THE GHOSTBUSTERS vs. The Ghouls and Monsters of The World

They’re Here To Save The World.

Original Tagline of GHOSTBUSTERS (1984)

A team of skilled agents unite against a mysterious evildoer harboring a nefarious scheme bent on toppling New York City and bringing about a global apocalypse.  Featuring gloriously sweeping cinematography; a high-level blend of comedy, dazzling special effects and thrilling action; striking cameos (most particularly by one performer who becomes instrumental to the principal heroes by aiding in the villain’s eventual capture); and a brilliantly cast ensemble of both good and antihero scoundrels benefited by standout female acting performances makes Writer/Director Paul Feig’s summer blockbuster, SPY, in this critic’s humble estimation:  the absolute funniest film of 2015 and the most unequaled entertainment in Feig’s cinematic arsenal until now.

Seriously, as far as genuine, gut-busting belly laughs are concerned, I couldn't agree more with Ray Parker Jr. in his clearly double entendre charged lyrics in GHOSTBUSTERS' original eponymous theme song, "bustin' makes [made] me feel good” each of the 3 times I’ve seen SPY.

“I bet you never saw it [that] coming”, apropos of musician G-Eazy’s chorus featured in the original motion picture soundtrack of Feig’s GHOSTBUSTERS (2016) reboot and social media hate bait du jour.

Seemingly caught in the crosshairs of this online maelstrom - - or as is the case with the filmmakers, a malestrom - - much like the shocked specter captured in the franchise’s “No-Ghost Sign” are Ghostbusters, Erin Gilbert (Kristen Wiig), Abby Yates (Melissa McCarthy), Jillian Holtzmann (Kate McKinnon) and Patty Tolan (Leslie Jones).

Pushing aside the collective rancor this polarizing film has received in anticipation of its mid-July, 2016 release, when applying an objective lens over Feig’s redux of Ivan Reitman’s supernatural, parapsychological and pseudoscientific megahit, GHOSTBUSTERS (1984), for what it’s worth, the characters’ chemistry, comedic timing and visual and aural stimuli are rather remarkable.  Feig regulars, Zach Woods and Michael McDonald, are standout additions [the ghastly scream c/o the latter is unexpectedly primordial and hilarious!] in addition to the return of Jaime the Gardener as Fernando the Janitor (Jaime Pacheco) who previously serenaded McCarthy’s Susan Cooper out of firing him in SPY.

The shorts-wearing Dean (Steve Higgins) of Columbia University, fits into the proceedings seamlessly and the wonderful jokes involving "Mike Hat" and the unfolding drama of the wonton soup contain the right pacing and humor reminiscent of Abbott and Costello’s brand of patter.  Let's not forget the spectacular visual effects which feature a delightful display of colonial, deco and Victorian-inspired ghouls.

There is even a Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade gone wild which contains quite possibly the most cunning ad campaign for the Swiss Army brand of knife products when one is confronted with a possessed balloon intending to flatten you and a proton pack just won’t ‘cut it’.  Despite the online brouhaha in which the film is entangled - - GHOSTBUSTERS is strictly fun and no politics - - with an accent on the “haha”.  Even when Mayor Bradley (Andy Garcia) is compared to the reckless mayor of JAWS (1975) as the city is under attack, he takes great offense at such a cinematic affront.

However, one is inclined to find a grave inauthenticity in its presentation of an ersatz New York City with its principal photography taking place in Boston, MA, U.S.A., albeit being an exceptionally vanilla summer moviegoing comedy.  Providing dual answers to the fourth estate, Paul Feig noted the substitute venue was due to a helpful “tax incentive that Massachusetts provides” in addition to the unforgivable treatment his cast and crew received from the New York paparazzi who are “unlike anything you’ve ever seen.  They’ll just walk right onto the set, like in the actor’s face, clicking pictures, and the cops won’t throw them out because technically they have a right to be there … I’ve never seen anything like it anywhere else.”

And unlike the original film’s fate, don’t expect to see the United States Library of Congress selecting its reboot for induction into their esteemed National Film Registry as they had done with Reitman’s pièce de résistance in 2015 - - rather, this new cinematic apparition has become a profound piece of resistance amongst angry legions of (potential) audiences around the world.

Life imitates Art?  The Ghostbusters engage in battle in the eye of the storm.

