The Waterboy

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 mothers 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.

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Reference

Coraci, F. (Director). (1998). The Waterboy [Motion picture on DVD]. United States.