Overall Impression – Why can’t we bust ghosts for real? This is the coolest movie ever!
THE FOUR QUESTIONS
Who’s your main character? – Dr. Peter Venkman.
What’s he trying to accomplish? – Professional: catch all the ghosts in New York and stop Gozer, the god of destruction. Personal: win over Dana. Private: believe that ghosts are real.
Who’s trying to stop him? – Gozer the Gozerian, Zuul, ghosts, himself, EPA agent Walter Peck, and the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man.
What happens if he fails? – New York will be destroyed by Gozer the Gozerian, god of destruction.
THE FOUR ARCHETYPES
Orphan – Peter’s a parapsychologist who doesn’t believe in the paranormal. He’s also cast out into the real world after losing his grant at Columbia University.
Wanderer – Peter and his friends/colleagues Ray and Egon need to make some cash. Upon learning that ghosts are real, they figure out how to capture them, store them, and market their services to the world as the Ghostbusters. Peter meets and tries to woo Dana, a client whose fridge seems to be haunted.
Warrior – The Ghostbusters fight to build their business by fighting to catch ghosts. While Peter works on winning over Dana, the team discovers that her building’s being haunted by Zuul, minion of Gozer. When Zuul possesses Dana, and her neighbor Louis turns into a giant demon dog, the Ghostbusters have to stop them before they team up and unleash Gozer.
Martyr – The Ghostbusters risk life and limb to stop Gozer.
AND, IN THE END…
I owe a lot to GHOSTBUSTERS. Aside from being one of my favorite childhood movies, it was the first time I saw Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, a movie ghost, New York, LA, the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man, a geek turn into a devil dog, a haunted fridge, exploding eggs… and most importantly, the phrase “Back off, man. I’m a scientist.”
Sigh… why are movies from the Eighties so cool?
Bit of trivia – did you know that the Ghostbusters song by Ray Parker Jr. was nominated for the Best Music Oscar? People know awesome when they hear it.
Can’t wait for the upcoming GHOSTBUSTERS III.
– Dan Pilditch
