain reviewed the book in the Minneapolis Star Tribune.[16] The Seattle Times republished the review.[17]
Allan Fallow reviewed Nashawaty's book Caddyshack in The Washington Post. The 2018 book is about the 1980 sports comedy film Caddyshack starring Chevy Chase, Rodney Dangerfield, Ted Knight, Michael O'Keefe and Bill Murray.[18]
Nashawaty's book on the American film producer Roger Corman — published in 2013 and titled Crab Monsters, Teenage Cavemen, and Candy Stripe Nurses: Roger Corman: King of the B Movie — was reviewed in The New York Times by Jason Zinoman.[19] Roger Ebert published an excerpt from the book.[20]
Personal life
Nashawaty lives in Los Angeles with his family.[1]
Chris Nashawaty
Title: Former Senior Writer
Education: Northwestern University, Connecticut College
Chris Nashawaty is a former senior writer at Entertainment Weekly. He left EW in 2019.
He joined EW in 1993, working as an editor, senior writer, and film critic during his tenure.
He previously worked as a news reporter at Reuters. He also wrote the book Caddyshack: The Making of a Hollywood Cinderella Story, published in 2018.
Experience
Chris Nashawaty is a former editor, senior writer, and critic for Entertainment Weekly. He joined EW in 1993, writing daily content and mentoring junior writers. His film criticism included reviews of weekly releases in addition to hosting a weekly radio show for SiriusXM. He left EW in 2019.
His previous experience includes working as a news reporter at Reuters. He also wrote the acclaimed 2018 book Caddyshack: The Making of a Hollywood Cinderella Story.
nterview With an Author: Chris NashawatyDaryl M., Librarian, West Valley Regional Branch Library, Thursday, August 1, 2024
Author Chris Nashawaty and his latest book, The Future Was Now: Madmen, Mavericks, and the Epic Sci-Fi Summer of 1982
Author Chris Nashawaty and his latest book, The Future Was Now: Madmen, Mavericks, and the Epic Sci-Fi Summer of 1982
Chris Nashawaty is a writer, editor, and former Entertainment Weekly film critic. He is the author of Caddyshack: The Making of a Hollywood Cinderella Story and his work has appeared in Esquire, Sports Illustrated, and Vanity Fair. He currently lives in Los Angeles with his family. His latest book is The Future Was Now: Madmen, Mavericks, and the Epic Sci-Fi Summer of 1982 and he recently talked about it with Daryl Maxwell for the LAPL Blog.
What was your inspiration for writing The Future Was Now?
I wrote about the anniversary of the day that The Thing and Blade Runner were both released in the summer of 1982 for Esquire. As I dug deeper into reporting that story, I realized that there was this batch of eight sci-fi films that all came out in the same eight-week window that summer and they all were in a way a reaction to the success of Star Wars, which I found interesting. Also, I was 13 in the summer of 1982, and I remember seeing all of these films in the theater—even the R-rated ones (I had very liberal parents when it came to the MPAA ratings). It just sparked a lot of nostalgia in me and felt like a critical period at the studios at a time when Hollywood was undergoing a massive change.
How familiar were you with the summer of 1982 and the films that were released that year prior to writing The Future Was Now? How did you approach the research you needed to do?
Like I said, I was 13 in the summer of 1982, so I was VERY familiar with all of these movies—some of which I had already seen many, many times. I think I’ve seen The Thing and Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan at least 50 times each. As far as the research went, I spent a year reading about the movies of that year and interviewing the people in the book, many of which I had already spoken to over the years in my capacity as a writer and editor at Entertainment Weekly for 25 years. So I already had a head start in terms of the reporting.
What are some of the more interesting or surprising things that you learned during your research?
There are so many! I think I was shocked by how dangerous the stunts on The Road Warrior were, how deeply the failure of The Thing stung John Carpenter, how seriously the controversy surrounding who actually directed Poltergeist shook Steven Spielberg (who’s reputation had been spotless up til then), how much of a gamble Star Trek II was for Paramount (if it hadn’t succeeded, we wouldn’t still have the Star Trek franchise today), how much Disney embraced risk to play in the same summer blockbuster sandbox as the other studios with Tron, how much Arnold Schwarzenegger was determined to be a movie star leading up to Conan the Barbarian, how nasty the infighting was behind the scenes on Blade Runner, and how much of E.T.’s success deserves to be shared with Melissa Mathison.
How did the book evolve and change as you researched, wrote, and revised it? Was there anything you discovered in your research that you ultimately weren't able to include?
