Commentary: ‘Happy Gilmore 2’ Reunites Adam Sandler With Sports Meditation
by Frank Martin
Adam Sandler has two big sports related films: Happy Gilmore and The Waterboy. Both are widely different, and not just because one focuses on golf while the other centers on football. The plots and characters are also varied. However, they do share one similarity: the main characters use meditation and visualization to fuel their sports prowess. In the case of Happy Gilmore, this means going to a calm and relax place. For The Waterboy, the visualizations were focused on anger and rage.
Happy Gilmore 2 takes place decades in the future, when Happy (Sandler) stops playing golf. But when financial uncertainty creeps its way back into his life, he’s forced to return to the business. His plans are challenged when a new rival golf league begins to upend the traditional nature of the game. Happy finds himself as an unexpected champion of golf, and in order to compete with the craziness of the new league, he has to center and relax his mind amidst the craziness.
The title character lives a fairly chaotic life. But golf isn’t about chaos. It’s about calm and focus. He utilize this to great effect in the first film, but his “happy place” is something completely different in the second film. Instead of beer, he’s content with the simple pleasures of adult life. It’s an excellent contrast from The Waterboy. Football is a sport that is all about explosiveness and anger. In order for Sandler’s character to harness that rage, he meditates on the fields, visualizing the bullies in his life. Happy Gilmore and The Waterboy were released fairly close together, so it’s no surprise a similar tactic was used from one film to the next. But it’s also great, after all these years, that Happy Gilmore 2 is able to revisit the concept.
Happy Gilmore 2 is now streaming on Netflix.
