Happy Gilmore
| Happy Gilmore | |
|---|---|
| File:HappyGimore.gif | |
| Directed by | Dennis Dugan |
| Written by | Tim Herlihy Adam Sandler |
| Produced by | Robert Simonds |
| Starring | Adam Sandler Carl Weathers Julie Bowen Allen Covert Frances Bay Christopher McDonald |
| Distributed by | Universal Studios |
Release dates | February 16, 1996 |
Running time | 92 minutes |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $10 million |
Happy Gilmore is a 1996 sports comedy film starring Adam Sandler, Carl Weathers, Julie Bowen, Allen Covert, Frances Bay and Christopher McDonald. Bob Barker, Robert Smigel, Kevin Nealon, Joe Flaherty, Lee Trevino, Richard Kiel, and Ben Stiller have cameos.
The movie was nominated for two MTV Movie Awards, Best Comedic Performance for Sandler and Best Fight for Barker and Sandler, the latter of which it won. In 2000, readers of Total Film magazine voted Happy Gilmore the 31st greatest comedy film of all time.
This film is number 97 on Bravo's "100 Funniest Movies".
Main cast
- Adam Sandler – Happy Gilmore
- Christopher McDonald – Shooter McGavin
- Julie Bowen – Virginia Venit
- Frances Bay – Grandma Gilmore
- Carl Weathers – "Chubbs" Peterson
- Allen Covert – Otto
- Richard Kiel – Mr. Larson
- Dennis Dugan – Doug Thompson
- Bob Barker – Himself
- Jememy Free – Bass Player
- Kevin Nealon – Gary Potter
- Ben Stiller – Nursing Home Orderly Man
- Lee Trevino – Himself
- Jared Van Snellenberg – Happy's Waterbury Caddy
- Matt Reno – Nill
- Robbie the Wonder Monkey – Himself
Plot
Happy is a wannabe ice hockey player who masters a powerful slapshot that his father taught him as a child. His slapshot is not enough, though, as his aggression and poor skating ability on the ice gets him cut from every team he tries out for. His grandmother, with whom he's lived almost all his life due to an unfortunate hockey related incident which killed his father, has not paid taxes on her home for several years. As such, she owes $270,000 to the IRS and the house that Happy's grandfather "built with his bare hands" is about to be repossessed. Happy searches for a way to help, but has few options. On a bet with the movers, who are chipping golf balls with Happy's grandfather's clubs, Happy takes a swing at trying to hit the ball farther than them. He drives the ball an estimated 400 yards in one shot (hitting unsuspecting neighbors down the street). The movers indicate how unbelievable this is and Happy discovers a new source of income to buy back his grandmother's home. Much to his dismay, Happy has to play the game he fears the most - golf.
Happy goes to the local driving range to showcase his talent in exchange for cash, and he catches the eye of a washed-up golf-pro-turned-teacher Chubbs Peterson (played by Carl Weathers), who lost his hand to an alligator. Chubbs thinks Happy can make big money as a golf tour player, and challenges him to enter an amateur tournament, the winner of which will be asked to play on the tour. Happy wins the tournament (his most impressive shot being a hole-in-one on a Par 4), catching the eye of tour PR head Virginia Venit (Julie Bowen) and tour veteran Shooter McGavin (Christopher McDonald).
Happy joins the pro tour, but comes in last place in the first round he participates in. In a bar after the game, Shooter mocks Happy, prompting Happy to make a nemesis of Shooter. Happy's passion for hockey spills over into his golf game and becomes an animated golfer with whom the average viewer can identify. Shooter finds his antics to be a disgrace to the game of golf and despises what Happy has done to his championship year. As the season progresses, Happy's game improves and he finishes higher after each tournament, making more and more money. Shooter is eventually fed up with Happy and his antics, stating to the president of the tour that a fan- who had "HA" written on one cheek and (sure enough) "PPY" on the other - mooned him while he was chipping. With the president's refusal to suspend or kick Happy off the tour, Shooter hires his friend to agitate Happy at the next tournament, the Pepsi Pro-Am.
At this tournament, Happy is paired off with game show host Bob Barker. Before every shot Happy takes, Shooter's friend heckles Happy, openly mocking him and punctuating his insults with "Jackass!" Happy, knowing he cannot attack the heckler, grows more and more agitated as the round closes and he and Bob fall to dead last. He and Happy's arguing results in a fight between the two, with Bob gaining the upper hand and claiming "Now you've had enough... bitch!".