Not really. I tried to find a home for everything I discovered that I found interesting. I set out to write the book that I wanted to read, and I feel like I did that. There may be some people who wish there was more of this or less of that, but I ended up writing the book I wanted to write and read.
Do you have a favorite of the eight films (Blade Runner, Conan the Barbarian, E.T.: The Extraterrestrial, Mad Max: The Road Warrior, Poltergeist, Tron, Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, The Thing) you write about that were released in the summer of 1982? Why is it your favorite?
When I was 13 in the summer of 1982, I probably would have said that E.T. was my favorite. But now I would definitely say The Thing. I love the sub-zero sense of paranoia and claustrophobia; I love all of the actors' performances; I love how it's directed for maximum tension and scares; I love the South Pole setting; I adore Kurt Russell as a leading man from this period, and of course I am still slack-jawed when I watch Rob Bottin's gooey, gory practical make-up f/x.
A favorite film outside of the summer of 1982? Why is it your favorite?
As a movie critic, I know that I should cite something high-brow like Citizen Kane or Vertigo, or 8 ½ as my favorite film. But the truth is that my favorite movie is, was, and will always be Jaws. It's a perfect movie.
Do you have a favorite book or documentary about a specific film or Hollywood in general?
I think the best book about Hollywood is Mark Harris' Pictures at a Revolution. It chronicles the five Best Picture nominees from the pivotal year of 1967 and the way he writes it turns those films into a prism that allows you to see an industry in the midst of a revolution. It's a masterclass in movie writing. Mark was my editor at Entertainment Weekly for 15 years and I learned a ton from him and always hear him in my head when I'm struggling with how to write something.
You write a bit about how the releases and successes of Jaws (1975) and Star Wars (1977) paved the way not only for the films that were released in 1982 but how our summers are now regularly filled with big budget genre films (of varying degrees of quality). If you had a magic wand and could make some changes to how Hollywood functions now, compared to 40 years ago, what would you change?
Less superheroes and sequels. More original ideas and risk-taking and movies for filmgoers who are not 13-year-old boys.
What's currently on your nightstand?
I am addicted to this paperback series of old-school hardboiled pulp crime novels from the small publisher Hard Case Crime. I've read about 70 of them and only have a few more left. The next one up is Max Allan Collins’ Too Many Bullets. I'll read anything featuring tough guys in fedoras with guns and deadly dames who lead them to do dumb things. Apart from crime paperbacks, I have a movie-themed mystery novel called Flicker on my nightstand by Theodore Roszak, Nicholas Shakespeare's Ian Fleming biography.
Can you name your top five favorite or most influential authors?
This is so hard! I would say Joan Didion, Hunter S. Thompson, Max Allan Collins, Raymond Chandler, Stephen King, Don DeLillo, and Herman Melville.
What was your favorite book when you were a child?
Depends on what age. But my first favorite was Make Way for Ducklings since I am from Boston.
Was there a book you felt you needed to hide from your parents?
No. They were just happy I was reading anything.
Is there a book you've faked reading?
Make Way for Ducklings.
Can you name a book you've bought for the cover?
Oh, sure. Basically every Vintage Contemporary paperback in the 80s from Jay McInerney’s Bright Lights Big City to Raymond Carver’s Cathedral to Mona Simpson’s Anywhere But Here.
Is there a book that changed your life?
I don't know about "changed my life," but John Fowles' The Magus probably comes the closest.
Can you name a book for which you are an evangelist (and you think everyone should read)?
John Fowles' The Magus, Melville’s Moby-Dick, and Dashiell Hammett’s Red Harvest.
Is there a book you would most want to read again for the first time?
Gillian Flynn’s Gone Girl. I used to work with Gillian at Entertainment Weekly and she wrote the most addictive page-turner I've ever read.
What is the last piece of art (music, movies, TV, more traditional art forms) that you've experienced or that has impacted you?
Music: Tame Impala, the Duke Spirit, Dr. Octagon.
Movies: Dune 2.
TV: Tim Robinson’s I Think You Should Leave on Netflix.
What is your idea of THE perfect day (where you could go anywhere/meet with anyone)?
Going to see a Red Sox game with my 10-year-old twin sons, Charlie and Rooney.
What is the question that you're always hoping you'll be asked but never have been?
Can you take this giant stack of unmarked twenty-dollar bills and spend it any way you see fit?
What is your answer?
Yes, I can absolutely do that!
What are you working on now?
I am just starting another movie book, but I can't say the topic since the deal hasn't been finalized yet. Sorry.
