From the Vault: Ghostbusters

In which I review a movie from my collection.

It might have taken longer than I had initially intended, but I've finally gotten around to rewatching Ghostbusters after Bob Chipman's inaugural episode of Really that Good.  His video stood as a testament to me for why thoughtful, analytical film criticism is an important cultural tool.  More than just recommending or warning people away from a given movie, it challenges its viewers pre-established opinions and forces them to re-evaluate their positions on a given subject.  Whether or not they think any differently afterwards is completely immaterial.

After having their university funding revoked, paranormal academics Ray, Egon and Peter put their collective supernatural knowledge to use in the private sector.  They become the Ghostbusters: a startup team of paranormal exterminators who track and trap the spooks haunting New York City.  But when Gozer the Gozerian threatens to bring about Armageddon, they have to fight everything from ancient Sumarian gods to City Hall in order to save the world from destruction.

Although there's a lot to gripe about and nitpick in the movie, what Ghostbusters does well it does so phenomenally well that it's impossible to do anything but overlook its numerous faults.  Its absurdly good cast perfectly pairs the comedic antics of Billy Murray, Dan Akroyd and Harold Ramis with the straight-man conduct Sigourney Weaver, Ernie Hudson and William Atherton.

The writing is sound enough so that every major player - from its hapless heroes to its petty antagonists - get their fair shake at the lime light.  And while some might receive a little too much screen time (Rick Moranis) and others not enough (Ernie Hudson), it mostly balances out by the end of the movie.

One of the best known bits of Ghostbusters trivia is that the original script was radically different from the one that would eventually get produced.  It depicted a distant, ghost-ridden future where teams of Ghostbusters would patrol the streets and keep the city safe from supernatural harm.  The team that the movie would focus on was the Caddyshack-styled screw-ups.

And although that initial premise is rife with potential (not just comedic, but scientific and fantastic as well), the much more modestly conceived origin story that we ended up with is invariably the best version of the movie that we could hope for.  While there's a lot to be said about the success of movies like Caddyshack and Police Academy, I honestly can't think of much to say for them in terms of actual merit.

Forcing the story to address the Ghostbusters beginnings, as opposed to its mainstream eventuality, necessitated intelligent, innovative and capable protagonists, rather than the bumbling screw-ups that we invariably would have gotten.  And while there are plenty of physical gags and jokes aimed at their general dysfunction as a team, the humor is mostly relegated to the hilarious marriage of exorcist and exterminator and the verbal quips of screwball academics.

Although I was never nearly so enamored with Ghostbusters as the rest of my friends were as a kid, it was never the less one of the comedies I most admired.  The ghosts were the perfect degree of frightening for a kid to appreciate (grotesque enough to be scary, but tame enough to not be repulsive) and it featured a handful of cornerstone jokes that still hold up decades later (see above).

Looking back on it now, however, I can see exactly where the movie lost me as a kid: the exact same issues that Bob brought up in his video.  Between their first real job at the hotel and the climax with Mr. Stay Puft, the movie relies far too heavily on the team's rise-to-fame montage.  While it was certainly an efficient sequence, it robbed the movie of another scene or two of actual ghost busting (of which the movie was surprisingly light on).

The character of Lewis Tully was likewise completely unnecessary.  While I certainly understand what they were trying to go for with the romantic lead's bumbling, socially awkward neighbor, none of it really worked for me.  He didn't add anything substantive to the Dana-Peter binary, his jokes weren't especially funny and he was mostly there to give Egon and Janine something to do while Ray and Winston were researching the Gozer-infested apartment and Peter dealt with the Zuul-possessed Dana.

That being said, however, I can whole-heartedly say that Ghostbusters is "really that good."  The premise is the perfect blend of imaginative and fun, produced at a time when special effects had caught up with the idea but before blockbusters became as formulaically cemented as they did in the 1990s.  And, most importantly, it holds up better today than most other comedies.

Rating:  8/10

Buy on BluRay:  Yes

So what is your favorite comedy from the 1980s?  Share your thoughts in the comment section below.

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