Dan Ackroyd and Harold Ramis wrote a script for themselves that combined the kind of deadpan comedy of the early '80s with sci-fi action and horror, hired a tight-ship director and rising funnyman to create one of the most durable mixed genre movies ever. Ghostbusters keeps its pace high and the jokes flowing but knows when to turn the mix on one down in favour of the other when it's time for third-act action. Add a super catchy theme tune that jetted to number one and you've got a summer hit.
In a field that included Police Academy, Spinal Tap and Blame it on Rio, any kind of comedy was battling grossout, satire and things that didn't quite know that the seventies had ended. Ackroyd and Ramis wrote a core of supernatural thriller and added a joke for everything that could be heckled. They hired a tight-ship director in Ivan Reitman and a rising funnyman and created one of the most durable comedies ever. Add a theme song that rocketed to the top spot and stayed there and your summer hit movie has a place at the cinema, the video shop right up to streaming and ultra high definition for the collector o' today. It's still around and needs to be.
Bill Murray has cruised through the decades with his mischievous schtick, leaving milestones whose titles alone can elicit delight: Groundhog Day, Scrooged, Stripes and Ghostbusters. He's also weathered charges of bad stuff but always seems to roll back up and head into the next thing. He's a personality comedian and his first scene, rigging an ESP test to land a female student, shows him as both clever and sleazy, effective enough to get us on board but creeping enough to reveal his flaws. It's an impressive turn and without it, this film would lose the charm it needs to function outside of its declared genre.
There is nothing about the rest of the cast that displeases except the over stiffness of William Atherton's EPA zealot. His humourless ranting and psycho eyes are in line with the period's caricatures of authority figures and he was probably under strict direction to provide his role with definition but you do get to see the actor behind the stereotype here and there.
And lest we should overload the praise, we do need to remember some things that just cannot cut it now. Dan Ackroyd has a dream of getting a blowjob from a beautiful female ghost. At the time it was just a knowing wink at young adult audiences but now it feels like a how-about moment in the writers' room that got left in. It's not entirely one for the lads as this film is careful to provide a counter to every strike it deals which can allow some edge through and cover it with balance. Bill Murray's oversexed observations in Dana's flat are met with knowing resistance from Dana herself and while his charm is advancing, she does let him know that he still has a fight ahead of him. Recall, Dana is played by Sigourney Weaver, still freshly known for the tough intellect she brought to Alien's Ripley: Murray is given a real challenge.
I saw this at Hoyts in Brisbane in late 1984 with a flatmate. We noticed with a look away a kid smoking a cigarette. We both smoked but the kid was really small. The movie played and was good fun. A schoolage girl to one side of us tried to lead a clap in time with the Lionel Richie theme tune. It wasn't taken up but it injected me with the kind of irrational embarrassment that you only stop feeling after about thirty. I was twenty-two and felt old.
These days Ghostbusters is my Christmas film. It's not set at Christmas nor carries a yuletide theme. It's just the one I won't have to think about as I tuck into a leftovers pie and possibly venture a small drink to placate my hangover. I stopped being Christmassy over a decade ago to the point where I'll invite friends around on the eve and stay well away from the rest of the world for the day itself. Some people think that's a sad admission but it's a ritual I've grown to treasure. The rest of the year I will be happily sociable but that one day of sanctuary with a small measure of spirits and a goofy classic sets every bad thing right until it has to be dealt with the morning after. Who else am I gonna call?
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