CLASSIC GHOSTBUSTERS

Ghostbusters

Release date: June 7, 1984

Writers: Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis

Director: Ivan Reitman

Main Cast: 

•         Bill Murray as Peter Venkman
•          Dan Aykroyd as Raymond Stantz
•          Harold Ramis as Egon Spengler
•          Ernie Hudson as Winston Zeddemore
•          Annie Potts as Janine Melnitz
•          Sigourney Weaver as Dana Barrett
•          Rick Moranis as Louis Tully
•          William Atherton as Walter Peck
•          David Margulies as Lenny Clotch, Mayor of City of New York
•          Slavitza Jovan as Gozer the body
•          Paddi Edwards as Gozer the voice

(Rating 5 of 5)

Summary: (Spoilers! After all it’s a summary.) After a ghost terrifies a poor librarian, a trio of parapsychologists (this is not real thing) are brought in from Columbia University to investigate the matter.  The three men are Peter Venkman, Raymond Stantz, and Egon Spengler.  The trio isn’t much use to the library.  Although they find the ghost, once they try physical contact the with it the ghost transforms and terrifies them off.  They do however get some interesting readings off their P.K.E. Meter and Egon concludes that they could capture a ghost and hold it indefinitely.

                Unfortunately for the three scientists when they get back to the University they find they have been fired for handing in sloppy work.  Peter decides dismissal was a good thing because it gives them the ability to go into business for themselves.  Ray mortgages his house that he inherited from his parents and they use this money to buy themselves a closedown firehouse, a rundown hearse, supplies, and commercial space on the local airwaves. 

                As the Ghostbusters are getting their business set up a young woman by the name of Dana Barrett is harassed by ghost named Zuul who appeared in her refrigerator.  She asked the Ghostbusters for their help, having seen their ad on TV, and Egon and Ray are eager to help while Peter looks at Dana as potential dating material.

                Dana’s case is slow and as the Ghostbusters continue to investigate it when they receive a call from the high class Sedgewick Hotel.  There a small and annoying, but otherwise harmless, ghost has been terrorizing their residence.  This is the little green ghost that would one day be known as Slimer.  The Ghostbusters do massive damage to the hotel nearly destroying everything in there but they do catch the ghost.  That is such a relief to the manager that they overlook the damage and the high cost, although not until the Ghostbusters threaten to put the ghost back if they are not paid.

                With the successful capture Slimer the Ghostbusters’ business booms.  The Ghostbusters go from sitting around the firehouse to being busy around the clock.  The Ghostbusters don’t go a day without multiple jobs and/or TV interviews.  The workload gets so heavy that they choose to take on a fourth ghost buster, Winston Zeddemore, to ease their burden. While this all going on they are still investigating Dana’s case and discover that Zuul is an ancient demigod and the minion of Gozer.

                Peter makes arrangements with Dana to discuss her case over dinner.  Before Peter arrives Dana and her neighbor Louis Tully are both attacked by Gozer's minions, Zuul and Vinz Clortho, who possess their bodies.  When Peter arrives he finds Dana very different and referring to herself as Zuul the Gatekeeper.  She tells him she is awaiting the Keymaster.  At the same time Egon gets a delivery from the police department in the form of Louis Tully, who now calls himself Vinz Clortho, the Keymaster.  After discussing this over the phone Egon and Peter decide to get together to form a plan to deal with this while keeping Dana and Louis apart. 

                Unfortunately for the Ghostbusters, Walter Peck of the EPA, who had been stonewalled and rudely treated by Peter, returns with a warrant to shut them down.  Peck has his men turn of the power grid of the containment unit.  This allows all the ghosts to break out; everyone gets out the fire house before the explosion.  Ray and Winston arrive back from a job to see the mess and Peck accuses the Ghostbusters of causing all this and has them arrested.

                While in jail Ray and Egon revel to the other two Ghostbusters, and their other cellmates, that the architect of Dana’s apartment building was a Gozer worshiper who was building a gateway to help usher Gozer into the world in order to destroy it.  Winston tried to convince the other Ghostbusters that is no way any federal judge would ever believe their story.  However the Ghostbusters do get summoned by the Mayor of New York.  

                Possessed Dana and Louis meet up and prepare to open the Gateway.  Louis had a mad crush on Dana but I doubt this is what he had in mind when he imagined himself with her. 

                Due to all the craziness is happening in the city with the ghosts released from their prison, the Ghostbusters find the Mayor in the mood to listen to them. They convince him to support them and embarrass Peck in the process.  The Mayor phones the Governor who sends out the National Guard and has them clear the way for the Ghostbusters to make it to Dana’s apartment building.  When they get there they arrived to cheering crowds who were hoping the Ghostbusters can stop what’s happening.  The forces of Gozer try to stop the Ghostbusters with an earthquake but the Ghostbusters survive and enter the building anyway.