A Few Words With: Chris Nashawaty
Mar 5, 2019
| Animal House Bill Murray Caddyshack Chevy Chase Chris Nashawaty comedy country club critic Entertainment Weekly golf Harold Ramis magazine movies National Lampoon satire
A Few Words With: Chris Nashawaty
For people who grew up in the late 1970s and early 1980s like I did, or at least those with an inherent bent toward irreverent or downright inappropriate comedy, magazines like National Lampoon were a staple of life. Ditto for movies like Animal House and Caddyshack, which for better or worse have become cultural landmarks for us younger Baby Boomers. Few writers out there understand this better than Entertainment Weekly senior writer and movie critic Chris Nashawaty, the man behind the fantastic book “Caddyshack: The Making of a Hollywood Cinderella Story.” The book came out in hardback last April and releases in paperback today, so it seemed like a great time to sit down with him and talk about his effort to detail one of the most truly bizarre and unique experiences in movie making history.
Open Mic: I loved “Caddyshack: The Making of a Hollywood Cinderella Story.” What was the impetus for choosing that movie as a subject matter?
Nashawaty: I write about movies for a living, so any book I would write would obviously be about movies. It was a question of finding the right one. I was a teenager in the 80’s, so movies like Caddyshack and the John Hughes movies and Stripes and Animal House were really formative for me. But in 2010 Sports Illustrated asked me to do a story on the making of Caddyshack for the movie’s 30th anniversary. In reporting that story I talked to Bill Murray and Chevy Chase, and the stories about the making of the movie were so insane that I knew there was a lot more there to report after turning in the article. That set was so chaotic – just a primer on how not to make movies – and I thought I might really have a book here. So it began as a five-page story in Sports Illustrated that planted the seed that there was a bigger tale to tell here about this whole decade of comedy, and how this movie embodies both the best and the worst of that decade.
Open Mic: You provide copious footnotes. How many interviews did you do for this book?
Nashawaty: I interviewed about 75 people who were directly connected with the film, or who were working at the studio or in the business at the time. And the book is about more than just the making of this one movie. It’s about how three different tributaries – the Second City comedy troupe, NBC’s Saturday Night Live, and The National Lampoon magazine – came together on a movie. So there’s a lot of ground to cover, much more than just interviewing the people who were involved with the movie. I tried to cast the net as wide as I could without becoming too obsessive about it. There was also a lot of archived digging at the Margaret Herrick Library [the archive and research library for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences] out in Los Angeles. You can see the studio archives and many of the memos that were sent by the studio executives about the movie, so that’s a really great resource too.
Open Mic: I noticed a lot of the interviews were from years ago. Is this something you had always planned on doing someday? Or do you always keep such notes?
Nashawaty: I’ve been at Entertainment Weekly for 25 years, and over the course of that career I’ve talked to a lot of people who were in Caddyshack or just around in that time period. There were transcripts I’ve had on my computer that became jumping off points to get someone back on the phone. So there was a lot of really hard core intensive research conducted for the book, but there were some past interviews I had done that fed into it as well. I had done an oral history on Animal House for Entertainment Weekly back in the late 90’s, and some of those people are no longer alive so that was a great resource to sort of get their voices into the book talking about that period even though it would be impossible to interview them now.
Open Mic: Were you always a fan of the movie? And if so, how did you make sure you didn’t let that interfere with your work as a reporter?
Nashawaty: You don’t want to spend two years of your life writing about a movie that you don’t really have a vested interest in, but I’ve never been a gushy sort of fanboy when it came to interviewing people. It’s just not my style. Hopefully some of my love for the movie comes across in the book, but also I think there’s a lot of bad behavior involved with the making of the movie and I hope I didn’t leave any of that out either. How we treat actresses, for example. Cindy Morgan was basically a #metoo story 30 years ahead of its time, and I didn’t want to skimp on that just because I love the movie. I didn’t want to whitewash it. So I would say that there’s passion, but also a pretty sort of clear-eyed take of all the flaws of these people as well.
Open Mic: Every reporter knows that everyone essentially has their own spin on how something happened. If you ask five people about the same incident you’ll get five different answers, especially when the real truth might not make them look good. How was it for you to get to what you felt reasonably sure was the truth in this case?
Nashawaty: You put your finger on it. This movie was made nearly 40 years ago, so everyone, especially with the amount of drugs that were consumed during the making of the film, has a very foggy recollection of whatever happened. So you have to talk to as many people as possible to make sense of those varying accounts of what happened. Anything where I had two people disagreeing about how things happened, I made sure to either include both sides or to get as much confirmation of one side as possible. Or to determine if someone was just tooting their own horn. This especially happened in the chapter on Animal House, where I note how everyone was trying to take credit for the success of the movie. The director was trying to say he was the reason the movie was a hit, the writers were saying that they were the reason the movies were a hit, the producers were saying they were the reason the movie was a hit and the studio was saying they were the ones. Everybody thought they were a genius, everybody thought they were the ones who pushed that movie over the top, and that clearly wasn’t the case. So you have to be a little logical about it too. I’m a professional movie critic, so I can look at a movie like Animal House and determine that the director and the writers had a lot more to do with the success than some guy in the studio who wrote the checks. It’s just using some common sense.
