van Reitman's Ghostbusters, which was brought to the screen exactly one
year after it was green-lit by Columbia Pictures back in 1983, turned
out to be one of the highest-grossing comedies of all time. This is no
surprise. The movie is a sardonic and timeless "let's build a business"
fable that features three disenfranchised college professors who must learn
how to fend for themselves after their grant money is cut off.
These hapless scientists, played by comedy legends Bill Murray,
Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis, create a paranormal pest removal firm called,
aptly enough, Ghostbusters. A pastiche of expensive-looking ghost-catching
sequences set to catchy '80s pop music follows. It doesn't take long before
the Ghostbusters rise to fame and find themselves battling everyone from a concerned
Environmental Protection Agent to an angry supernatural spirit named Zuul. The
finale is an unforgettable battle against a Godzilla-sized Stay Puft
Marshmallow Man.
Columbia has finally released Ghostbusters to DVD, on a disk
loaded with the kinds of behind-the-scenes goodies that make collectors and fans weak in the knees.
There is a 1983 "making of" featurette alongside a mini-documentary
created just this year. There is running commentary provided by Ramis and
Reitman, which ups the competition by providing Mystery Science Theater
3000-style silhouettes. There is an assortment of early design
illustrations and an analysis the compares the film's storyboards to the final scenes. The
barely used "Angle" button on the DVD remote control is called upon here
for a nifty before-and-after sequence that allows viewers to watch the
addition of special effects in real time. Also, the Ghostbusters DVD holds
a collection of snipped scenes, a documentary on the movie's special
effects and a host of DVD-ROM goodies, including a complete, printable
movie script.
Turning "slime" into a verb
Through this DVD's extensive "making of" material, viewers will learn that
Ghostbusters was originally conceived by Aykroyd as a vehicle that he and
his pal, John Belushi, would star in. When Reitman signed on after
Belushi's death in 1982, he realized that Ghostbusters' charm would come
from proper back-story development. He helped Ramis and Aykroyd develop the
origins of this soon-to-be-famous squad of ghoul chasers.
Ghostbusters has aged well. The fine work by the film's terrific cast
helps the movie maintain its freshness and zeal even after repeated
viewings. There are loads of funny scenes to enjoy again and again, and the
shock therapy testing Murray puts his students through at the beginning of the story is
still comedic gold. Likewise, Rick Moranis' swinging accountant party will
elicit snorts of approval from friends of geeks everywhere .
Throughout the film, famous one-liners remind viewers just how rooted in
popular culture this movie became. It's a treat to listen to Ramis and
Reitman relive their first realizations that they were on to something huge
with this movie. Ramis, in particular, is hilarious throughout the
commentary, making fun of his tall hair, his lack of a smile and his
budding romance with Annie Potts, most of which ultimately ended up on the
cutting room floor. At one point, Ramis exclaims that every time he's
watched Ghostbusters in pan-and-scan mode, his character always ends up being
the one cropped out of the picture. During Murray's hilarious tussle with
the famous Ghostbusters goo, Ramis deadpans, "we take credit for turning
slime into a verb."
The disc is a veritable treasure chest of laughs and revelations. Although
much of the special effects work is now laughable in this era of digital
puppetry, it's still fascinating to watch effects guru
Richard Edlund (Star Wars, Raiders of the Lost Ark) talk about how he
plans on making his ghosts come to life.
Ghostbusters stands up as one of the most enjoyable movies of the 1980s, and
now it's one of the best DVDs that money can buy.