               When they reach the Gateway they witness Louis and Dana transform into the natural animalistic forms of Zuul and Vinz Clortho.  Gozer arrives and the Ghostbusters are little surprised to find Gozer has taken the form of a woman.  They first try to just to talk with Gozer and convince her to leave but she grows annoyed and tries to throw them off the building with Palpatine-like lighting when Ray revels he is not a god.   The Ghostbusters then attack her with their particle throwers and at one point hit her and she disappears.  For a moment the Ghostbusters think that they won but is quickly revealed that Gozer has just again change form.  After another earthquake causes some parts of the building to go toppling to the ground the disembodied voice of Gozer is heard and demands that the Ghostbusters choose the form of their destroyer.  The Ghostbusters try not to think of anything but Ray fails and Gozer creates the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man, a figure from Ray’s childhood, to destroy them. The Ghostbusters blast Stay Puft but that just makes him angry and he blows the fire back at them.  Egon comes up with a plan the requires the Ghostbusters to cross the streams, something he earlier said the can never do, the other Ghostbusters are hesitant but Peter chooses to rally them and they follow Egon’s plan.  They aim at the Gateway of Gozer and blast. They then cross the streams destroying Gozer’s Gateway and the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man.

                The Ghostbusters survived and find still living Dana and Louis back in their normal forms with their own minds.  The movie ends with the Ghostbusters being cheered by the crowds.  As the credits roll the last two things we see are the Ghostbusters driving off with the crowds following them and Slimer flying back towards the screen.

My Take: (Spoilers here as well!) This is one of those films that when people tell me they didn’t like it (and that is rare) I actually judge them for it.  If you don’t like this film then you don’t like movies.  Everything they did was so perfect it is hard to imagine what they could have done better.

This scene still looks awesome even today.

                I first saw this movie when I was about seven years old I was at my friend Brent’s house and they had it on VHS.   I don’t know at what age I had started watching The Real Ghostbusters as far as I could remember I always watched it. We weren’t even planning on watching the movie that day, Brent’s older brother and his friend were, we just walked in the room when they were putting the tape in.  They asked us if we wanted to watch and I became very interested they told me what it was.  I even remember asking, “there’s a movie about the Ghostbusters?”

Come to think of it he is rather cute.

                Despite the fact that they’re supposed to be the exact same fictional characters, the cartoon versions were never drawn to look like the actors who physically portrayed them.   Strange thing was this never bothered me as a kid.  I simply rationalized as the cartoon is a cartoon and this was the story of the same characters just using real people.   I also enjoyed the fact I had now had the Ghostbusters origin story. (Although the phrase “origin story” wasn’t in my vocabulary at the time.)  I did wonder for a period of time where Winston was and was relieved when the character finally showed up.

                Although I find the movie to be near perfect there are some nitpicky moments I have:

So you missed Slimer but you managed to burn the wall real good.

•   Who puts out the fire? Every time one of the Ghostbusters misses a ghost and blast hits anything the object then catches on fire.  The Ghostbusters don’t seem overly concerned about putting out the fires.  Since the place clearly wasn’t burning down when they were leaving and I didn’t hear of any sprinklers it leads me to wonder who is putting them out? Was it the cleaning lady who Ghostbusters almost killed?  Do fires from proton blast naturally go out on their own accord?  It’s clearly not the ghosts.   

  

  Hello!

• When Ray’s mysterious ghost lady friend shows up to seduce him is this really happening or is this a dream?  Every time I watch this movie I change my opinion.  Sometimes I think he’s dreaming.  Other times I think one little ghost found a clever way to keep herself out of the containment unit.
• There were many celebrity cameos in this movie but how many people caught the appearance of England’s own Prince Harry of Wales?  He is in a newspaper article right around Ray’s lady ghost scene.

  

  Mayor of New York City in Ghostbusters.

   

  

  The actual Mayor of New York City in the 1980s.

• Was Mayor Lenny Clotch based on the late Mayor Ed Koch?  Koch was mayor at the time and I get the same vibe from watching both men.

  

  Force Lighting! Oh sorry, wrong movie.

•  When Gozer shows up and asks Ray if he is a god, why is she asking?  Shouldn’t she just know?  Maybe she was just dumbfounded that a human could be so arrogant to make demands of her?  Or maybe last time she was on Earth humans could not reach her gateway and she was just surprised to see them.

Like any movie with a team narrative, the Ghostbusters is a film that is character driven.  So I would like to take a moment to view the characters of the Ghostbusters themselves.

