This is the second entry in a series of blogs
looking at the TV shows, books and
Films that made me the geek I am today. The first entry can be found here. http://chud.com/articles/blogs/2627/Anatomy-of-a-Geek.html
The first three films I ever saw on Video were Empire Strikes Back, The Care Bares Movie and Ghostbusters. My folks rented a video recorder from the local rental place and those flicks were my entrance to the wonderful world of watching a film at home. Out of those three the one that had the biggest impact was not (as you might imagine) Empire, it was Ghostbusters.
Ghostbusters is and always will be my favorite film, there is just something about it that clicks perfectly with me in a way no other film has. You might argue that it’s because it’s one of the first films I saw on Video and that may well be partly true but I think if that was the only reason I would like the Care Bears flick but even as a kid I could see that was a pile of crap. No, there is something more about Ghostbusters that makes it special to me.
Long before I knew anything about how films were made I could tell this one was special. Bill Murray’s delivery of all his lines just seemed to so natural, he seemed to own the role of Dr Venkman. Ackroid and Ramis looked like they were having a blast and the Proton Packs were the stuff of kids dreams, literally in my case. I remember catching a bit of Nightmare on Elm street as a small kid and being frightened out of my mind until I reasoned that as he was a ghost all I would have to do if he entered my dreams was imagine I was a Ghostbuster and they guys would save me*. I based my entire look and attitude as a teenager on a combination of Mouth from the Goonies and Peter Venkman, which probably explains why I didn’t have much luck with the ladies.
Anyway enough of my weird childhood back to the film itself.
As I have got older I have grown to appreciate that film even more. I could go on for hours about the one liners**, or how even the secondary characters like Walter Peck and Louis Tully are just perfect in their roles, hell if for any reason you ever need a fake name this film is full of great ones***. But I don’t need to do that because I know this film gets a lot of love and it deserves every single bit of it. To me this film is one of the best examples of a perfect movie, everything no matter how little it is works brilliantly.
More recently my wife has come to understand my love of this film**** and use it for some great presents. This picture for example has pride of place in my office
But by far the best Ghostbusters related item she has bought me (and possibly my favorite geek related thing) is the Columbia Pictures promotional pack she somehow got hold of. It’s one of the ones they used to promote the film, It has three great black and white photos, the Production information pack detailing the plot and giving background on the actors and crew and a full cast list.
It may not be the most impressive piece of memorbila ever but to me it’s just about perfect. Rather like the film really…
*Weirdly this was actually an episode of the Cartoon. Only it was Janine not me and there was no Freddy Kruger.
** “The Flowers are still standing!” is one of my favorite lines.
*** I’m not proud of this but I once convinced someone my name was Ted Flemming and I owned a small carpet cleaning business. Back in my annoying kid in a chartroom phase.
**** When you find a woman who is ok with your inner geek and in fact buys you cool stuff you know that you have hit the jackpot.