In bringing our gaze back to the film, there is a remarkable amount of deception, a consistent theme, presented on screen:

• Columbia University professor, Erin Gilbert, performs a visibly complicated Quantum Physics exercise in front of an empty classroom.
• Ed Mulgrave (Ed Begley Jr.) confronts Erin with a copy of her book, “Ghosts From Our Past: Both Literally & Figuratively” which she consistently denies exists to which he confirms was published (by her co-author, Abby) and is available for purchase online.
• A tour guide (Zach Woods) operates a device to make a candlestick fall on cue to convince his gullible tour group that a ghost knocked it over.
• When encountering “a class-4 apparition” whom, Abby, Erin and Holtzmann deem as “peaceful” and “the most beautiful thing I’ve [Abby’s] ever seen”, the elegant phantom lashes out regurgitating gallons of gooey ectoplasm upon Erin after she provides her teaching credentials as a doctor of particle physics.
• After Erin’s supervisor, Harold Filmore (Charles Dance) shares with her a YouTube video posting of her covered in slime shouting “Ghosts are real” damaging her chance of gaining tenure with the university, she denies she’s the same woman in the video.  Shortly thereafter, Gilbert departs her office with her personal possessions in a box telling onlookers that she wasn’t fired and will “be back in 10 minutes.”
• A radioactive logo on Holtzmann’s allegedly hazardous proton pack features a heart in the emblem’s center.
• A Graffiti Artist (funnyman Rob Corddry's younger brother, Nate; both of whom are native Massachusettsians) completely ignores and disrespects Patty’s MTA (Metropolitan Transportation Authority) as she asks him to stop defacing a subway wall, yet creates the logo which they co-opt as their business’s new branding.
• Patty borrow’s her Uncle’s hearse which becomes the group’s primary mode of transportation to which she proclaims is a Cadillac.
• Likewise, Rowan North (Neil Casey), the film’s main mischief-maker and Kevin (Chris Hemsworth), play a janitor confined to the basement of the fictional Mercado Hotel and receptionist, respectively; two individuals in administrative roles who, when possessed by a spiritual force, overpower and manipulate a police contingent and government officials to engage in a massive and ridiculous flash mob performance in addition to possibly destroying the city - - which one can only imagine was Rowan’s satisfied retribution for his being incessantly tortured and inflicting public embarrassment upon such authority figures.
• A lifeless mannequin is possessed by a ghost, becomes animated, chases and tries to subdue Patty but turns out to be a shell for a large, winged creature.  The prospect of facing off against a faceless enemy and a culturally accepted inanimate object is rather eerie. 

Mannequin: On The Move

• Ghostbusters HQ is set in a Chinese restaurant complete with dining tables, a fish tank, service counter and a gong.
• Kevin - - wears glasses that have no lenses; he covers his eyes when others tell him not to listen when he should be covering his ears and objects to answering a ringing telephone on his desk when he believes it’s in the fish tank.
• Mayor Bradley and his associate, Jennifer Lynch (Cecily Strong), try to convince the media that the Ghostbusters are frauds and that there is no supernatural activity taking place in the city and repeatedly attempt to cover up what’s happening with slanderous and false talking points about the paranormal posse and debunk them to the press corps.
• The cameos in this film by the original, principal cast (save for Harold Ramis’ bust outside of Erin’s university office and Rebecca Gorin (Sigourney Weaver’s) turn as Holtzmann’s quirky mentor, the latter of which appears post-credits) are surprisingly disagreeable: Martin Heiss (Bill Murray) challenges the team in the media claiming their business practices and the ghost they capture is fraudulent; a Cabbie (Dan Aykroyd) denies Erin a ride in his cab during the climactic battle scene; Uncle Bill Tolan (Ernie Hudson) scolds his niece for what happens to his hearse (the Ecto-1); Mercado Hotel Desk Clerk (Annie Potts) offers a curt “Whaddya want?” when the team is searching for Rowan’s whereabouts.

Except for Patty, her Uncle Bill, Al Roker (as himself) and a modicum of black characters featured in generically diverse settings (a heavy metal concert, city streets) as well as a few civic agents of Homeland Security and the police force, respectively (Michael Kenneth Williams; Sam Richardson and Stephen Boss), is it any coincidence that the ghosts that appear in the film (when not being fictionalized, demonic apparitions with a Jell-O green complexion) are primarily white-skinned?

Even the rebooted Slimer, everyone’s favorite “non-repeating phantasm” and “class-5 free roaming vapor” making its third film appearance is literally overshadowed by a giant stilt-walking, light-skinned specter donning an ensemble of epic proportions as it lumbers through faux Times Square sporting stripes and digitized brush-strokes of red, white and blue elevating the beastly Uncle Sam look-alike to a grim personification of the U.S. (United States/Uncle Sam) which was likely dispatched from another dimension of deranged Americana.

“I Want YOU … to DIE!”

