Back when I was in college one day in a Cinema Studies class, my professor
Casually dropped this line that blew all our minds he said "Every movie is about something...
Except for Ghostbusters..
It's perfect but it's not about anything" so a murmur passed through the room as we're all like "Wait is
Ghostbusters Really about nothing" now this question has haunted me for years and today I'm finally gonna get
To the bottom of it as we find out what Ghostbusters is actually about
if anything. Let's quickly define some terminology when I say a movie is about something I'm not talking about the plot
Obviously Ghostbusters is about guys who bust ghosts. I'm talking about theme
Theme.Subtext. What is the movie saying? What is the main idea? The message.
Because like my professor said
"Every movie has one"
Even a truly terrible movie like The Room which is about how the world is unfair and can destroy even the best of people
To figure out what a movie is about it's best
To go to the end in the Words of Film Critic the ending is the conceit in other words, a Movie's
conclusion Is where it states what it's really about this is where you'll find What screenwriting teacher Robert McKee calls the controlling idea
The subtextual concept that defines The whole film and this is generally a product of a central character
completing their arc by making a choice that concludes the primary conflict but here's the thing
none of the characters in Ghostbusters has an arc. All three of The main ghostbusters Peter, Ray, and Egon are
exactly the same people at the beginning and end of the movie. they don't grow or change
and whatever events shaped them into people driven to pursue ghostbusting happened before the movies story begins
Dana changes in the sense that she finds Peter annoying Then grows to like him but that's not really an arc and
As for the primary conflict there really isn't one Gozer might be the main threat but he only has a couple minutes of screen time
he isn't really a character let alone an
antagonist
What's interesting is that there are several places where you can see how is some sort of theme or meaning or character arc could be
Egon proposes they break the rule he established earlier in the movie "don't cross the streams"
They take a risk, cross the streams and succeed
So if the writers had wanted this could have been connected to Egon's growth over the course of the movie
he could have begun as a
As a risk averse person who always plays by the rules
but that's not what the movie is about and that's not the point of Egon
Then there's Winston a more traditional
narrative would have made Winston Zeddemore the focal point character as he enters the world learns about It and changes maybe beginning as a Non-Believer
Someone with a strong religious faith
who comes to believe in ghosts and valued The power of science
but that's not how the story goes in the actual movie Winston enters about halfway through
readily jumps on board with what they're doing "if there's a steady paycheck in It i'll believe anything you say" and
remains the same person to the end
peter Venkman
Probably presents The clearest opportunity for subtext. He's the only character with personal stakes in the story since Dana Barrett, his love interest
lives in the Gozar possessed building and becomes possessed By Zul
He's the most flawed character he uses science as a ploy to score chicks and overall he's kind of an Asshole
So maybe he would start the movie like that
dismissing his friends belief that using science to catch ghosts can benefit humanity but then because of what happens to dana he gets Involved in
The case growing as a person and committing to the virtuous pursuit of science but again
That's not what happens Peter starts as a Lovable Jerk who gets dragged into ghost busting by his friends and That's where he finishes
Still the same guy doing the same thing he might not care as much as Ray or Egon
But he still goes along with their plan since no subtext comes from the character arcs what else can we take from the ending
By taking risks ancient evil will be defeated?
By destroying the symbols of our childhood the world can be saved?
These don't really hold any water and what makes It tough to pull real subtext from this is that there are no personal stakes for
Any Of the ghostbusters beyond
The world blowing up. Sure Peter's love interest was transformed - one of Gozar's minions but that doesn't impact any of his choices
Ray accidentally determines The form Gozar takes but that doesn't really change anything
It's not like It takes the form of his father and then he has to get past
personal Issues in order to save the World and that Would be a terrible idea so it's good that's not what happened
so there doesn't seem to be any theme or core idea we can take from the ending but what about the rest of the movie
I pulled a bunch of people asking them what they think the theme of Ghostbusters might be and I got a bunch of
responses so I want to go through these and see if any could potentially be a central idea
there's a lot of mention of The words belief are believed but from the opening scene there's no
question as to whether if ghosts exist
Pretty much everyone comes to believe in Ghosts right away except for Walter Peck but he's so clearly wrong about everything
that It doesn't really pose a genuine objection
this idea seems a bit stronger that the film might be saying something about how society
views class and skilled laborers. The story is essentially about men leaving
academia and finding success as Blue-Collar workers I think there are pieces of this idea in the movie, but they're not fully formed
most importantly none of this connects to the ending or the main conflict
Gozar has nothing to do with class and when they do finally triumph it's due to advanced science closer to their academic pursuits than their
Blue-Collar lives so this is close but not quite
Early on in the story
When the Dean kicks them out of Columbia he gives a speech about how science is for the betterment of mankind
"We believe that the purpose of science is to serve mankind, you however seem to regard science as some kind of dodge or hustle"
so in a different movie this could be setting up a redemption arc except here the Dean is wrong
Not about Peter he does view it as a hustle but Ray and Egon are using science to help
humanity so again there's no arc or theme
This movie being a product of the 1980s has
A general Anti-regulation stance where the EPA(Environmental Protection Agency) just doing their job are shown
To be bad guys but you can't tell me that's what the movie is actually about
The classic theme of 80s comedies where a group of Working-Class weirdos triumph Over rich jerks
There are hints of this with stuck-up guys like the Dean Walter Packer or even the hotel manager But these people are
obstacles not real antagonists the story isn't about the Ghostbusters beating them and
Anyway The Ghostbusters are academics They have doctorates so they're not Really slobs
This one is probably the closest to a genuine core idea
Ghostbusters Is essentially the story of using science to defeat the negative products of religion
destroying an actual God but while the movie is very much
Pro science it's not exactly anti religion for one thing in this story the elements of religious faith
Gods actually exist and christianity is portrayed positively
so in the world of ghostbusters there exists both Good and Bad
Religion and science exists alongside it, stepping in when the effects of bad religion get out of control. So is this really a Story about
science versus religion
"I don't think so"
These are all shreds of ideas but that's inevitable any movie that tells a story over about two hours is going
To have something to extract but i don't think any of these can be considered what the movie is about
BecauseI honestly don't think Ghostbusters is about anything and here's a larger question
is that a problem?
Ghostbusters is one of the most popular beloved comedies of all time it's one of my favorite movies and what I think is remarkable is
that it works so well despite containing What would usually be considered major
debilitating flaws this isn't an art film with an unconventional
difficult narrative structure it is a classic Three-Act story so the fact that none of the characters grow or change
should be a problem but it's not
The characters might not grow over the course of the story but they all arrive fully formed shaped by events that happened before the movie starts
"This reminds me of the time you tried to drill a hole through your head, remember that?" "that would have worked if you hadn't stopped me"
me they each have a distinct personality your perfectly calibrated to bounce off each other
interestingly Ghostbusters - It does have most of these things
that movie is built around the theme that people need to be good to one another it takes a literal form in a river of
Slime that feeds on negativity and the climax features the Ghostbusters harnessing positive feelings to defeat The evil villain and Also?
that movie isn't nearly as good as the first I am not saying a lack of theme isn't any way better but that against all odds
Ghostbusters turns it into an advantage there probably is another movie out there about nothing but I don't think there's one as
universally loved and acclaimed as Ghostbusters but maybe you disagree
maybe you think ghostbusters really is about something and that I've got it all wrong
So tell me what do you think Ghostbusters is about?
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