After the fight is broadcast on national television, Doug- the tour's president- suspends Happy from the tour. Happy now has no way to make the money needed to get his grandmother's house back. While eating at a Subway restaurant, Virginia gets the idea of getting Happy an advertising deal with Subway. The money he makes from the Subway commercial bring Happy's total to $275,000 and he goes to buy the house back from the bank.
When he arrives at the house, he discovers that the bank is auctioning it off. Happy hopes to get the house back at a cheaper price but fails to do so when the price goes much higher than the money he has. The house is eventually sold to the highest bidder- Shooter McGavin himself. Happy is irate at this outcome and challenges Shooter. Shooter initially wants Happy to quit the tour in exchange for the house, which Happy is willing to do, but Virginia talks him out of it, claiming his grandmother wants to see her grandson succeed. Happy comes up with a solution: at the next tournament, which happens to be the Tour Championship, if Happy beats Shooter in the tournament, he will give him the house back. But if Shooter wins, Happy will leave the tour. Shooter agrees to this arrangement and is confident that he will beat Happy.
Realizing he needs help with his golf game, Happy goes back to Chubbs for help on his putting. They go to a miniature golf course where Happy has to overcome the various obstacles presented to him in the courses. Chubbs introuced Happy to his own Happy Place where Happy could see Virginia, his Grandma and his dad, calms Happy down and he was finally able to putt a ball into the hole. After they are finished with their round, Chubbs presents Happy with a Hockey stick-like putter, which he claims is the same one he used, slightly modified. Out of gratitude for Chubbs' help, Happy presents him with the severed head of the alligator that took his hand and which Happy killed it in order to get his ball which went into the alligator's mouth. Unfortunately, Chubbs is so frightened by the sight that he falls out of the open window and to his death. Both Happy and Shooter play hard for the gold jacket and the right to own Happy's Grandmother's home.
During the tournament, the same heckler who insulted Happy at the celebrity tournament cuts through the course and collides with Happy, seriously injuring him, but at the cost of crashing his car into a TV tower. For the rest of his game, Happy cannot concentrate and eventually falls out of the top two. He tried to use Chubb's idea to think of a Happy Place but but it was all ruined when Shooter suddenly appears and make out with Virginia and his grandma. He thought he'll lose until he receives a pep talk from his grandma, telling him she only wants to see him "happy". Recharged by his grandma's words, Happy thought of Happy Place again and this time, he saw Chubbs with new hands and playing the piano. Happy was back to top shape and started putting hole after hole.
Before the end of the tournament, crazed fans climb the TV tower to get a look at Happy's swing, but the tower collapses right between him and the hole. Having been familiarized with this rule before, Shooter reminds everyone that Happy must "play it as it lies." Happy then examines the TV tower, noticing that the parts of it are aligned exactly to where the golf ball needs to go. He swings, and the ball goes right along the many parts of the tower, going into the hole. Happy wins the tournament, and the wild crowd surrounding the green converges to celebrate with him. Unhappy with his loss, Shooter steals the Gold Jacket only to be pursued by rabid Happy fans who beat him senseless. Happy, his caddy, his grandmother, and his girlfriend, Virginia Venit, then return to Happy's grandmother's house, which once again belongs to her, to have happy a drink to Happy's success. Above their house, Happy could see his father, Chubbs and even the alligator that he killed waving at him and he waved back.
Trivia
- The golfer who continuously shakes his head in dismay during the film is Lee Trevino. His only spoken line is: "Grizzly Adams did have a beard."
- Verne Lundquist, who plays the Golf Channel commentator in the film, is a hole announcer for the The Masters Tournament, one of the major PGA tournaments, on CBS.
- PGA Golfer Mark Lye makes a cameo appearance during a cocktail party scene talking to Shooter McGavin and Happy Gilmore about The Tour Championship.
- Bob Barker credits his appearance in this movie for revitalizing interest (especially among college students) in his game show The Price Is Right (with perhaps, the oft repeated retort "The price is wrong, bitch"). He thinks a younger generation (college students in particular) of viewers saw his performance in the movie, in which he is paired up with Gilmore in a celebrity tournament and ends up winning a fist-fight against the exuberant player after finishing in last place. His use of the phrases "I think you've had enough" and "No? Now you've had enough...Bitch!" are oft-repeated in his game show, in a differing context, of course. Barker accepted the role after he found out he was going to win the fight. [citation needed]
- Joe Sakic makes cameo appearance as a player at the hockey tryouts.
- When Happy arrives at the Waterbury Open, Shooter McGavin's stretch limo passes by, causing Happy to comment about it, thinking that it belongs to Burt Reynolds. Reynolds later appeared in The Longest Yard . Ironically, Christopher McDonald is replacing Reynolds as Boss Hogg in the upcoming movie, The Dukes of Hazzard: The Beginning.
