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Ghostbusters (1984)
The reason why I included the movie's theme song above is because it's the one thing that perfectly describes the film Ghostbusters. The song accurately captures the feel-good vibe present throughout the entire movie and to me the feel good factor is the reason why the 1984 Ghostbusters is so great: it feels like you're having fun with the four Ghostbusters rather than just watching four friends have fun. Or as the song puts it: Ghostbustin' makes you feel good.
So what is the film about?
Do I really have to ask that?
Who doesn't know the story of ghostbusters? Three scientists - Ray Stantz (Dan Aykroyd), Egon Spengler (Harold Ramis) and Peter Venkman (Bill Murray) - lose their jobs at Columbia University and decide to set up a paranormal investigation business known as 'Ghostbusters'. Along the way they hire Winston Zeddemore (Ernie Hudson) and together the team of four hunt down and trap ghosts using their Proton Packs. A lawyer representing the Environmental Protection Agency Walter Peck (William Atherton) orders their containment unit to be shut down and the ghosts they have captured are released into New York city. They are also contacted by cellist Dana Barrett (Sigourney Weaver), who is being haunted by demigod and servant to God of Destruction Gozer ( Slavitza Jovan) Zuul. Together, the Ghostbusters must combat the ghost invasion and save New York from Gozer.
Ghostbusters may be a comedy first and foremost but it succeeds as one because of the way it deals with the ghost invasion. The characters don't treat it as one big joke but they take the threat seriously and the humour comes from the situation rather than from parodying supernatural horror. Of course, you do get some cartoonish ghosts (Slimer for one) but you never get the feeling that the movie is one big in-joke and the four main characters are in on it. It feels a lot like how a real group of friends would interact in a situation where they are hunting down ghosts and happen to share a great sense of humour.
Of course, that would be nothing without the chemistry and Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Ernie Hudson and Harold Ramis are like lightening in a bottle. They are absolutely perfect and share a phenomenal amount of chemistry onscreen. It is disappointing how Ernie Hudson was shortchanged with his role despite how the character initially had a bigger part in early drafts of the screenplay but when he is onscreen he is as funny as the other three. His joke 'If there's a steady paycheck in it, I'll believe anything you say' is so funny and true to real life that it feels like Harold Ramis took a direct quote when writing the script from a real person rather than fabricating it. That's the sign of a good writer: someone who manages to capture the voice of everyday people and create dialogue that feels true and authentic.
The best of out of the 1984 Ghostbusters is definitely Bill Murray however. Bill Murray steals the show and has killer lines like 'Human sacrifice, dogs and cats living together... mass hysteria!'. Ghostbusters would have been nothing without him; he is the one actor out of the team of four who brings the magic to the film. There are certain types of roles actors are just born to play and for Bill Murray that's the lazy, laid-back slacker who can be found in films like Ghostbusters and the recent Jungle Book. Harold Ramis and Dan Aykroyd clearly realised this when casting him for the part and one of the greatest comedies of all time was born.
From what I have heard the 2016 Ghostbusters features some social commentary on gender imbalance. Some may complain that this doesn't belong in Ghostbusters but they would be ignoring the original, which may not feature gender commentary but does feature a form of social commentary. Ghostbusters in my view is partly a satire of pest exterminators. The Ghostbusters are essentially supernatural exterminators who come into homes and rid them of 'vermin' (IE ghosts). The difference however is that the Ghostbusters get rid of the 'vermin' in a humane way rather than killing them off (although whether you can actually 'kill' a ghost anyway is debatable given they are already dead). Ghostbusters could be seen as a film that therefore challenges the notion of just taking the lives of creatures that invite themselves into our homes rather than finding a more sympathetic method of dealing with them. The reason why we root for the four Ghostbusters is not just because they dispose of the ghosts but also largely how they dispose of them. The ghosts are stopped in a way that still grants them (after)life but at the same time sufficiently punishes them for their crimes against the living.
Nobody is ever going to claim Ghostbusters is Citizen Kane but what it is is immense amounts of fun. The chaotic visual style of the Proton streams add a lot to the film's lively tone. Most importantly they look like something that would come out of a piece of scientific equipment designed for catching ghosts so there is no suspension of disbelief required. To achieve the proton streams with the 1984 original they filmed some explosions on-stage at the Entertainment Effects Group then used a technique called 'pin-blocking' to rephotograph it (taking a repeat photo/video of something with a time-lag of the two images). It is clever how they achieved this and the other effects in Ghostbusters without the need of CGI; Ghostbusters: The Ultimate Visual History makes for an interesting read. Did you know, for example, that Slimer in the 1984 Ghostbusters is a puppet and the hot dogs were over-sized props?
Overall, the 1984 Ghostbusters is not to the quality of an Alfred Hitchcock film but it is most certainly one of the greatest comedies of all time. It's an immensely fun and entertaining movie with natural chemistry between the four leads and instantly quotable lines such as the 'steady paycheck'. In the age before CGI, the effects still stand up today. The SIimer puppet is an extraordinary piece of puppetry and the fact that it is a puppet is barely noticeable in the film. Ghostbusters, rather than being a parody of horror, is a film that works because the situations are taken seriously in order to provide the comedy. It also has some brilliant social satire on pest exterminators and features a standout performance by Bill Murray. If you haven't seen the 1984 Ghostbusters by now then there's something strange in your neighborhood and you need to call...into your local shop that sells DVDs/Blurays straight away to buy yourself a copy.
