The Waterboy

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For other uses, see Water boy (disambiguation).
The Waterboy
Directed by Frank Coraci
Produced by Jack Giarraputo
Robert Simonds
Adam Sandler
Written by Tim Herlihy
Adam Sandler
Starring Adam Sandler
Kathy Bates
Henry Winkler
Fairuza Balk
Jerry Reed
Music by Alan Pasqua
Cinematography Steven Bernstein
Editing by Tom Lewis
Distributed by Touchstone Pictures
Release date(s) November 6, 1998
Running time 90 min
Country Flag of the United States United States
Language English
Budget $23,000,000
Allmovie profile
IMDb profile

The Waterboy is a movie starring Adam Sandler, released in 1998. It co-stars Henry Winkler, Kathy Bates, Jerry Reed, and Fairuza Balk. Lynn Swann, Lawrence Taylor, Jimmy Johnson, and Bill Cowher have cameos, as well as Rob Schneider, who in this movie originated the "You can do it!" guy seen in other Sandler movies. Sandler produced the movie and co-wrote the script with Tim Herlihy. It was directed by Frank Coraci.

The movie was extremely profitable, earning over $160 million in the United States alone and made Sandler a successful actor with Waterboy becoming his second $100 million film in a year, along with The Wedding Singer.

Sandler's character, Bobby Boucher, bears a strong resemblance to his "The Excited Southerner" comedic skits from his album "What The Hell Happened To Me?"[original research?]. The portrayal is one of a stereotypical cajun from swamps of south Louisiana, not the typical stereotype of a southerner. He also shares similarities in speech and mannerism to Canteen Boy, a recurring character, also portrayed by Adam Sandler, on Saturday Night Live.[1] Like Bobby, Canteen Boy preferred "purified water, right out of the old canteen", which he always carried with him.

Contents

[edit] Plot

Adam Sandler plays Bobby Boucher (pronounced "Boo-SHAY"), a socially inept (but also intelligent), stuttering, water boy with anger issues due to constant teasing and his mother's (Kathy Bates) excessive sheltering. He was the water boy for the fictitious University of Louisiana Cougars (a name and mascot bearing a strong resemblance to the Louisiana State University Tigers), but the players tormented him, and the team's head coach, Coach Red Beaulieu, (Jerry Reed) fired him for disrupting his team's practices. His attempt to become the new waterboy of his favorite wrestler, Captain Insano (Paul Wight), fails because he reveals that he is in fact 31 years old and still a virgin. As a result, Captain Insano and the TV presenter laugh so hard that they cannot give an answer before Bobby hangs up. He later goes to Coach Klein (Henry Winkler), coach of the fictitious South Central Louisiana State University Mud Dogs (a name and mascot strongly resembling the former University of Southwestern Louisiana Bulldogs, also known as the Ragin' Cajuns), and volunteers to work as the team's water boy for free after seeing the filthy water that the coach provides his players.

During his first few hours of being waterboy for the Mud Dogs, one of the players spits into the water can. A flashback is then seen when the waterboy was a young kid working for the Cougars. Coach Beaulieu refuses the right for the waterboy to retaliate against one of his players for spitting in the cooler. Coach Klein notices his anger problem and encourages Bobby to stand up for himself instead of letting the players walk all over him.

Bobby then effortlessly tackles one of the players, prompting Coach Klein to put him on the field, with positive results. Despite his overprotective mother's disapproval, he secretly continues to play football, and also secretly goes to school. He uses his anger to tackle the opposing players by pretending they're the people who made fun of him throughout his life (Coach Beaulieu, his mom, a player who called him "needle dick", etc.). He quickly becomes one of the most feared linebackers in college football and love interest of Vicki Vallencourt (Fairuza Balk). They play so well with Bobby on the team that they make it to the Bourbon Bowl against the Cougars.