Open Mic: You’ve seen your share of movies come and go. Why do you think this movie has resonated for so long with so many people?
Nashawaty: It’s a good question, and a hard one to answer. I think it’s a movie that has a lot of really memorable performances: Bill Murray, Rodney Dangerfield, Chevy Chase, Ted Knight even, and it’s got great quotable lines. It is one of those rare movies where when you are at a party or work, or even at a golf event, and someone quotes a line from Caddyshack, you immediately know that person is a kindred spirit. Even though it wasn’t a huge success when it came out in 1980, it has become this cult phenomenon because it is so quotable and because the people who love it, love it so passionately. There are a lot of movies that have done better in the box office than Caddyshack, but the thing is people don’t just like it, they love it.
Open Mic: As you noted, this movie is now iconic. But it is still almost 40 years old. What was the response when you pitched the idea of the book?
Nashawaty: There were fortunately enough publishers who had at least one person in their acquisitions department who was a big fan of the movie that they saw the book’s potential. Not everyone we pitched it to “got it,” but there were enough people who did, and you wouldn’t want to write it for a publisher who didn’t get it anyhow. We also had a little bit of proof of concept with the Sports Illustrated article. Before I had even written a word of the book you could see where it was headed.
Open Mic: You write in detail how chaotic and disorganized everything was around the making of this movie, and about its lack of diversity. Could a movie like this even be made today?
Nashawaty: I think it could, but it couldn’t be made in the same way so it wouldn’t be as good. I think there was something about the way they made this movie – which, for the record, is not the way you’re supposed to make movies – that somehow miraculously worked. Harold Ramis, the director, had come up from Second City, where the whole philosophy is improvisation. So yes there was a script when they got to Florida to film, but they pretty much put it in the trash and let the really experienced improv comedians like Chevy Chase and Bill Murray and Rodney Dangerfield just go freestyle. Nine times out of ten that is going to be a complete disaster, but they managed to pull this one off. In that way I do think it’s an instruction guide on how not to make movies. If you read the book, you’ll see all sorts of things that they did wrong that somehow managed to work out. I do think if they were to make this movie today there would be more diversity, but back then the setting is a starched collar sort of white bread country club, so they were lampooning the things that we’re currently calling to task. I mean, it’s not a progressive movie, but it definitely was ahead of its time in parodying this Republican country club bastion of leisure entitlement.
Open Mic: You deal all the time with celebrities. I think we all have an idea of what that must be like. What is the reality for you in dealing with this particular group of folks? Are they as big a pain in the ass as they appear to be at times?
Nashawaty: Sometimes they are and sometimes they aren’t. I’ve had some bad interviews with people who have been jerks, but that’s usually not the case. The truth is they have a product they’re trying to sell, and they’re usually on their best behavior. You may hit it off better with some than with others, but it’s usually a bit of a choreographed dance. If you can walk into those things not being star struck and remember that you’re a journalist, you may find that you get some good answers to your questions. You’re always trying to get that un-canned anecdote or insight that they haven’t rehearsed. These people are actors so they’re pretty good about sticking to a script. Your job is to get them off script a little bit, and that takes preparation. There have been a couple of interviews where I’ve gone in and the subject is not really being forthcoming. I remember going into one like that and finally saying, “You don’t seem to want to be here. You don’t seem to want to answer the questions, so I don’t need to write this story. We can just call it a day and go on our merry way.” It got better from there. The key is just not to be too in awe of these people. You have a job to do. You have to write a story. You need to get information and anecdotes and that’s what you have to stick to.
Open Mic: I have colleagues in political journalism who look down on celebrity coverage as trivial. But we are truly a media and celebrity-obsessed culture, and people really do care deeply about movies and music and other forms of entertainment. Why do you think that is?
Nashawaty: I think the truth is that sometimes the politics section of the newspapers can get pretty grim, and you need some diversion. You need a way to forget about that a little bit, and pop culture has always done that. Of course not all pop culture is escapism – there are plenty of movies that tackle serious things. I began my career as a political reporter too, and I enjoyed it. But I think you can find really good writing and kernels of truth and things that are just as enlightening in the entertainment section of the newspaper as you can in the politics section. It’s not just fluff. Pop culture reflects what’s going on in the entire culture, sometimes a lot more than some of the bigger news stories of the day.