The reason why I included the movie's theme song above is because it's the one thing that perfectly describes the film Ghostbusters. The song accurately captures the feel-good vibe present throughout the entire movie and to me the feel good factor is the reason why the 1984 Ghostbusters is so great: it feels like you're having fun with the four Ghostbusters rather than just watching four friends have fun. Or as the song puts it: Ghostbustin' makes you feel good.
So what is the film about?
Do I really have to ask that?
Who doesn't know the story of ghostbusters? Three scientists - Ray Stantz (Dan Aykroyd), Egon Spengler (Harold Ramis) and Peter Venkman (Bill Murray) - lose their jobs at Columbia University and decide to set up a paranormal investigation business known as 'Ghostbusters'. Along the way they hire Winston Zeddemore (Ernie Hudson) and together the team of four hunt down and trap ghosts using their Proton Packs. A lawyer representing the Environmental Protection Agency Walter Peck (William Atherton) orders their containment unit to be shut down and the ghosts they have captured are released into New York city. They are also contacted by cellist Dana Barrett (Sigourney Weaver), who is being haunted by demigod and servant to God of Destruction Gozer ( Slavitza Jovan) Zuul. Together, the Ghostbusters must combat the ghost invasion and save New York from Gozer.
Ghostbusters may be a comedy first and foremost but it succeeds as one because of the way it deals with the ghost invasion. The characters don't treat it as one big joke but they take the threat seriously and the humour comes from the situation rather than from parodying supernatural horror. Of course, you do get some cartoonish ghosts (Slimer for one) but you never get the feeling that the movie is one big in-joke and the four main characters are in on it. It feels a lot like how a real group of friends would interact in a situation where they are hunting down ghosts and happen to share a great sense of humour.
Of course, that would be nothing without the chemistry and Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Ernie Hudson and Harold Ramis are like lightening in a bottle. They are absolutely perfect and share a phenomenal amount of chemistry onscreen. It is disappointing how Ernie Hudson was shortchanged with his role despite how the character initially had a bigger part in early drafts of the screenplay but when he is onscreen he is as funny as the other three. His joke 'If there's a steady paycheck in it, I'll believe anything you say' is so funny and true to real life that it feels like Harold Ramis took a direct quote when writing the script from a real person rather than fabricating it. That's the sign of a good writer: someone who manages to capture the voice of everyday people and create dialogue that feels true and authentic.
The best of out of the 1984 Ghostbusters is definitely Bill Murray however. Bill Murray steals the show and has killer lines like 'Human sacrifice, dogs and cats living together... mass hysteria!'. Ghostbusters would have been nothing without him; he is the one actor out of the team of four who brings the magic to the film. There are certain types of roles actors are just born to play and for Bill Murray that's the lazy, laid-back slacker who can be found in films like Ghostbusters and the recent Jungle Book. Harold Ramis and Dan Aykroyd clearly realised this when casting him for the part and one of the greatest comedies of all time was born.
From what I have heard the 2016 Ghostbusters features some social commentary on gender imbalance. Some may complain that this doesn't belong in Ghostbusters but they would be ignoring the original, which may not feature gender commentary but does feature a form of social commentary. Ghostbusters in my view is partly a satire of pest exterminators. The Ghostbusters are essentially supernatural exterminators who come into homes and rid them of 'vermin' (IE ghosts). The difference however is that the Ghostbusters get rid of the 'vermin' in a humane way rather than killing them off (although whether you can actually 'kill' a ghost anyway is debatable given they are already dead). Ghostbusters could be seen as a film that therefore challenges the notion of just taking the lives of creatures that invite themselves into our homes rather than finding a more sympathetic method of dealing with them. The reason why we root for the four Ghostbusters is not just because they dispose of the ghosts but also largely how they dispose of them. The ghosts are stopped in a way that still grants them (after)life but at the same time sufficiently punishes them for their crimes against the living.
Nobody is ever going to claim Ghostbusters is Citizen Kane but what it is is immense amounts of fun. The chaotic visual style of the Proton streams add a lot to the film's lively tone. Most importantly they look like something that would come out of a piece of scientific equipment designed for catching ghosts so there is no suspension of disbelief required. To achieve the proton streams with the 1984 original they filmed some explosions on-stage at the Entertainment Effects Group then used a technique called 'pin-blocking' to rephotograph it (taking a repeat photo/video of something with a time-lag of the two images). It is clever how they achieved this and the other effects in Ghostbusters without the need of CGI; Ghostbusters: The Ultimate Visual History makes for an interesting read. Did you know, for example, that Slimer in the 1984 Ghostbusters is a puppet and the hot dogs were over-sized props?
Overall, the 1984 Ghostbusters is not to the quality of an Alfred Hitchcock film but it is most certainly one of the greatest comedies of all time. It's an immensely fun and entertaining movie with natural chemistry between the four leads and instantly quotable lines such as the 'steady paycheck'. In the age before CGI, the effects still stand up today. The SIimer puppet is an extraordinary piece of puppetry and the fact that it is a puppet is barely noticeable in the film. Ghostbusters, rather than being a parody of horror, is a film that works because the situations are taken seriously in order to provide the comedy. It also has some brilliant social satire on pest exterminators and features a standout performance by Bill Murray. If you haven't seen the 1984 Ghostbusters by now then there's something strange in your neighborhood and you need to call...into your local shop that sells DVDs/Blurays straight away to buy yourself a copy.