I love comedy and everything about it. And I was lucky enough to be a teen in the 80’s — a time that was unparalleled for movie comedies. They were a huge part of our lives, weren’t overly complex and attempted to do only one thing: make you laugh.
I prefer to consume the masters: Steve Martin is a trailblazer, Belushi was a genius, Chevy Chase was great until that talk show destroyed his sense of humor (although he may be back), and Dan Ackroyd was a great straight man. While they are all great, I’ve always been a Bill Murray guy. He is the real deal. One look from him can send me into blinding laughter. He was also able to consistently put out great, funny movies while never taking himself too seriously.
He’s made better career choices than the others (minus those Garfield movies), and has shown much more range, as he did in “Lost in Translation.” His career has also aged quite nicely. Movies such as Lost in Translation, Broken Flowers, and the Royal Tenenbaums have made him the critic’s darling. Sadly, we can’t say the same thing about Steve.
Here are Bill’s top five movies of all-time. This could have easily been a top 10 list, but wouldn’t have been as fun. Let the arguments begin.
1) Stripes – To me, this is the Godfather of movie comedies. It came out at the right time, was goofy, had sharp writing, and sports one hell of a great cast. It’s not just one of my favorite comedies off all-time, it’s one of my favorite movies. It helped shape my sense of humor and the way I look at the world. I’m not kidding.
John Winger is by far Bill’s best character and really made him a star. It set the tone for his snarky, smart-assed career in comedy and made him a superstar. John Candy comes out of his shell and makes a name for himself as the lovable Dewey Oxburger, and even steals a few scenes. And God love Sgt. Hulka. It’s hard to believe that this was originally developed as a vehicle for Cheech & Chong.
Sergeant Hulka: Okay, Mr. Push-ups, let’s hear your story.
John Winger: Chicks dig me, because I rarely wear underwear and when I do it’s usually something unusual. But now I know why I have always lost women to guys like you. I mean, it’s not just the uniform. It’s the stories that you tell. So much fun and imagination.
[Points to the soldier next to him]
John Winger: Lee Harvey, you are a madman. When you stole that cow, and your friend tried to make it with the cow. I want to party with you, cowboy. If the two of us together, forget it. I’m gonna go out on a limb here. I’m gonna volunteer my leadership to this platoon. An army without leaders is like a foot without a big toe. And Sergeant Hulka is always gonna be here to be that big toe for us. I think that we owe a big round of applause to our newest, bestest buddy, and big toe… Sergeant Hulka.
[The soldiers start clapping]
Sergeant Hulka: Well, okay, hotshot. We’re gonna see what kind of soldier you are.
2) Rushmore – I loved this for the opposite reasons I loved Stripes: it was clever, smart, smarmy, and completely different from anything else out there at the time. Bill plays millionaire burnout Herman Blume who takes an under-achieving high school kid in Max Fischer under his wing, only to find himself in a holy war with the boy as they fight over a woman. While you could call this film a “quirky comedy,” you’d be doing it a serious injustice. Probably in my top five movies of all-time.
Herman Blume (speaking to the school): You guys have it real easy. I never had it like this where I grew up. But I send my kids here because the fact is you go to one of the best schools in the country: Rushmore. Now, for some of you it doesn’t matter. You were born rich and you’re going to stay rich. But here’s my advice to the rest of you: Take dead aim on the rich boys. Get them in the crosshairs and take them down. Just remember, they can buy anything but they can’t buy backbone. Don’t let them forget it. Thank you.
3) Caddyshack – The brilliance of this movie is chaos. How else could you have Bill Murray, Chevy Chase and the brilliant Rodney Dangerfield all in their primes and not have the movie implode? While this isn’t Bill’s best work, he has some great scenes as the creepy greens keeper Carl Spackler. You also have to tip your hat to the genius that was Ted Knight for being the glue that held this film together. It’s not an American classic for nothing.
Carl Spackler (speaking to a caddy): So I jump ship in Hong Kong and make my way over to Tibet, and I get on as a looper at a course over in the Himalayas. A looper, you know, a caddy, a looper, a jock. So, I tell them I’m a pro jock, and who do you think they give me? The Dalai Lama, himself. Twelfth son of the Lama. The flowing robes, the grace, bald… striking. So, I’m on the first tee with him. I give him the driver. He hauls off and whacks one – big hitter, the Lama – long, into a ten-thousand foot crevasse, right at the base of this glacier. Do you know what the Lama says? Gunga galunga… gunga, gunga-galunga. So we finish the eighteenth and he’s gonna stiff me. And I say, “Hey, Lama, hey, how about a little something, you know, for the effort, you know.” And he says, “Oh, uh, there won’t be any money, but when you die, on your deathbed, you will receive total consciousness.” So I got that goin’ for me, which is nice.
4) Meatballs – I know I’ll catch hell for putting this ahead of films like “What about Bob” and “Ghostbusters”, but I love this movie. As a young teen in the 80’s I must have seen this 15 times and always wished I got someone like Tripper Harrison as my camp counselor. The closest I got was a guy who could play “Fly by Night” on the acoustic guitar and told us all about sex. Which was still pretty damn cool.
Tripper: And even if we win, if we win, HAH! Even if we win! Even if we play so far above our heads that our noses bleed for a week to ten days; even if God in Heaven above comes down and points his hand at our side of the field; even if every man woman and child held hands together and prayed for us to win, it just wouldn’t matter because all the really good-looking girls would still go out with the guys from Mohawk because they’ve got all the money! It just doesn’t matter if we win or we lose. IT JUST DOESN’T MATTER!
Rest of group: IT JUST DOESN’T MATTER! IT JUST DOESN’T MATTER…
5) What About Bob? – I struggled with this or Groundhog Day, which is a grossly underrated movie. I just caught it again on cable a couple of weeks ago and was reminded of how clever it is. I’ll probably end up regretting this decision, but at this moment I think What About Bob has more laughs and finds Bill at his funniest, playing off the always good Dick Dreyfus. The movie ends a little weak, but the laughs are just too good to pass up as Bill’s character “Bob” terrorizes Dick’s character, Dr. Leo Marvin. Again, Dreyfus was great in this movie and really allowed Bill to be Bill.
Bob Wiley: Fay, this is so scrumptious. Is it hand-shucked?
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