Open Mic: Do you have any other book projects in development?
Nashawaty: I’m working on one now. I’ve been working on the proposal and I don’t want to talk about it yet because I don’t want to jinx it. But it is another movie-related book. I’m just figuring it out now and wrapping my head around it. If you ask me the question in six months I’d have an answer for you, but as of right now I am hard at work trying to prepare something but I just can’t say what it is yet.
Open Mic: Books are such big, unwieldy projects. How much did being a reporter help you in this? Did any of it hurt you?
Nashawaty: I think it only helped. The hard part is really that as a reporter, you’re always encouraged to make that extra phone call and to do the extra step to make sure you’ve got everything covered. But there comes a point in every book where you have to realize it’s time to stop reporting. You have to sit down and write. It was hard for me to do that because I always want to talk to more people. I enjoy interviewing people, but I also don’t want to leave anything on the table. So I think next time around I would leave myself a little bit more time to do the writing. Whether that means getting more time on the whole book project or what, but with this one I had to write a lot faster than I would have liked because I spent so long researching and reporting.
With Entertainment Weekly, the articles are very concise. You rarely get to write anything that’s more than 3,000 words, and so when you turn in the book proposal saying you are going to write, 80,000 words or 100,000 words, it’s a little bit daunting. I mean, how the hell am I going to do that? But the mindset I tried to keep myself in to keep from getting overwhelmed was to say that today I’m going to write a chapter, and that chapter needs to be 6,000 words. If I look at that like a 6,000 word story with a beginning, a middle, and an end, then I’m really just writing twelve stories to make this book. So I broke it down in a way that I psychologically could wrap my head around, because if I didn’t then I would have been just too overwhelmed.
Open Mic: Rejection is such a huge part of any creative enterprise. How do you handle rejection?
Nashawaty: There’s not any way to handle it other than to just keep going. I’ve been a little bit lucky on this project, but I do run into it all the time at my day job. You want to get an interview with someone or you want to get so and so on the line to comment on a story and you can’t get them and what do you do? Well, you just have to find another way. And with this book, I’ve gotten really, really lucky. You know I wrote a proposal and a few different publishers really responded to it. There was no one I wanted to talk to for the book who didn’t agree to be interviewed, and it did pretty well when it came out. The reviews were pretty positive and it sold pretty well and so I can’t really find anything to complain about on this one.
Open Mic: I like to end on a fun note. If I could set you up for a conversation – or perhaps a round of golf – with any one of the following three people, who would you choose and why? Your options are David O. Selznick, President Bill Clinton, or Hedda Hopper.
Nashawaty: Oh my goodness, I couldn’t have forfeited before this? Probably not Selznick because it sounds like he was kind of a taskmaster who was maybe not the most fun guy in the world, so let’s scratch him off the list. Clinton I think would be a good choice to play a round of golf with. I think he would certainly tell you some good stories. Hedda Hopper would have good anecdotes and probably tell you where all the bodies were buried, but I think I would go with Clinton.
Caddyshack: The Making of a Hollywood Cinderella Story. By Chris Nashawaty. Apr. 2018. 304p. illus. Flatiron, $26.99 (9781250105950); e-book, $12.99 (97812501059741. 791.43.
The critics didn't like it much. It didn't have much in the way of stars, with Chevy Chase and Rodney Dangerfield as the headliners. It had a first-time director, a script that went through a multitude of iterations, and a costar, Bill Murray, who would go off-script whenever the mood struck. And it was about golf. It should have been a disaster, but Caddyshack (1980) became not just a cult fave but also a comedy classic. Film-critic Nashawaty's chronicle of the creation of the film goes back to the offices of the Harvard Lampoon in the mid-1960s, where Caddyshacks primary writer, Douglas Kenney, was the magazine's editor, and tracks the rise of satirical comedy and its practitioners, following the careers of the stars and creators of a movie that wasn't made for critics and mainstream audiences but, rather, for baby boomers, lovers of cutting-edge comedy and the new, edgy style of filmmaking. Nashawaty's prose is lively, and his exhaustive research is bolstered by interviews with many of the film's principle players, including the famously elusive Murray. A wonderful celebration of a passionately loved film.--David Pitt
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2018 American Library Association
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Pitt, David. "Caddyshack: The Making of a Hollywood Cinderella Story." Booklist, vol. 114, no. 11, 1 Feb. 2018, pp. 10+. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A527771734/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=4f8d36e3. Accessed 27 Sept. 2024.
