Tin Cup and Happy Gilmore: Golf Outsiders Triumph
Tin Cup and Happy Gilmore both feature hugely flawed lead characters; Roy "Tin Cup" McAvoy in the former and the eponymously Happy Gilmore played by Adam Sandler in the latter. Roy McAvoy is a washed-up golfer of past glory, who's current exhile to a dustbowl golf range in a West Texas town of Salome is brought on by his penchant for self-destructive "Caveman Golf". Happy Gilmore is a never-been hockey player that can't even skate, waiting to discover his hidden monster, longdrive talent suited for competition golf. Both learn to transcend personality defects and accomplish their goals through a realization of lessons taught through golf. In both cases the final result is fame, wealth and a pretty girl.
In structure, both follow the classic definition of a comedy, characters of the low struggling through adversity, culminating in a symbolic marriage where both of our characters pair with their respective romantic interests. But herein is the interesting bent of these two stories when compared against the classic tragedy format of golf stories, such as the true life story of Bobby Jones, man of high stature faces adversity, falls but ultimately triumphs to redeem himself and his legacy for posterity. Golf in the imagination of the American public has always been associated with privilege, upper class access and forbidding cost unaffordable for the common man. In these two movies under discussion here, however, depicts how two lowly characters of no particularly distinctive birth triumphs over these barriers of class and privilege.
I argue that these movies were produced are in no small part related to the emergence of Tiger Woods as the consummate outsider become ultimate insider. This multi-racial man from Southern California, born of a career military man and an immigrant from Thailand, not only has gained acceptance in a previously almost exclusively white milieu, but he has become the milieu. It is Tiger that is the golf industry and with his fortunes are so tied the fortunes of the multi-billion dollar industry that it could be argued that his recent lack of dominance is contributing to the decline of golf related revenues in this country. The presence of Tiger enables the public imagination to believe in stories depicted in Tin Cup and Happy Gilmore. Tiger gives permission to the suspension of belief necessary to enjoy these two golf movies.
In structure, both follow the classic definition of a comedy, characters of the low struggling through adversity, culminating in a symbolic marriage where both of our characters pair with their respective romantic interests. But herein is the interesting bent of these two stories when compared against the classic tragedy format of golf stories, such as the true life story of Bobby Jones, man of high stature faces adversity, falls but ultimately triumphs to redeem himself and his legacy for posterity. Golf in the imagination of the American public has always been associated with privilege, upper class access and forbidding cost unaffordable for the common man. In these two movies under discussion here, however, depicts how two lowly characters of no particularly distinctive birth triumphs over these barriers of class and privilege.
I argue that these movies were produced are in no small part related to the emergence of Tiger Woods as the consummate outsider become ultimate insider. This multi-racial man from Southern California, born of a career military man and an immigrant from Thailand, not only has gained acceptance in a previously almost exclusively white milieu, but he has become the milieu. It is Tiger that is the golf industry and with his fortunes are so tied the fortunes of the multi-billion dollar industry that it could be argued that his recent lack of dominance is contributing to the decline of golf related revenues in this country. The presence of Tiger enables the public imagination to believe in stories depicted in Tin Cup and Happy Gilmore. Tiger gives permission to the suspension of belief necessary to enjoy these two golf movies.
posted by Don Sheu @ 10:26 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home