Yours portly hasn’t had much time to watch movies the past two weeks, and I can feel the glory of the Halloween season slipping away with each busy day.  October has always seemed to fly by like a witch fleeing Walpurgisnacht, and all those months of gleeful anticipation seem to culminate in a celebration that passes in an instance.  The older I get, the fast all time seems to pass, but especially October.

So in casting about for a good movie to review, I was coming up empty.  Whenever I run into this rare bit of writer’s block, I walk over to my bookshelf and inspect the DVD section.  That usually helps to jog my memory, and this time was no different.  My eyes swiftly went to my box set of Ghostbusters (1984).

I remember purchasing this box set, which also includes the unfairly maligned sequel, Ghostbusters II (1989).  My very first girlfriend had dumped me, and I undertook a quest to purchase a DVD of at least the original Ghostbusters film as some misguided way to ease my pain through the magic of retail therapy—and laughter.

This quest took place in March 2010.  The world was quite different at the time.  While I could have ordered it from Amazon (I think), I wanted to buy it in a store.  Living in rural South Carolina, the task was more difficult fourteen years ago, but not impossible.  It required, however, going to a brick-and-mortar retailer—remember those?—and hunting down a copy.

I was living—unhappily, and not just because of the breakup—in Sumter, South Carolina, which had a few more amenities than Lamar, but was not exactly a thriving metropolitan center.  There was a failing mall and a slightly-more-successful Walmart.  I think I tried the Walmart first, but with no success, so I hopped over to the mall and its little chain music store (I can’t remember what franchise it was—Suncoast, maybe?)—and there it was:  an overpriced two-DVD set of the classic films.  Even used—yes, it was a used copy!—I paid $13.  That’s the equivalent of $18.80 today.

It was a complete ripoff, but I was looking to be taken advantage of by a faceless corporate entity.  Anyway, I had a quest to complete—and laughs to enjoy.

Needless to say, I really like Ghostbusters.  I grew up with it and its sequel on television constantly.  There was also a popular cartoon, and we had tons of Ghostbuster action figures.  It was just a part of being a kid in the early 1990s.

It was only as I got older that I learned that it was pretty much due to the comedic bankability of Dan Aykroyd, Harold Ramis (God Rest his soul), and Bill Murray that such a film could or would ever be made.

Here’s what I mean:  imagine a scenario in which you go to a studio and pitch the idea of four guys running a paranormal extermination business in which wacky hijinks and pithy one-liners ensue.  Such a film would never get made today, and there was no guarantee it would have been made back in the early 1980s.  But it was.

The film is essentially the brainchild of Aykroyd, who grew up in the Spiritualist movement that was popular in the United States, Great Britain, and Canada in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.  Aykroyd basically wrote a script that was filled with even more gadgets and, apparently, touched on Spiritualist themes.  Thankfully, Harold Ramis tempered the script, and we got the instant classic that manages to be a little scary and a lot funny all at the same time.

Ghostbusters is a lightning-in-a-bottle film.  It works because of the chemistry between Aykroyd, Ramis, and Murray (heck, even Ernie Hudson is great in the flick).  They turned a movie about sloppy exterminators into one of the most beloved franchises in film history.

Consider the first clip in this video compilation:

There’s so much going on in this seemingly simple snippet.  The reaction as Peter Venkman (Murray) and Egon Spengler (Ramis) back away from Ray Stantz (Aykroyd) is hilarious—as though inching away in a tight elevator would save them from whatever atomic terror might emanate from the untested proton pack.  I also crack up at the ornate “No Smoking” sign.  These guys are going to be smoking up the joint soon!

The film also captures perfectly the kind of optimistic, bootstrapping business environment of the time, complete with cheesy, cheap commercials:

The film’s message is very indicative of the Reagan era.  Essentially, a busybody from the Environment Protection Agency—conservatives’ least favorite federal agency, due in large part to its ridiculous and contradictory regulations—shuts down the ghost containment unit, unleashing hundreds of spooks and specters into Manhattan.  Well, who solves problems the government creates?  Private enterprise!

There’s so much more I could say about this film, but how do you rate comedic genius and perfection?  That Ghostbusters exists at all is amazing; that it works so well is a miracle.

But, boy, does it work.  Perhaps Hollywood should take note and take some risks on more outrageously funny writers with oddball ideas.

Hey, Hollywood—who ya gonna call?