Caddyshack: The Making of a Hollywood Cinderella Story
Chris Nashawaty. Flatiron, $26.99 (304) ISBN 978-1-250-10595-0
Entertainment Weekly film critic Nashawaty (Crab Monsters, Teenage Cavemen, and Candy Stripe Nurses) tackles the rocky production and eventual success of the raucous 1980 golf comedy Caddyshack. The story of Caddyshack, Nashawaty shows, was very much that of its producer/cowriter Douglas Kenney, who died in an accident at age 35 soon after the film's release. A one-time Harvard Lampoon writer who subsequently helped found the spin-off National Lampoon, Kenney crossed paths with members of Chicago's Second City improv troupe and of the fledgling Saturday Night Live in the mid-'70s, resulting in the blockbuster film Animal House. As a follow-up, Caddyshack was expected to be a surefire hit, but competing egos, the inexperience of first-time director Harold Ramis, and ample drug use plagued the filming from the beginning. In Nashawaty's hilarious depiction, the production is shown to have been utter chaos, albeit with some creative genius tossed in--notably from star Bill Murray, who turned his throwaway groundskeeper role into Caddyshack's signature character. Moreover, the film's fans may be surprised to learn that upon its completion, both Kenney and the film's distributor, Warner Brothers, were convinced that it would be a flop. Nashawaty's book provides both an entertaining showbiz chronicle and, by the conclusion, an unexpectedly moving tribute to Kenney's short life and lasting comic legacy. Agent: Farley Chase, Chase Literary Agency. (Apr.)
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2017 PWxyz, LLC
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"Caddyshack: The Making of a Hollywood Cinderella Story." Publishers Weekly, vol. 264, no. 49-50, 4 Dec. 2017, p. 52. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A518029510/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=b6ec70f6. Accessed 27 Sept. 2024.
Nashawaty, Chris CADDYSHACK Flatiron Books (Adult Nonfiction) $26.99 4, 24 ISBN: 978-1-250-10595-0
An everything-you-ever-wanted-to-know-about look at a cult movie whose reputation has grown in the four decades since its initial release.
Entertainment Weekly film critic Nashawaty (Crab Monsters, Teenage Cavemen, and Candy Stripe Nurses: Roger Corman: King of the B Movie, 2013) ventures that Caddyshack (1980) first took shape as a kind of lesser entry in a flurry of films born of the nexus of Saturday Night Live, the National Lampoon, and massive piles of cocaine: The Blues Brothers, Meatballs, Animal House, etc. It was also a more pointed exercise in class warfare at the outset than when it eventually emerged, many drafts later, to critical indifference. Putting on his Peter Biskind hat, Nashawaty connects this subversiveness to more serious films such as Mean Streets and Easy Rider while seeing it as a generational repudiation of comparatively treacly fare such as Clint Eastwood's orangutan comedies and the Smokey and the Bandit franchise. Though born of the free-wheeling, madcap cohort of fledgling director Harold Ramis (who called the movie his "$6 million scholarship to film school") and writers Brian Doyle-Murray and the doomed Doug Kenney, Caddyshack was thoroughly vetted by studio hacks--fortunately, no one listened to them. Nashawaty steers readers through now-familiar scenes, such as Bill Murray's near-lethal wielding of a pitchfork and Chevy Chase's suave twitting of the uber-rich Ted Knight, brought to warp speed with the arrival of Rodney Dangerfield. What is constantly surprisingly, and most pleasantly so, is how these scenes could have been very different had other roads been taken--e.g., had the overburdened Bill Murray not found a spare few weeks to film and not been given free rein to improvise or had the casting director been able to land Mickey Rourke in the place of Michael O'Keefe for the central (though, in the final product, somewhat diminished) role of Danny Noonan.
The book doesn't quite hit the insightful levels of those by Scott Eyman or David Thomson, just as the film isn't quite The Maltese Falcon. Still, Nashawaty provides an eye-opening pleasure for Caddyshack fans.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2017 Kirkus Media LLC
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"Nashawaty, Chris: CADDYSHACK." Kirkus Reviews, 1 Dec. 2017, p. NA. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A516024539/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=a74e6321. Accessed 27 Sept. 2024.
Nashawaty, Chris THE FUTURE WAS NOW Flatiron Books (NonFiction None) $29.99 7, 30 ISBN: 9781250827050
A fast-paced, opinionated portrait of a magical stretch in the summer of 1982, when theaters welcomed a slate of now-iconic sci-fi and fantasy films.
