groovyuniverse

Ghostbusters was one of my favourite movies as a kid in the early nineties. It had jokes, scares, great special effects, four nerdy cool guys shooting lasers, a scantily clad babe...what else can a young boy wish for?

Fast forward to twenty-five years later, with me viewing the movie for a second time. An uncomfortable truth wriggles it's way in my head as I watch: that some nostalgia doesn't stand the test of time. I notice my stubbornness to critique the movie but contemporary reality quickly illuminates how dated the movie is. Sure, it's still a big budget spectacle and some of the effects are still cool, but effects being dated can be forgiven. What ruined the overall experience is mainly how sexist and adult the movie is. I wonder how Bill Murray, obtrusively sleazebagging his way thoughout the movie, nowadays would reflect on his role here. What I used to look up to as child disturbs me now. The movie sets the sexist tone early, particularly with a bad joke that correlates menstruation with mental derangement. I watched with dumbfounded amazement. It might be pure speculation but I also got the impression that lots of cocaine where being used while making this movie. There's an exubarant vacancy to it all. A celebration of American culture that is loud, and too often cynical and hollow.

While watching I started to view the movie as a cultural time capsule that through it's charicatures exposes some of the more appalling aspects of American culture in the early eighties. Women are mainly being played as puppets and black people are at best 4th option sidekicks and are most often seen as background figures doing low level jobs. Maybe as a kid this black sidekick showed me that black people can actually contribute to saving the world. Or hang with the cool white guys. So, in defense of nostalgia, maybe there is a spin to thiis. Do I devaluate the movie too much using my contemporary lens? My younger mind was better suited to appreciate it as pure entertainment. My older self is better suited to view it as a ideological object of study. If I balance these two out I would rate it a 5, with my younger self giving it a 9, and my older self giving it a 2. The ghosts of this movie have been busted.

Feeling aimless, being spoiled by your parents, and doing a generic job at a big electronics company that doesn't match your specific talents at all: I think this profile fits quite a lot young Dutch people of my generation. I liked how the movie painted this vibe, with it's decent actors and a hint of mild absurdism. It made the predictable story acceptable. A predictable but entertaining movie with enough subtle charm to create a satisfying viewing experience.

I cried. There, I said it. If this movie doesn't tug on your heartstrings it will be impossible for you to enjoy, since empathy for the human condition is at the heart of it. It possibly explains the 'like it or hate it' sentiment towards this movie: either you fall for it or you resist to it. I can imagine how people would deem it too sappy but, as is said in the movie: you can't please everybody. I did at times feel that Phoenix portrayed his character as a bit too pathetic, moments where I found myself not knowing if to loathe or to love him. But then, due to his convincing performance, i quickly started to sympathize with him again. The love story feels doomed from the start but I still really wanted it to work. That is what made their growing love so beautiful and tragic to me.

To me this is a modern classic, a movie that made me deeply reflect on being alive, a truly touching love story intertwined with an aura of prophecy to how technology might influence humanity in the near future.

By the way, what was up with that dead cat? I didn't really understood that scene.