Ghostbusters (1984)

 

Ghostbusters follows the rather silly but entertaining adventures of three former scientists who set up a private business to investigate and destroy paranormal creatures. Interestingly, they lost their university positions by botching an encounter with a ghost in the New York Public Library, so it is odd that they would then go into business doing the very thing that cost them their jobs. Peter Venkman is played by Bill Murry with his usual acerbic skepticism and propensity for what seem like ad libs. Dan Aykroyd’s Raymond Stantz demonstrates a high level of enthusiasm and almost naivete. Harold Ramos plays Egon Spengler with a measure of seriousness and deadpan reactions. It’s fun to watch the three of them play off each other and their characters’ different personalities even though it does seem at times that Murray is performing in another movie. The Ghostbusters set up shop in an abandoned firehouse, complete with the poles for getting from one floor down to another, and they purchase a so-called “combination car” (which can apparently be used either as a hearse or an ambulance) to be their primary mode of transportation. They begin creating some new weapons, hire a secretary (Annie Potts, hilarious in her few, small moments on screen), and then gain a fourth Ghostbuster (Ernie Hudson) when business picks up. A significant portion of the second half of the film is tied up with a convoluted plot about Sigourney Weaver’s Dana, a cellist with whom Murray is infatuated, being possessed by Zuul the Gatekeeper and her accountant neighbor (Rick Moranis, notching up the dweeb factor just a bit too far) is possessed by Vinz Glortho the Keymaster. They have to open a gateway for Gozer the Gozerian, a Sumerian god of destruction, and their apartment building was conveniently built by the leader of an end-times cult in the 1920s to facilitate Gozer’s arrival. Following all of the details about the demigods and gods and how Gozer’s “form” gets selected is really rather meaningless because it’s the visuals that are most impressive. Gozer changes from the form of a woman who looks ready for a mid-80s fashion shoot (or a Nagel painting) into the Stay Puft marshmallow man, whose walk through the city is one of the more impressive visual effects in the film. Watching the street in front of the apartment building buckle and break up is certainly realistic and shocking. I also enjoyed the Ghostbusters’ first job after they leave the university, trying to kill a slimy green ghost in a hotel, only to destroy most of a floor of the hotel and the better part of a ballroom; it’s the sequence that includes Murray’s famous line, “He slimed me.” Overall, it’s an enjoyable and funny film with some pretty cool visual effects that were state-of-the-art in 1984. One final thought, though,  about the film: Did William Atherton, who plays Environmental Protection Agency representative Walter Peck, always have to be a prick in almost every movie he made? He’s the bureaucratic impediment to the “good work” that the Ghostbusters are doing because of potentially dangerous environmental effects of containing the ghosts under their headquarters. I do wonder sometimes how actors tend to wind up repeatedly with the same kinds of parts.

Oscar Nominations: Best Visual Effects and Best Original Song (“Ghostbusters”)