Author: Matthew Lewis
The Waterboy is a sports comedy movie that was released to theaters on November 6, 1998. It was directed by Frank Coraci, a director most commonly known for his work with Adam Sandler. The movie was initially seen by many as a failure in progress. Critics believed that the movie lacked good actors and theatrics. Most professional movie critics usually assess a movie based on its theatrics, acting skills, and visual effectiveness. Additionally, they stated that the movie was predictable and only attracted people who enjoyed dumb humor. Many also said that it would not stack up with previous Adam Sandler movies. However, the critics could not have been more wrong. The movie was a great success and ended up defying the beliefs of the critics. The movie brought in a massive one hundred eighty six million dollars from a budget of twenty three million dollars. The movie was such a success with the public that it even made a record as the largest grossing sports movie at the time. In modern times, it still holds an impressive third place out of all sports movies and is still the number one highest grossing sports comedy of all time. From the perspective of college education, the movie address a variety of complex issues and ideas of a college aged person. The movie is focused around the main character Bobby Boucher who begins the movie off as a waterboy for the University of Louisiana, until he is eventually fired by the head coach. After this Boucher is uncertain what to do, but knows he wanted to continue as a waterboy at another university. Therefore, he “applied” and was accepted as the waterboy for at another university (SCLSU). While there the coach teaches Bobby that he needs to let out his frustration and stand up for himself, which led to an unbelievable result. He ended up tackling one of the players, who was taunting him, so hard that he was recruited to become a linebacker for the university. This was the point at which Bobby Boucher entered the college life and his life would be changed for the better. Once he entered college he was initially challenged by his classes. Additionally, he struggled with fitting in on and off the football field. Boucher had always had poor social skills and had experienced bullying all throughout his life. This movie address the problems and obstacles that students must overcome to be successful in the college environment. It also reflects on how his education changed him and helped him to be more confident and to help become more accepted by his peers and society as a whole. The Waterboy also helped to show the profound benefits, both socially and mentally of attending college. For example, Bobby Boucher entered college with no social skills and with minimal education due to being home schooled by his mother. This “home schooling” from his mama was more of a brainwashing tactic to prevent Bobby from ever leaving her. He was poorly educated and what little he thought he knew turned out to be propagated by his mama. Due to his lack of social skills and a proper education, Bobby was unable to realize his potential and excel until he entered college. However, after realizing his potential he gained confidence and was quickly able to excelled in his classes. His college education proved especially invaluable when it was discovered that Bobby had never actually attended high school and therefore had never graduate with a diploma. This being a requirement to be on the football team, made him ineligible to play and therefore the team lost their best player. However, due to what he had learned from his college education he was able to take an equivalency test to get his GED so that he could play in the championship game, the Bourbon Bowl. With his knowledge that was attained via college, he was able to ace the equivalency test with a ninety seven percent. Through these experiences Bobby Boucher is able to discover his potential. Therefore, this movie represents college level education as a way to discover your self and to learn new skills. The movie also represents college education as a way to improve your standings with others. Such as with Boucher and how he is able to greatly improve his social skills and even become popular in his college and among his fellow town members his and other peers. However, the movie also represents some negative or uncommon aspects of college life. Some examples include; the bullying that occurred toward Bobby, and the change in personal beliefs or understanding of how life or society functions. The later example is first noticed in the classroom scene when Bobby Boucher believed the reason why alligators experience anger, is because they can not brush their teeth. However, as he learns from the class that his prior knowledge and understandings might be wrong or could potentially change. Most of his wrong conceptions or beliefs came from the sheltered way he was raised by his mother. Additionally, she would propagate facts such as the example before which would mislead her son. Once he learn of his mother’s misinformed knowledge, he quickly began to accept other facts. This changed his viewpoints and perspective on multiple stances. This effect of college education helped him to not only advance further as a person, but also to advance as a student. Therefore, without the knowledge Bobby Boucher learned from his college classes he would have been unable to have been as successful as he was in the movie. The typical conventions of a movie review include an introduction to the story, a synopsis, and a back story on the initial reviews of the movie. The movie reviewers also usually place their input on reasons why other critics might have felt a certain way. These genre conventions help to bring together the different aspects of this paper and allow it to properly explain the results of college education as seen in The Waterboy.
0 Comments
|