Happy Gilmore: Shooter Mcgavin

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The movie “Happy Gilmore” is about a hard-working hockey player who becomes a professional golfer after realizing his talents in golf and in order to earn money to buy back his grandmother’s house that had been repossessed by the IRS. “Happy Gilmore“ although a comedic movie, can be analyzed and related to specific psychological concepts. “Happy Gilmore” exemplifies the frustration- aggression principle as Happy misses his shots, Shooter McGavin demonstrates a narcissistic personality disorder throughout the movie, and finally, Happy exhibits social facilitation as he performs better in the presence and support of a cheering crowd. Ever since the beginning of “Happy Gilmore”, Happy has trouble controlling his actions in times of anger. The …show more content…

Shooter first appears to the viewer and Happy at Happy’s first golf tournament. Shooter has a very self-centered personality and bases all his actions on making sure that everyone around him sees him as better than everyone else. After Happy qualifies for the Pro Tour, he talks to a Shooter and a group of golfers at a Pro Golfer party. Happy jokingly points out that Shooter doesn’t have one of the Gold Jackets that the winner of the Tour Championship gets. Instead of laughing along, Shooter becomes very upset that he is not being viewed as the best. As the Pro Golfer Tour continues, Happy’s fame begins to grow and eventually Shooter gets asked what he thinks of Happy. After being asked this, Shooter becomes extremely agitated with the interviewer because the attention was no longer on himself. Shooter just gets even angrier the next day when all his supporters begin to leave his golfing hole to go watch Happy Gilmore. Eventually Shooter becomes threatened by Happy Gilmore. Shooter was the favorite to win the tour, and desperate to make sure he does win and is seen as the best, he hires someone to sabotage Happy Gilmore by yelling “Jackass!” every time Happy tees off. Shooter had to cheat to insure to himself that he would win because being seen as the best is the only important thing to him. Shooter even goes to lengths to buy Happy’s grandmother’s house to try to get Happy to stop playing. But in the end, …show more content…

As Happy begins, he minimally cares about his performance and is more focused on only participating in order to get paid. He does not think that he can be the best and does not care enough to work towards being the best. He simply wants to put in minimal work to get just enough of a reward to buy his grandmother’s house back. Happy is a naturally talented golf player and performed amazingly well under little pressure, but as he began the Pro Tour, his competition got harder and harder and as the pressure and crowds grew, Happy initially began to struggle. However, as Happy continued to play golf throughout the Pro Tour, he becomes to play better and better until eventually winning to him is even more important than getting his grandmother’s house back. He wants to succeed and begins taking lessons to improve. After taking lessons, Happy not only was able to make it by under pressure, he thrived playing under pressure and in front of a crowd. He even asks for the crowd to cheer as he takes his opening drive at the Tour Championship. And in the climax of the movie, in front of the biggest crowd yet, Happy is able to sink a shot by bouncing it off and through a fallen TV tower to beat Shooter McGavin by one

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