Meanwhile, on the opposite side of the American movie screen, Leslie Jones, a successful actress and comedienne, has been a ferocious target of hate-filled racist and misogynist toxicity across various social-media platforms.  “What’s scary about the whole thing,’ Jones explained after the attack, ‘is that the insults didn’t hurt me … but what scared me was the injustice of a gang of people jumping against you [me] for such a sick cause.”

Actor and co-screenwriter of the original GHOSTBUSTERS, Dan Aykroyd, who came to Jones’ defense denounced her assailants commenting, “I'm afraid to say that contingency will be voting for the Republican ticket, pretty much that's what the statistics are indicating, that there's a lot of white racist hatred out there that's going to channel into a support for the Republican ticket, maybe in the false belief that these people share their views.  I don't think that Trump and Pence are as racist as the people who attacked Leslie Jones, I really don’t,” he continued.  “Trump may be saying some things to go that way to get some votes but -- well I don't know.”

Additionally, Writer/Director, Judd Apatow remarked, “I would assume there’s a very large crossover of people who are doubtful ‘Ghostbusters’ will be great and people excited about the Donald Trump candidacy.  I would assume they are the exact same people.  That movie is made by the great Paul Feig and stars the funniest people on Earth, so I couldn’t be more excited.”

Trump was obviously concerned about the prospect of an “only women” Ghostbusters team as seen here especially in light of the fact that he and the Trump brand previously shared the screen with the original ghost-busting boys (or, rather, their projected visages atop various New York City rooftops) back in 1989 hosted by Bobby Brown for this time capsule from the GHOSTBUSTERS II original motion picture soundtrack.

Under close examination of the lyrics, sans the recurring 3^rd verse and regrettable ‘80’s symphonics, Bobby Brown’s #2 Billboard Hot 100 single (peaking at #1 on the U.S. Billboard R&B chart for 1 week) could likely be a terrifying anthem for liberals under a Trump presidency in that “we’ve gotta make it on our own / well I guess we’re gonna have to take control (all on our own) / if it’s up to us, we’ve got to take it home (all on our own).”

Red, White & BOO!    

In a predictive piece of online journalism for Salon.com wherein Chauncey DeVega foresaw that the Republican Party would nominate Donald J. Trump (Donald J. Drumpf) for President of the United States of America, deduces the following factors for Trump’s being crowned by the Grand Old Party:  “The Republican Party is the United States’ largest white identity organization; Conservatism and racism are now fully one and the same thing in the post civil rights era; the election of Barack Obama, twice, drove conservatives into a national fit of bigotry and overt racism.”

Furthermore DeVega notes, “his policies and personality found a very receptive audience … Donald Trump, with his supposed billions of dollars in wealth, bragging about being “high energy,” and promise to “Make American [sic] Great Again” is a figurehead who soothes the death anxieties of angry, anxious, and easily frightened white conservatives and Right-leaning independents.”

Reminded of a particular exchange in the original GHOSTBUSTERS when Dr. Ray Stantz (Dan Aykroyd) admonishes Dr. Peter Venkman (Bill Murray) about the architectural and spiritual framework of their client’s apartment building, “The whole building is a huge superconductive antenna that was designed and built for the purpose of pulling in and concentrating spiritual turbulence. Your girlfriend lives in the corner penthouse of spook central.”  Dr. Egon Spengler (Harold Ramis) chimes in, “Something terrible is about to enter our world, and this building is obviously the door!”

A spectral (and allegedly white-skinned) Trump appears through a large portal …

Just as Gozer the Gozerian (Slavitza Jovan), the gender and shape-shifting nemesis of the male Ghostbusters had simply intended on decimating New York City and the world at large, Rowan North, the (pale and) thin-skinned, sad and bullied occultist antagonizing the female ghost-busting team and everyone in his orbit is motivated to generate an apocalypse due to his anger at his station in life.

In order to put the crowning touch on his plan, in a silly, yet, rather courageous form of self-sacrifice and the ultimate belief in his creativity and convictions to take revenge on all those who’ve tortured him, Rowan places his hands on his massive electrical death machine/inter-dimensional portal (imagine Dr. Frankenstein perishing before seeing if the Monster is brought to life) to return to the city as a ghost, summon and command an army of the undead.  Surprisingly, the fictional Mercado Hotel accounting department didn’t notice dangerously elevated spikes in their monthly electric bills emanating from their basement.

Gozer materializes into Stay Puft (another white-skinned ghoul manufactured with marshmallow) to take a bite out of the Big Apple.