Former Entertainment Weekly critic Nashawaty, author of books about Roger Corman and the cult classic Caddyshack, writes of a time when "geek would go lucratively chic." The summer of 1982 saw the release of such memorable films as Blade Runner, Tron, Conan the Barbarian, The Road Warrior, and The Thing, none born easily. Their story begins with the arrival of George Lucas' Star Wars in 1977, which, in the summer of 1982, would cede its box-office-champ crown to Steven Spielberg's E.T.: The Extraterrestrial. In the five years in between, studios scrambled to get a piece of the sci-fi pie while executives watched in dismay as budgets swelled and schedules slipped. Throughout this consistently entertaining narrative, Nashawaty merrily dispenses dish. For example, he explores how postproduction is where good films can morph into classics, "that is, if everyone is on the same page." He quickly adds that Ridley Scott's Blade Runner was a canonical instance where everyone was very much not on the same page: Scott promised Harrison Ford, for instance, that his voiceover narration would be removed, which didn't happen, since without it, a baffling storyline would become even more baffling. Ford reciprocated by delivering that voiceover in a monotone that sounded "like a hostage being held at gunpoint." Two highlights in a story full of them are Nashawaty's accounts of Arnold Schwarzenegger's grim determination to emerge from the Conan franchise a bona fide film star, as indeed he did, and the near meltdown of the revived Star Trek franchise as critics "carved The Motion Picture like the holiday turkey it was."
An exemplary film history that will appeal to sci-fi buffs and students of the film biz.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2024 Kirkus Media LLC
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"Nashawaty, Chris: THE FUTURE WAS NOW." Kirkus Reviews, 1 July 2024, p. NA. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A799332943/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=d1321f34. Accessed 27 Sept. 2024.
The Future Was Now: Madmen, Mavericks, and the Epic Sci-Fi Summer Of 1982.
By Chris Nashawaty.
July 2024. 304p. Flatiron, $29.99 (9781250827050). 791.43.
The new book by Nashawaty (Caddyshack: The Making of a Hollywood Cinderella Story, 2018) focuses on the summer of 1982, when eight sf and fantasy films competed for box-office bucks in a battle that would shape the future of the film industry. These movies were E. T.: The Extraterrestrial; Star Trek 2: The Wrath of Khan; The Thing; Tron; Conan the Barbarian; Blade Runner; Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior; and Poltergeist. Nashawaty chronicles the history and reception of each movie, with particular emphasis on what the filmmakers and the studios had at stake (for some, the success of their film was make-or-break). The book is full of fascinating nuggets (for example, that John Carpenter used to write a monthly magazine column about pro wrestling), and its writing is lively and entertaining (he writes that the stunts in Mad Max 2 were so dangerous that there was an "ambulance that constantly sat idling on the set ... waiting to ferry fresh meat to the hospital." The book is an absolute must-read for fans of films and books about films, drawing on interviews with such luminaries as Steven Spielberg, Tobe Hooper, William Shatner, John Carpenter, and Jamie Lee Curtis.--David Pitt
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2024 American Library Association
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Pitt, David. "The Future Was Now: Madmen, Mavericks, and the Epic Sci-Fi Summer Of 1982." Booklist, vol. 120, no. 21, July 2024, p. 10. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A804615728/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=aba16467. Accessed 27 Sept. 2024.
by Chris Nashawaty (Flatiron, $30)
“There was a time, not a long time ago or in a galaxy far, far away, when the summer movie landscape wasn’t overcrowded with disposable fantasy and sci-fi tentpoles,” said Chris Vognar in the Los Angeles Times . So, when did Hollywood go lastingly overboard with escapism? In his “juicy” new book, former Entertainment Weekly critic Chris Nashawaty cites the summer of 1982 as that moment. Focusing on eight movies—Blade Runner, Conan the Barbarian, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior, Poltergeist, Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, The Thing, and Tron—Nashawaty calls our attention to a two-month span that he “posits as both a peak flowering and a last hurrah of the sci-fi genre as serious, ambitious, and original popular art.”
“This is business and social history wrapped in an irresistible package of auteurs, shape-shifting monsters, a dystopian vigilante, and a cuddly alien,” said Hamilton Cain in the Minneapolis Star Tribune . As such, The Future Is Now feels like “the perfect nonfiction beach read.” Writing “with the panache of a seasoned magazine journalist,” Nashawaty dishes on behind-the-scenes stories from each movie’s production. Steven Spielberg overcame a busy schedule and studio skepticism to turn his alien weepie E.T. into a blockbuster hit. Tron pushed special effects forward by tossing a Shakespearean actor into a digital approximation of a video game. Arnold Schwarzenegger, while working toward his cinematic breakout in Conan, “steals every scene he’s in.”
