GhostbustersCole Powers10.0· March 14, 2024FollowStill my favorite film of all time. It doesn’t matter how many times I watch it, I still love it. The reasons I love it now are both the same and some what different from I saw at six years old. The VFX, music, editing, characters, plot, and pacing are still perfect. The comedic timing of the four team members is still incredible and holds the film together. That hasn’t changed and obviously gets the most praise. But what I found more interesting this time around was the setting and time period. (Just to be clear if you’re reading the rest of this, I’m gonna assume you’re very familiar with the film.) The film is set 1980s New York City, during the peak of Reaganomics. The film is often labeled a right-wing propaganda but I disagree. What I found interesting is how cynical and almost neutral it seems to find the issue of the Ghostbusters business. Their CEO, Bill Murray’s Peter Venkman, is an out right grifter and con-man, and the film never strays away from showing that. They also don’t shy away from the fact that they haven’t tested their unlicensed nuclear accelerators before their first job. Their whole business could be a huge scam like Walter Peck claims it is and Venkman would probably not care as long it’s still successful. As well as using it as a hustle to sleep with women. The film on the other hand, correctly has the head of the EPA Walter Peck conclude what the Ghostbusters is illegal and environmentally unsafe, but seems less concerned about that and claims them to be frauds creating a “fake, electronic light show.” The film portrays their conflict in which both sides are most certainly wrong in different ways. It feels like a personal beef between two stubborn, arrogant men rather than the story of a small business owner versus a government regulatory agency that so many critics has labeled it to be. It never seems to pick a side or even comment on their greater political implications that four private, small business owners save the world from demigods indirectly summoned by the head of the EPA. It just presents this very matter of factly, not as some triumph or that Peck was wrong for wanting to moderate their ghost hunting business. By the end of the film, Venkman emotionally plea to the mayor to let them defeat Gozer isn’t so emotional, it’s a cynical reminder to the mayor that if the Ghostbusters save the day, “he will have saved the lives of millions of registered voters.” It’s the end of the day subtly cynical and sly, which I think makes more interesting than just saying it’s just libertarian. It’s a time capsule for the politics and attitudes of that era, but without choosing a side and instead to act above it all in the name of comedy. I think that’s why it has endured so much, not because of the era it was made but in spite of it. I know this gets said a lot in film discourse a lot so I’ll repeat it here, just because a film depicts something bad, doesn’t mean the film endorses it. And I think Ghostbusters falls into that category. The film has and will always be a childhood favorite so I will always be biased towards it. I’ve just read so many readings that have come to those conclusions before and thus, I thought I should throw my hat into the ring as to what I thought about that. I can see how some can read that into the film, especially given the expressed political beliefs of the director, but I would have to politely disagree. If that were true, I don’t think the film would hold up nearly as well or be as highly regarded today. It’s a classic and on a more personal note, I don’t know if I would be the filmmaker I am today if I never saw it at such a young age and thus, wanted learn every story or detail about how it was made. It’s a huge part of my life as silly as it sounds. The film for me I think worked for me at such a young age because the characters, despite them being schlubby men in their 40s, capture ghosts using their wits or science. They don’t have to play by the ghost’s rules or summon a spell, or do an exorcist, they use their own technology and wits to save the day, something that was very reassuring for me as a child. It taught me I had the ability to battle my own demons and ghouls and I think that’s why it weirdly it has resonated with kids of the 80s and with me when I was just seven years old. That’s what young me took away from it. Enough said honestly. Glad this still works for me as an adult. I don’t think there will ever come a time where I don’t love this film.CommentsSign in to react and join the conversation.Sign inGet the appSee all Cole's reviews for Ghostbusters (5)First watch10.0June 8, 2019Rewatch 110.0November 1, 2021Rewatch 210.0March 14, 2024Rewatch 310.0April 1, 2024Rewatch 410.0June 9, 2024