Revisiting... Ghostbusters

For better and worse, a lot about comedy has changed in 30 years, and there's something about these big blocksbuster 80s comedies that just make people smile. Ghostbusters may not be as hilarious as you may think you remember it, but that does nothing to damper the great entertainment that it still is. It seems that most modern comedies intentionally work against viewers, to disgust, shock or otherwise rattle them into laughter. In a movie like Ghostbusters, viewers are invited to partake in the comedy, to work alongside the movie in realizing why a certain situation would definitely be funny. We are presented with a serious movie full of shamelessly silly things, and we are winkingly let in on the joke.

The biggest source of laughter is, of course, the star. Bill Murray plays a psychologist who uses his position and funding at a college to waste time and get dates with the attractive students. His friends, for unexplained reasons, are Dan Aykroyd and the late Harold Ramis, who represent opposite ends of the nerd spectrum. Together, after a now iconic experience involving a sinister apparition in a library, these three become the Ghostbusters, fighting spectral crime all over New York City.

Murray's performance is gold, often imitated and never equaled. He is the snarky, lazy hero who is not so goofy we can't take him seriously and not so crass that we come to dislike him. He is described by another character in the movie as more of a game show host than a scientist, and that is altogether too true. For a great deal of his performance, he all but looks at the camera and says, "Look at me, I'm in a movie!" and yet still manages to pull off that balance that keeps him grounded enough to believe in the reality of his character even as we're laughing at the lunacy of it.

Much of the movie and Murray's success is owed to Aykroyd and Ramis' funny and intelligent screenplay, which handily avoids making what could have been its fatal error. Aykroyd and Ramis, as well as director Ivan Reitman, take their story and characters seriously without sacrificing any of their humor. Though Ghostbusters is not without some slapstick, if it had been nothing but, we probably wouldn't be calling it a classic.

The smart writing especially benefits the characters, all of which are given dimensions not commonly attributed to "types" like these. For example, unlike so many comedy heroes today, Murray only jokes about crude behavior. It is refreshing and endearing that when the opportunity comes for him to take advantage of the love interest (played by the beautiful young Sigourney Weaver, post-Alien, pre-obscurity.), he does the right thing. Similarly the nerdiness of the Ghostbusters is certainly played for laughs, but not at the expense of the nerds (Take notes, Big Bang Theory!), but almost in envy of them. These guys make geeks look cool.

The possible exceptions to this incredibly fair treatment to the characters is in the supporting roles played by Annie Potts and Rick Moranis. Potts is a dowdy secretary barely given the time of day by her employers or the movie, but maybe that's the joke. More strange is Moranis, who plays a desperate spaz of an accountant who becomes unconvincingly possessed during the climax. he really likes the Weaver character, who very naturally does not return the affection. These moments of rejection seem to be grasping for sympathy, but there are times when the man is so nasty to others that we don't care that things never go right for him. I'm not saying that the guy's subplot is a failure, it's just curious.

As absurd as the movie is, it does get pretty dark towards the end as the demons start showing up, hence the child me getting frightened. Yet, even in these dark moments the charm of the movie is never lost, thanks to an inspired and iconic twist involving a certain junk food mascot. The special effects by Richard Edlund, John Bruno,  Mark Vargo and Chuck Gaspar received an Academy Award nomination and are intentionally old-fashioned in style, using everything from stop-motion animation to matte paintings to puppets and beyond. They are hokey at best but all part of the fun, kind of like the also Oscar-nominated title song by Ray Parker, Jr that has still somehow not become totally obnoxious.

It can be easy for film snobs to raise their noses at a movie like Ghostbusters. It is simple, light and silly, but there's a reason good silly movies stick around. A lot of heart, talent and imagination went into the creation of Ghostbusters and the enthusiasm and joy of the filmmakers rubs off. If the laughter and applause I heard at my screening is any indication, this silly movie isn't going anywhere.

And now, because it is beyond my resistance... WHO YOU GONNA CALL?

The correct answer is Ghostbusters.