It is all highly entertaining, said Anthony Lane in The New Yorker . Yet “does Nashawaty, in his soothsaying capacity, even have the right decade?” Jaws, Star Wars, and Alien, three ’70s blockbusters that the 1982 movies were merely following, provide “a more compelling template for so much that has blazed and crawled across our screens ever since.” In 1982, hits like Tootsie and 48 Hrs. were telling different stories about Hollywood’s future. Meanwhile, the summer’s sci-fi purveyors weren’t setting trends; “they were cashing in.” ■
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2024 The Week Magazine
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"The Future Was Now: Madmen, Mavericks, and the Epic Sci-Fi Summer of 1982." The Week Magazine, 16 Aug. 2024, p. 22. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A804611013/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=7af6db95. Accessed 27 Sept. 2024.
Caddyshack: The Making of a Hollywood Cinderella Story
by Chris Nashawaty
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Golf legend Gary Player has observed that golfing success requires determination to win and patience to wait for the break. Patience is essential in reading Chris Nashawaty’s CADDYSHACK: The Making of a Hollywood Cinderella Story. The cult movie classic, whose characters and lines have become part of the golfing lexicon, does not receive its first substantive mention by Nashawaty until page 109 of his vivid history. This is not meant to be a criticism. Caddyshack did not simply appear from a movie script and Hollywood studio. It was the product of an era that produced a revolution in American comedy. The book explores that revolution in fascinating, hilarious and sometimes tragic detail.
Every golfer who references Caddyshack during a round of golf with friends, or with strangers for that matter, will find this to be a spectacular book. In addition to being a source for quips and one-liners, this detailed account of an iconic movie tells readers where comedy comes from and how classic films are made intentionally, and also by pure chance mixed with a smidgen of luck.
Many historians attribute golf’s beginning in America to the U.S. Open of 1913, which was won by Francis Ouimet, an American amateur golfer who upset Harry Vardon. The Open was played that year in Brookline, Massachusetts. Ironically, it was another event in Massachusetts that eventually led to the development and creation of Caddyshack. In 1966, college students from Harvard would achieve national prominence from a Harvard Lampoon spoof of Playboy. This was a financial gold mine for the Lampoon and allowed the comedic minds to embark upon careers that changed comedy around the world.
"This is an extraordinary account of an iconic golf movie. Be sure to take it along on your next golf trip. You will be sharing the anecdotes with your foursome while waiting on the tee to hit your drives."
The chain of events followed a circuitous route. It began with writers who left the Lampoon and started working at “Saturday Night Live,” where they encountered a variety of comedy actors. Following a successful stint there, they expanded into movies, one of which was Animal House, which employed several “SNL” veterans and returned profits of more than $140 million for its studio. Hollywood moguls and producers are like military generals. When they find a strategy that works, they attempt to build upon it by duplicating the elements of success as quickly as possible. The Animal House creative team was recruited by Orion Pictures to develop a comedy.
Writers Harold Ramis and Doug Kenney met with Mike Medavoy at Orion and pitched their first idea, a comedy about the Nazis marching in Skokie. It was not warmly received. Two weeks later, they pitched the idea that Bill Murray’s brother, Brian Doyle Murray, conceived of. It would be a comedy based on the Murray brothers’ memories working at a suburban Chicago country club. The proposed film had the same core elements as Animal House, and they even had a name for it: Caddyshack.
Scripts were produced, and Ramis, despite having no previous experience as a director, was given the task of directing. Detailing the filming adventure, Nashawaty’s anecdotes are enthralling and over-the-top funny. Having never directed, Ramis initially demanded repeated shot after shot, seeking perfection no matter how insignificant the scene. Rodney Dangerfield, in his first major role, was upset because no matter how hard he tried, he could never get any of the film crew to laugh at his lines. It took a while for him to learn that the crew was trained to keep a straight face. Bill Murray arrived late, ad-libbed to distraction and made filming difficult for trained actors such as Ted Knight. And underlying the entire filming was the use and abuse of drugs that ran the full gamut from alcohol to cocaine.
The movie was finally completed, and while the reviews were quite mixed, it grossed $40 million and ranked in the top 20 of movies released in 1980. It became and remains a cult classic. Tiger Woods even played Carl Spackler in an American Express commercial. Watch golf on television, and it is almost a certainty that one or more of the announcers will include a Caddyshack quote or reference during the broadcast.
This is an extraordinary account of an iconic golf movie. Be sure to take it along on your next golf trip. You will be sharing the anecdotes with your foursome while waiting on the tee to hit your drives.
Reviewed by Stuart Shiffman on April 27, 2018