Of course, this is just fiction, but in the real world, DeVega is concerned about what may happen the day following the upcoming presidential election and chillingly intuits that “Donald Trump’s political campaign has given further permission to the forces of white identity politics, old-fashioned racism, nativism, xenophobia, misogyny, and bigotry to reassert themselves in American life and politics.”

Black and Blue & White

It’s difficult to imagine a party that unsettles more people and idiomatically makes one’s emotions turn black and blue.  The unconscionable events surrounding Jim Jones and his unfortunate league of brainwashed followers in “Jonestown”, Guyana comes to mind which begs the question if there are many viewers of the Cleveland-hosted Republican National Convention that occurred the week of 7/18/2016 who wish they could unsee what they experienced - - just as a supporter who has second thoughts decides to spit out the Kool-Aid.

Here’s hoping that any dimensional portals were permanently sealed shut upon the delegates and their demagogue departing Cleveland, OH, U.S.A.  Where are the Walter Pecks’ (William Atherton) and the forces of the Environmental Protection Agency when you need them to protect the world from potentially hazardous waste?

DeVega continues, “After Trump is defeated, his disillusioned foot soldiers will be faced with a mobilized and energized electorate comprised of women, people of color, young people, and others who rallied to defeat their chieftain.”

"Let's Go!"

Writer/Director (and back-to-back writing and directing Oscar winner) Joseph L. Mankiewicz was once quoted on his thoughts about studio system director, George Cukor: “Women adored him, simply because they felt at ease.  And women by and large did not feel at ease in that era.  A woman could come on his set and be absolutely safe - meaning, a director was going to make no demands on her other than the movie.  In a way, George Cukor was the first great female director of Hollywood.”

Since the early ‘80’s, Writer/Director James Cameron has successfully featured empowered female characters in the Action and Sci-Fi genres such as in THE TERMINATOR (1984), TERMINATOR 2: JUDGMENT DAY (1991) and ALIENS (1986).  Of the latter film, is it any surprise that Ellen Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) of ALIENS fame (who received an Academy Award nomination for her role) and a transcendent feminist action hero, plays mentor to McKinnon’s Holtzmann?

In an interview for GHOSTBUSTERS, McKinnon remarks about Kevin (Chris Hemsworth) that he’s “a Ken doll with the insides scooped out.”  In the film, except for a few transient eye winks and smiles at Erin (which are surely only that: friendly) and a stunned gaze at Kevin during his initial interview (most assuredly because of his imbecility and not for purposes of objectification), there is no suggestion of any sexual reciprocation on either of their parts towards Holtzmann which doesn’t seem to affect her in the least.

One thing that is resonant, much like in Cameron’s sequel to ALIEN (1979), his feminist action space opera, is that Holtzmann, herself, a gifted inventor and engineer echoes Ripley and Private Vasquez (Jenette Goldstein) in how she embraces her weaponry and the will to use it effectively against her nemeses - - to the point that she even succumbs to licking her proton peacemaker before going into battle.

Throughout the film, Holtzmann continually shares her technical innovations, engineering prowess and intellectual curiosity which excites her team members - - it’s Holtzmann who advises they might be conceivably facing an apocalypse.  Above all else, she is fearless and sincerely, perpetually joyful! - - and it is for this reason that Holtzmann stands alone, yet, would never go rogue (unless of course, she gets possessed by a ghost in a future film outing) - - as they simply work together, bust ghosts together, have fun and every now and then, share a good laugh - - what’s so wrong about that?

Is there something that only Holtzmann can see - - and, perhaps, does it have something to do with the yellow-lensed Hamist RAF Aviator Pilot goggles she dons in and out of the lab both day and night?  Or else, perhaps it’s those “salty parabolas” (Pringles) on which she occasionally munches?

It’s interesting to note that the visible performers (from the Mayor to Martin Heiss) in GHOSTBUSTERS never personally denigrate or objectify our four heroines except for the purposes of debunking their ghost-busting business - - instead, the malice they occasionally report comes from online trolls on Abby’s YouTube page.  Interesting how art imitates life.

After directing a string of strong box office hits amassing remarkable - - and multiple - - female performances from BRIDESMAIDS to THE HEAT; SPY and now GHOSTBUSTERS, there shouldn’t be a doubt in anyone’s mind that Paul Feig is on his way to becoming The New Cukor in American Cinema.  The success he has achieved with his female ensembles is practically unheard of in the contemporary cinematic landscape where they have led as heroines and never served as props to their male counterparts.  We should be delighted that when Sony picked up the phone and dialed, it was Feig who answered the call.

P.S.  By the way, Paul:  Thanks for that like on Twitter.