Scene from “Ghostbusters”
What would the “Ghostbusters” be without overalls and vacuum cleaners – instead with robes and magic wands? Probably not researchers in the exterminator look, but magicians like in “Harry Potter”. An early script draft of the film actually provided that the “Ghostbusters” team should take up the fight against the supernatural, armed with all sorts of magic paraphernalia, while also undertaking time travel.
Luckily, things turned out differently, the “Ghostbusters” were supposed to start their service in New York today. And the fact that the three parapsychologists Peter Venkman (Bill Murray), Raymond Stantz (Dan Aykroyd) and Egon Spengler (Harold Ramis) now perform their tasks like uniformed service providers and with a dry sense of humor – and have to be regularly soiled with green monster slime – makes it even better the charm of this ghostly comedy.
Directed by Ivan Reitman, Ghostbusters became the highest-grossing film of 1984. He beat out the highly anticipated Raiders sequel Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, which grossed $291 million, as well as the Eddie Murphy star vehicle Beverly Hills Cop.
The charm of the film, which made a respectable sequel in 1989 with “Ghostbusters II” possible, continues to this day: it offers great effects with a shock effect, for example when the bloodthirsty monster dogs “Terror Dogs” are used. But this magic never flattens the work’s real strength: the dialogues of the three “Ghostbusters” Murray, Aykroyd and Ramis, “Saturday Night Live”-proven masters of quick wit. Scenes like this are still quoted today:
Man at Elevator: What are you supposed to be, some kind of a cosmonaut?
dr Peter Venkman: No, we’re exterminators. Someone saw a cockroach up on twelve.
Man at Elevator: That’s gotta be some cockroach.
dr Peter Venkman: Bite your head off, man.
Dr Ray Stantz: [Entering elevator] going up?
Man at Elevator: I’ll take the next one.
After the death of “ghostbuster” Harold Ramis and the constant reluctance of Bill Murray to don the jumpsuit for a third time, the future of the ghostbuster was more in the stars than ever. But there were now two revivals of the “Ghostbusters” universe – a female and a nostalgic version.