But during their victory bonfire and celebration, Coach Beaulieu and his team drop a bomb by showing Bobby's high school transcript, which turns out to be fake. Coach Klein tells Bobby that he can continue to play on the team, if he takes and passes a GED exam and admits it was him that forged the Bobby's transcript so that he could play. He then tells Bobby of how twenty years ago Beaulieu bullied him out of his green notebook in which he wrote down all his foolproof play ideas, enabling Beaulieu to get the job as coach for the Cougars over Klein. This inspires Bobby to study for the exam to show that he isn't a dummy and to help get Coach Klein's manhood back which was also (figuratively) taken along with the playbook.

When his mom sees him studying for the exam, she is shocked when she finds out that he has been playing football and going to school behind her back, but Bobby says that he likes school and football and that he has had enough of his mother's over protectiveness. On the day of the exam, Bobby passes the exam with flying colors. Then the Parish Sheriff arrives and tells Bobby that his mother is in the hospital after falling sick.

When Bobby arrives at the hospital, the doctors tell him they don't know what's wrong with her. Mama is actually faking her illness to keep Bobby from leaving her. While in the hospital, she finally shows Bobby why she's been so determined to keep him inside of her house. She reads him letters his father sent her, which shows he once left their home and, while he was out, fell for an attractive fortune teller named Phyllis. She explains to Bobby that she didn't want him leaving her the way his father did, and allows him to go to the football game, going with him to see what football is like.

Bobby misses the first half of the game due to being in the hospital with his mother, causing the Mud Dogs to fall behind. Bobby joins the team at halftime and inspires them to come back from their deficit. Coach Beaulieu adopts a scorched earth tactic of running out the clock; he's already winning, he just needs to neutralize Bobby's tackling abilities, and force the Mud Dogs' offense to win the game. Bobby is able to help Coach Klein overcome his fear of Coach Beaulieu by "pretend[ing] that Red Beaulieu is somebody [he's] not afraid of," and design brilliant new plays that Beaulieu is unable to counter. The Mud Dogs eventually score the winning touchdown at the very last instant. The movie ends with Bobby and Vicki getting married and driving off on his tractor, followed by the sudden reappearance of Bobby's father (who is quickly tackled by Mama Boucher).

The movie was filmed in DeLand, Florida. The Mud Dogs home stadium is actually Spec Martin Memorial Stadium, where the DeLand High School Bulldogs play football and soccer. Some of the classroom footage was filmed at Stetson University, also located in DeLand. The University of Louisiana's home stadium and the Bourbon Bowl were actually shot at the Citrus Bowl in Orlando, Florida. The house where Bobby lived in was located in Clermont, Florida, off the Lake Minnehaha Canal.

[edit] Cast

[edit] Trivia

 Trivia sections are discouraged under Wikipedia guidelines.
The article could be improved by integrating relevant items and removing inappropriate ones.
  • "Vicky Vallencourt"'s last name is a reference to "Tony Vallencourt" a character played by Adam Sandler on SNL. Her name also continues the tradition of the female lead in Adam Sandler movies have both her first and last name begin with the letter V.
  • The line "You can do it!" is referenced in "Original Prankster" by The Offspring. The line was used again in Sandler's movies Little Nicky and The Longest Yard and both times was said by Rob Schneider. It was used again in Rob Schneider's The Animal, this time spoken by Adam Sandler, as well as in Sandler's Anger Management, but spoken by then-New York mayor Rudy Giuliani.
  • The wrestler Captain Insano is played by real-life professional wrestler Paul Wight, also known as The Big Show in World Wrestling Entertainment or as The Giant during his time in World Championship Wrestling. He made reference to his small part in the movie on an edition of RAW, when fellow wrestlers John Cena and King Booker talked about their respective movies, The Marine and Ready to Rumble.
  • Alliteration is used in many of the names, such as Bobby Boucher, Vicki Valencourt, Coach Kline, and Farmer Fran.
  • The basic outline of the plot is similar to Happy Gilmore, in which a relative amateur is enormously successful at a sport through a unique gift. In Happy Gilmore it is his drive, and in Waterboy it is his abillity to tackle.

[edit] External links

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Films directed by Frank Coraci

Murdered Innocence (1995) • The Wedding Singer (1998) • The Waterboy (1998) • Around the World in 80 Days (2004) • Click (2006) • Demolition (2009) • Hawaiian Dick (2009)