The beginning stuff at the college is sort of a thematic bridge from Animal House to the main part of the movie. I think I still enjoy the whole movie pretty much equally. If anything, maybe the Walter Peck stuff is the least interesting part. The whole gimmick of interesting a snooty character for the audience to hate is a little outdated now. But in the entire movie, almost everything the 4 GBs and Louis say is either funny or interesting. And the plot of ghost activity growing into a bigger and bigger threat develops so smoothly and naturally. The basic idea of combining scaring the audience with making them laugh has never been done so well.
I wrote this earlier this year about what I remember of seeing GB1 in the theater back in 1984.
My memories are somewhat fuzzy of specifics to the theatrical experience and the overall phenomenon that year. I was 7 years old at the time. I had seen quite a few movies in the theater by then...Raiders of the Lost Ark, Return of the Jedi, E.T., WarGames, Superman III, The Dark Crystal, The Toy, Mr. Mom, Never Say Never Again, Footloose, Romancing the Stone, Greystoke and Indiana Jones 2. I saw Gremlins that year as well, but don't know whether I saw that or Ghostbusters first, since they came out on the same day.
There was a lot of competition for attention that year which prevented Ghostbusters from becoming a single-minded obsession for any kid. Other movies out that summer included Indiana Jones, Gremlins, Karate Kid and The Muppets Take Manhattan. The legacy of Return of the Jedi was still lingering. Star Wars action figures were still hot in 1984 and you could listen to the movie storybook at home. G.I. Joe and Transformers were getting hotter as toy, cartoon and comic book properties. I wasn't reading comic books yet, but they were growing in popularity at that time with stuff like Marvel's Secret Wars crossover coming out.
I can't remember when I first heard of Ghostbusters or what made me want to see it. But it was definitely a movie kids were talking about and interested in. It wasn't just seen as something for adults who watched Saturday Night Live. I had probably seen very little SNL by then, and most likely only Eddie Murphy episodes if I did. I can guarantee you I didn't recognize Aykroyd in Temple of Doom, and only figured out he cameoed in that years later.
So, at some point I end up in the theater to see Ghostbusters. It's possible that it was a parental decision to go and not a case of me begging to be taken there. I don't know if I had any expectations at all. I can remember watching the "wavy lines" scene, being fascinated that the guy guessed it right, and not fully understanding why Venkman was playing games with him. When jokes like "menstruating" came up, again, I didn't know what they were talking about. The slime on the card catalog was very interesting. "Blows their nose and you want to keep it" was really funny. I don't remember how I reacted to the library ghost, but I liked the energy of the movie picking up as they ran out to the music. The spooky stuff in Dana's kitchen was VERY interesting, especially the eggs cooking themselves. Seeing the terror dog in the fiery landscape in the fridge was kind of a jaw-dropping moment. Ray sliding down the pole of the firehouse was something I remember thinking was cool.
The first HUGE moment for the theater came when Slimer went after Peter and he delivered the "he slimed me" line. This was hugely latched onto by the public, quoted and used all over T-shirts and stuff like that. I think for most of the rest of the movie, Louis was the one who stole the show for me. Him locking himself out, running from the dog, getting possessed. His "nerd act" was just gold at that time. I liked seeing Venkman spar with Dana, but I think the "are you the keymaster" scene was another one that probably went over my head. I know I was completely freaked out when the hands got Dana in the chair and pulled her to the dog. The effects of the sky darkening in the third act definitely made me feel a sense of danger. The shot of the stairs going up was interesting, the kind of vertigo shot I always responded to at that age. And, finally, I can tell you the other big moment that was completely electric was the appearance of Stay Puft. There was shock, hilarity, elation and amazement, that I think swept through the entire theater. You knew you were seeing something epic that was an absolutely unimaginable vision up until that moment in time. Stay Puft and "he slimed me" were the key factors in making the movie a giant word-of-mouth hit, I think.
I remember it being a movie almost all other kids in your class had seen, so you could talk about it with all your friends. As most people know, there wasn't a ton of merchandise sold for the movie at that time. I remember we had stickers and sticker books. I had T-shirts too. But I'm hard pressed to come up with anything else. The Gremlins merchandise absolutely dwarfed anything from Ghostbusters. I do remember the song became a HUGE part of the phenomenon. It was a great day if you could catch the video on MTV and see the 'busters there. This dovetailed with how major a force MTV was at that time.
And, yep, Ghostbusters continued to be a major presence throughout the '80s with the debut of the RGB cartoon and the release of the sequel. I was there for it. And I'll tell that part of the story later.
|
All countries
Argentina
Austria
Belgium
Brazil
Bulgaria
Chile
China
Colombia
Cyprus
Czech Republic
Estonia
Denmark
Finland
Greece
Hong Kong
Hungary
Iceland
Indonesia
Ireland
Israel
India
Latvia
Lithuania
Malaysia
New Zealand
Norway
Philippines
Poland
Portugal
Romania
Russia
Singapore
South Africa
South Korea
Sweden
Switzerland
Taiwan
Thailand
Turkey
Ukraine
United Arab Emirates
Hybrid Mode
