In honor of
its 30th anniversary, 1984’s Ghostbusters (Originally Ghost Busters)has been playing in
movie theaters across the country. It makes me happy that this movie is still
an endearing classic that people will gather to see. Like many of its fans, I
found it to be a fun movie to grow up with. There was so much in that movie for
a kid to love and a lot of comedy to interpret when I got older.
Ghostbusters is a unique example of where dark sci-fi fantasy and goofball comedy find a
strange place to coexist. The movie does an excellent balancing act between big
laughs and awe-inspiring special effects that thrill and sometimes genuinely
scare.
When you
look back at the early eighties, the popularity of state-of-the-art big-budget spectacle,
spearheaded by Lucas and Spielberg films, was infectious. When you think about
it, comic writer/actors from Saturday Night Live, SCTV and National Lampoon
bringing their irreverent humor to such sophisticated technical filmmaking was
a strange gamble, but it paid off.
The
eccentric Dan Aykroyd wrote the script’s original draft, which was set in the
future and was to feature himself and John Belushi as a follow-up vehicle to
their success in The Blues Brothers. After Belushi’s untimely death, the
script was reworked and rewritten with the help of the now-departed Harold Ramis who would eventually star as well. Director Ivan Reitman brought his
producer experience to the project, raising the budget above what any of its
initial creators were probably expecting.
The final
story wound up being about a group of paranormal investigators (with a
charlatan as their spokesperson) who are cutoff from university funding and facilities.
With enough research and scientific understanding of ghosts, they go into the business
of harnessing supernatural beings using self-made high-tech tools and discover
a lot of normally unreported hauntings. They do all of this in the guise of
sloppy exterminators.
The film’s
most effective player, Bill Murray, delivers comic understatements in reaction
to the marvels he witnesses. Like Murray’s best roles, he’s a reassuring
presence to jaded moviegoers who desire a little relief from the
pretentiousness of cinema.
If Murray
deserves the most credit for the film’s laughs, then just as much credit is due
to Sigourney Weaver for bringing a relatable humanity to the love-interest character.
Her earnest straight face is complementary to the movie’s silliness –especially
in the presence of scene-stealer Rick Moranis as her obliviously rude twerp of
a neighbor.
Many movies
that followed took inspiration from the entertaining achievements of Ghostbusters. Only a year later, Back to the Future proved to be a similar
success of bold jaw-dropping high-tech filmmaking with a carefree attitude - as
did Men in Black in 1997 and all the way up to this summer’s Guardians of the Galaxy.
What’s sad
is how telling it was that the makers of Ghostbusters never managed to
imitate the quality they got the first time around. Ghostbusters II was fun
when I was a kid and had a fair share of funny and scary moments alike - with
even better effects work – but it was ultimately a disappointing sequel, dependent
on the brand name that the first film created rather than respecting the lucky
circumstances that made it work so well. In spite of Ramis's unfortunate passing, the dreadful discussion of a third part or reboot is still out there.
To watch
deleted scenes from the first movie’s shoot reveals how much goofier they
intended it to be. One of the strangest missing scenes involved Aykroyd and Murray playing homeless oddballs in Central Park as if they intended the movie
to take a detour from its engaging narrative into sketch comedy humor. Somehow,
in editing, they made decisions that led to a new kind of movie.
I have no
idea if they really expected Richard Edlund’s optical effects to be so
captivating. It’s hard to imagine the movie working well without those trippy
streaks of light hovering over Manhattan. Elmer Bernstein’s grand score was
also a major contribution that elevated the supernatural eerie tone of the
film and served as an effective contrast to the comedy. Ray Parker Jr.’s
theme song was pretty catchy too.
Bustin' makes me feel good.
Aside from this brief theatrical run, Ghostbusters is currently on Netflix and an Anniversary Re-Mastered Blu-ray set of the two movies will be available on September16th
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