- Happy Gilmore was later released along with Billy Madison in a DVD boxset containing the two movies. Happy Madison, the combination of both film's titles, is the name of Adam Sandler's film production company.
- Chubbs Peterson (Carl Weathers) makes another appearance in the movie Little Nicky which also starred Adam Sandler. His part is an in-joke to fans of Happy Gilmore.
- Early in the film, Happy asks Chubbs why he chose golf instead of a "normal sport" like football, to which Chubbs replies that his mother refused to sign the permission slip. This is a possible in-joke referring to Carl Weathers' previous career as a professional football player.
- Ben Stiller appears in the film as the orderly in the nursing home who mistreats Happy's grandma. To avoid having to pay SAG scale wages, Stiller is intentionally uncredited.[citation needed]
- Richard Kiel has trouble standing (due to his acromegaly and also due to his sense of balance being affected by a head injury sustained in a car accident in 1992) , so he had to use a cane in most scenes. However, in two scenes, he could not use the cane because of the "tough-guy" circumstances. In one scene, he simply leaned upon an extra as he was being shot. In the other, the scene calls for him to run after Christopher McDonald. However, since he could not, he was placed upon a cart and wheeled. He was then shot only from the waist-up and moved his arms in a running-like fashion.[citation needed]
- The movie marks the first of many film collaborations between Sandler and Allen Covert.
- In Sandler's 1999 film Big Daddy, a Happy Gilmore reference is made when Sandler putts a golf ball into a hole on the roof of his apartment building, with co-star Jon Stewart's character warning him that the roof "banks to the left".
- Sandler refers to Happy Gilmore in his "Chanukah Song II":
- "Guess who got bar-mitzvahed/On the PGA tour/No I'm not talking about Tiger Woods/I'm talkin' about Mr. Happy Gilmore."
- The love interest of Happy Gilmore in this film has the same initials of the love interest of Billy Madison (Billy Madison), Bobby Boucher (The Waterboy) and Nicky (Little Nicky). Virginia Venit is the love interest in this film whilst Veronica Vaughn is the love interest in Billy Madison, Vicki Vallencourt is Bobby Boucher's love interest in The Waterboy and Valerie Veran is Nicky's girlfriend in Little Nicky.
- In 50 First Dates, Rob Schneider hits the ball by backing up, and stepping towards in before swinging: the same way Gilmore swings, like he is taking a slapshot. In 50 First Dates, Adam Sandler's character remarks "That's the stupidest-looking swing I've ever seen." Schneider's 5 children then show they swing the same way.
- In many broadcast versions of the film, the "Subway" logo appearing on Sandler's shirt during the closing scenes is edited out. The commercial shoot, however, remains in the film.[citation needed]
- The putter that Chubbs gives to Happy in his final scene was made by Callaway Golf under their Odyssey Putter line.
- The golf course scenes from Happy Gilmore were shot at several golf courses in Pitt Meadows, British Columbia, Canada.
- Kanye West references the film in his song "Jesus Walks" saying "We eat pieces of shit like you for breakfast. Huh? You eat pieces of shit?"
- During a prime-time special commemorating Barker's 50th anniversary in television and his upcoming retirement from "The Price is Right," the clip of the fight scene from the film was played. Afterward, Sandler made a surprise appearance to read a poem in honor of Barker.
- The theme song that appears in the beginning, middle and end of the film is "Tuesday's Gone" by Lynard Skynard.
- Happy plays golf with a Boston Bruins jersey.
Goofs
- In the scene where the television tower falls onto the green on the 18th hole, a few people can already be seen sprawled on the grass just before the tower falls.
- The VW Bug is shown already crashed into the TV tower in a scene before the actual crash scene.
- At the hockey try-outs, the coaches are shown standing behind the glass right after Happy shatters it with his slap shot.
- In the repossessing scene, the IRS representative stated that Happy's grandma only owed $270,000 in back taxes, but later in the film, this figure is changed to $275,000.
- When Bob Barker is first seen he is clearly wearing tan pants. When he and Happy start to fight, they are grey.
Selected Quotes
- Shooter McGavin: You're in big trouble though, pal. I eat pieces of shit like you for breakfast.
- Happy Gilmore: You eat pieces of shit for breakfast?
- Shooter McGavin: ...No...
- Happy Gilmore: Son of a bitch Ball! Why don't you just go home? That's your home! Are you too good for your home?! Answer me! SUCK MY WHITE ASS BALL!
- Chubs: Its all in the hips.
- Happy Gilmore: (after seemingly beating up Bob Barker) "The Price is Wrong, Bitch!"
