The Waterboy Essay, Research Paper
Adam Sandler’s “The Waterboy” is a comedy about a water boy for
a college football team, who turned into a college football star. The main character, Bobby Boucher, is a slow-witted man in his mid-late 20’s. He
still lives with his overprotective mother in a Louisiana Bayou, so his
social skills are very lacking. Another character is Henry Winkler, who
starred in Happy Days. He plays another football coach and one of Bouchier’s only friends. The movie starts out with Boucher getting fired from his job as
the waterboy of the football team. He tries to get the job of water boy for
his favorite wrestler, Captain Insano, but after failing this and many other
attempts at finding a job, he lands one with a smaller college football team.
While this team is the laughing stock of the community, Boucher is made
fun of at this school just as much as the other. At the new school, the
main perpetrator is the quarterback, who also tries to get everyone
else to join in. One day at practice, Boucher was pushed too far. During the
middle of a play at practice, the quarterback started making fun of Bobby.
With all the anger that had built up, Boucher rushed in and viciously tackled
him. After seeing this, the coach was completely amazed, and offered Bobby a
scholarship. But this wasn’t just some money to play ball, this was the
beginning of a whole new world. The only problem was that Bobby’s
mother wanted to protect him from college and everything in the real
world because she thought that everyone was the devil. She wouldn’t “let her
Bobby play foosball”. His coach and everyone else who cared about Bobby
convinced him that what his mother didnn’t know couldn’t and wouldn’t hurt her,
so after much debate, he decided to go behind her back and play anyway.
Right away, Bobby was a success. He used all his built up anger, and when
it was his turn to tackle someone, he diverted this energy and became one of
the most aggressive players the area had ever seen. He gains nationwide
attention and becomes one of the best players in college football. Boucher’s
team ends up playing his former team for the national championship. Thanks
to the heroics of Boucher his team defeats the larger school, which utilizes
the David and Goliath approach of the little guy defeating the giant.
Boucher’s mother eventually finds out about his playing football and after getting over her initial shock, grew to accept it since Bobby loved to play so well. She even decided to fill in for his waterboy duties on the sideline while while he played on the field. This movie employs many hidden themes including one of the underdog. Boucher was just a slow-witted adult who lived with his mother, but with effort he became of the best players in college football. He also had to overcome his guilty feelings of misleading his mother as to his whereabouts during football games and practices. There was also an underlying, yet sublte conflict between Bobby and his mother. Bobby’s mother always wanted him to stay in his house and never experience the world outside. Football gave Bobby the open window to see the rest of the world his mother always tried to shelter him from. This scared and angered his mother because she was always afraid of what the real world would do to her Bobby. After Bobby caught this glimpse of the real world he was curious and wanted to see more. Except his mother did not want him to play. Along with Bobby playing football he was also exposed to college life, and things he never knew existed. He actually went to school for the first time in his life. Bobby’s mother also objected to Bobby’s girlfriend. First of all she thought his girlfriend was the devil. She thought she was a bad influence on Bobby and would be his downfall. She also didn’t like Bobby’s girlfriend because she always had troubles with the law and Bobby’s mother feared that she would rub off on him. This movie also utilizes interesting camera angles with different characters in the movie. At the beginning of the movie when the world was seen through Bobby it always showed him looking up at everybody. Whenever they showed the camera through the eyes of someone who was talking to Bobby always showed them looking down at him as if he were in some way inferior to everyone. This movie also uses a unique zoom in angle on the characters when they’re experiencing rage. Before Bobby gets off into one of his fits of rage the camera zooms in on him so you can almost see the pain he feels, but also the anger he has. In the middle of his attack the camera switches to show what Bobby sees and the face of the person he’s attacking so it’s like you’re actually Bobby.