"Ghostbusters" is a 1984 comedy film directed by Ivan Reitman and was written by the comedy legends, Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis. It stars Bill Murray as Peter Venkman, Dan Aykroyd as Ray Stanz, Harold Ramis as Egon Spengler, and Ernie Hudson as Winston Zeddmore. The movie follows a rag-tag group of parapsychologists, who begin a ghost catching team in the heart of New York. As the paranormal become more active in the city, the ghostbusters find themselves in an interdimensional battle for the fate of New York and perhaps even the world!
I grew up with "Ghostbusters" everywhere. As a kid we had the movies, toys, Ectocooler Hi-C, and even "the Real Ghostbusters" cartoon! I always enjoyed the films, but it wasn't until recent years re-watching them as an adult where I found a true admiration for the story of the Ghostbusters!
In the future I plan on talking about the sequel, remake, and even the reboot that is coming out soon, but for now I'm going to focus on the one that started it all!
One thing I wish to address right off the bat is the Winston issue. Allegedly the character of Winston was meant to be played by Eddie Murphy, who chose to instead act in the popular "Beverly Hills Cop". This role eventually was reduced and went to Ernie Hudson, which is a shame because I feel he was did a great job with the role and is my second favorite out of the four (first being Egon). Winston is a good straight man to the eccentric trio of Venkmen, Stanz, and Spengler. He always feels grounded and reels in other characters when they go off on scientific tangents, much like the famous "that's a big Twinkie" line. I feel like he represents such a good portion of the audience seeing the events from the view of someone who doesn't have a history grounded in parapsychology and its a shame we don't get more of him.
we see a plethora of ghosts, demons and specters in this movie but we cant forget our first, the Library Ghost Elanor Twitty. She starts off as an innocent old lady, roaming the halls of the library as she did in life. Venkman meets up with Ray and Egon and they follow Elanor around they try to capture her with Ray yelling which sets her off to become this spooky, ghastly figure making the trio race out of the library, excited with their first encounter. This animatronic is super creepy, and was brought to life by special effects designer Steve Johnson. The ghastly Elanor was also operated by a single puppeteer.
The next specter they encounter is this adorable hotel ghost, later named Slimer. He has an encounter with Venkman and covers him in ectoplasm, much to the excitement of Egon and Ray. This dude is my favorite ghost in the franchise and is one of the most interestingly put together effects in the franchise. To achieve the effect, puppeteer Mark Bryan Wilson donned the Slimer Costume so he could move his arms and body inside, where puppeteers controlled the mouth via wires to achieve the chomping and eating effects seen in the final product. Wilson wore all black while in the suit and was filmed on a black back drop while remaining in a single fixed location. In order to achieve the look of Slimer moving and flying the camera was placed on a Dolly and would move closer to the puppet to achieve the illusion of movement.
Dan Aykroyd was known to refer to this character as the ghost of John Belushi. This was because Belushi was the original choice to play Peter Venkman before his untimely death. Steve Johnson has stated that Slimer was his most difficult effect to work on through the entire project. He has been known to say that the night before the final product of the character was set to be completed, Aykroyd and Ramis approached him requesting that Slimer bear a resemblance to the late comedian as a sort of a tribute.
In the climax we see several Ghosts start causing chaos around New York, but at the center of it all we have the demon Gozer and their Terror Dogs. Gozer is the big baddie of the film that ends up trying to destroy New York City. Their terror dogs end up causing all kinds of mischief before meeting up with their master, even chasing Louis Tully around the city. In this film the Terror dogs are known as Zuul and Vinz Clortho, and end up possessing Louis Tully and Dana Barrett and set Gozer free.
Gozer gives the ghostbusters the choice of what destructor will cause their demise. Realizing that Gozer will read their minds to select the destructor, the team clears their mind of all thoughts, except Ray. He lets the thought of the Stay Puft Marshmallow mascot "just pop" into his head. This causes Gozer to summon a giant Mr. Stay Puft that starts stomping its way through the city, Godzilla style.
In order to defeat him the team has to cross their particle streams to cause an explosion large enough to reduce the marshmallow man to piles of goo that cover most of the city, including the ghostbusters.
Mr. Stay Puft may be the most expensive effect in the entire movie. For the Film 3 of these suits were made, and all three were destroyed during filming the fight sequence. This is a huge shame because each suit cost approximately $20,000 to create. Mr. Stay Puft is one of the first images that comes to mind when anyone things of this movie, it feels like a piece of film history is gone knowing that none of the screen used suits survived the wear and tear of filming.
"Ghostbusters" is an absolute staple of comedic film. It's loved by so many people and helps bridge the gap between genre fans of any generation. I really liked it as a kid but as an adult I appreciate it even more. "Ghostbusters" earns a great 9/10 on the new and improved Patented Monster Meter! I highly recommend seeing this if you haven't and if you have definitely giving the series a re-watch before "Ghostbusters: Afterlife" comes to theaters in March 2021!
RIP Harold Ramis, you were a comedic genius. Thank you for Egon and letting all of us nerds out there have a hero to look up to who was just like us.
No comments:
Post a Comment