Egon Spengler, my personal favorite.

• Egon Spengler (Harold Ramis): As a kid Egon Spengler was by far my favorite Ghostbuster.  This was primarily because he was portrayed as the smartest he always seemed to have the answers no matter how strange the situation.  Egon has a wealth of knowledge but actually no social skills, his biggest challenge is often trying to communicate what he knows to others. He is completely dependent on his Ghostbuster associates because they’re the only ones who really understand him.  When he does try display emotion in attempts of relating to other people he usually overplays it.  He also has a sweet tooth as he is shown as being awarded by Peter with a candy bar and one night when they were up eating Chinese food Peter and Ray were having a beer while Egon was just simply drinking a Coke.  Often when trying to make an important point he is prone to exaggeration.

  

  Ray Stantz needs to quit smoking on the job because its a fire hazard. Wait! They don't care about fire hazards never mind.

•  Raymond Stantz (Dan Aykroyd): At the end of the film Peter refers to Ray as the “heart of the Ghostbusters.”  That is the primary thing you need to know about character.  Ray’s very enthusiastic about his work, whenever there on a mission he is always wide-eyed and super excited.  The only exception to that was their first ghost hunting experience where he was nervous because they hadn’t tested the equipment yet.  He knows a lot of the history of paranormal investigation and is often comparing the current case to some random thing that happened in the 1930s, 1940s, 1910s, etc.  He is almost as geeky as Egon but he does have passable social skills.  I say passable not good.  For example in the start of the movie he was unable to pick up Peter’s cues that he rather be spending time with a coed then going on a paranormal investigation.

  

  Peter Venkman, slimed not undeserved.

• Peter Venkman (Bill Murray): Where do we start with Peter?  On one hand he is the Ghostbuster who makes everything happen.  It was his idea to start the Ghostbusters, he is also the one who negotiates the rates and fees, and that the end of the movie he is the one who rallies Ghostbusters around Egon’s plan to cross the streams and stop Gozer.  It is hard to imagine that Ray and Egon could have possibly gotten off the ground without Peter’s involvement; they just don’t have the social skills to make that happen.  Yet at the same time Peter is the sole cause of all their problems.  The reason they have to go into business for themselves is they got kicked out of the University and the primary reason they got kicked out was because Peter had more interest in hitting on coeds to do legitimate research.  When they get Dana, their first customer, Peter is more interested in her as a dating opportunity than as a business opportunity and when he goes to her place he completely misses the fact that he’s in the most haunted building in the city. I find it highly unlikely that if Egon and Ray had been at Dane’s apartment that they would miss what he did.  Dana was right he didn’t know how to use that equipment he brought over.  He also manages to provoke Walter Peck, it should be pointed out that Peck was right about one thing: the EPA has every right to ask about the environmental impact that their operation could have.  Peter’s response is to insult and belittle him earning them the wrath of the EPA and ultimately the destruction of the containment unit and escape of all the ghosts.  He is the closest thing they have to leader but he has no balance. 

  

  Winston Zeddemore, the normal person here.

•    Winston Zeddemore (Ernie Hudson):  Originally, Eddie Murphy was supposed to be in this movie as the fourth Ghostbuster.  His Winston was going to be a scientist is like the other three.  Murphy however had another commitment with Beverly Hills Cop and couldn’t do the film.  Ernie Hudson was a last-minute replacement at the time he was nowhere near as famous as Dan Aykroyd, Bill Murray, or Harold Ramis.  (For example, when The Real Ghostbusters was being cast Hudson tried to get the role again but was denied.  Whereas a critical comment by Bill Murray cost Lorenzo Music his job.) Winston’s role was changed to adapt to this. In the film he is the new hire that they bring aboard when they find themselves overloaded with work.  I think the change was a good one however because instead of having a redundant fourth scientist, what they ended up was a little bit better.  The late DeForest Kelly described his Star Trek character, Dr. McCoy, as being the “normal one” of the crew.  Dr. McCoy would say things and act like people normally would if what they saw on Star Trek was actually real.  Winston serves the same purpose: he is the normal man amongst a bunch of weirdos. You see this right away when we get his common sense response to the Ghostbusters’ overly ridiculous interview questions.  He is the only one of them to realize and inform his fellow Ghostbusters that going before a federal judge with a ridiculous story probably isn’t going to fly.  Winston also goes to bat for the team in front of the Mayor of New York City trying to appeal to him that the Ghostbusters cause is in fact real.  Although favorite will always be Egon, as an adult, I think I appreciate Winston’s character little bit more.  Especially in the series and later movie where his role is larger.

 Ghostbusters is an all-time classic that is enjoyable every single time you watch.