1984 – alan williamson

31 years ago one of the best logos in the world burst into our lives. Originally designed by

Dan Aykroyd it has become as iconic as the movie to which it is attached to. If you haven’t seen Ghostbusters, then one has to ask to which rock you have been living under and at what point are you planning to join the rest of the human race?

Following 3 university professors who are studying the much mocked paranormal world discover their work is more relevant when a ghosts start popping up all over New York. They then form a company to start capturing the ghosts and contain them within their converted fire-station ghost head quarters.

The cast here is perfect, with

Bill Murray,

Dan Aykroyd and the late

Harold Ramis heading up the ghostbusting trio, later expanding to include

Ernie Hudson. Supporting is

Sigourney Weaver and

Harold Ramis who have a wonderful interplay with not only each other but the ghostbusters.

Dr. Peter Venkman: She’s not my girlfriend. I find her interesting because she’s a client and because she sleeps above her covers… *four feet* above her covers. She barks, she drools, she claws!

Written by Aykroyd and Ramis, the dialogue has not aged in the slightest and still comes over as fresh and witty as it was first delivered over 30 years ago. The special effects haven’t aged as well though, but that actually adds to the charm of the movie, in much the same manner as the stop-motion animation of the early Godzilla movies.

This movie spawned a franchise, with a follow up coming soon afterwards, and a kids cartoon series (which I watched at the time and it was good). You will have heard that they are adding to the series, with an all female cast in the same named movie Ghostbusters. Personally, I feel they should stay well alone and tell other stories and leave the stories that were communicated perfectly as the master pieces that they are.

Though no mention of Ghostbusters would be complete without a nod to the excellent theme song by Ray Parker Jr. Who ya gonna call? Watching that will inspire you to go after the movie if you haven’t seen it in the last year or two.

Viewing Date
Sunday, 18th October 2015

Rating
8/10

IMDB YouTubeTrailer

The early 80′s was the golden time for movies to explore how a more connected world, filled with computers coming into our personal lives, was going to impact us. This era inspired a generation to grow up and take their place in shaping this new world. I was one of those that looked upon the likes of WarGames and the like with complete wonderment egging my humble ZX Spectrum into areas only limited by imagination.

When Richard Branson was expanding his Virgin empire into a whole manner of different industries, the film industry came in on his radar and for a short time, Virgin Films attempted to break into Hollywood. Credited as Executive Producer Branson, gave until then, music video director (you can start to see the Virgin Music tie in’s already can’t you?)

Steve Barron an opportunity to direct a love triangle, between two people and a PC.

Lenny von Dohlen plays Miles (or Moles as he is known by ‘Edgar’ the PC throughout the movie due to a typing error at the start – i know that feeling, I am forever to be known as Allen by Verizon – which seems to present a bigger problem to change than you would first think). His fellow upstairs apartment dweller, Madeline, played by Virginia Madsen is the beautiful professional musician who is serenaded by Edgar over the air ducts in the building, thinking it is Miles.

On one level the movie is a wonderful trip down technology memory lane. The setup is simple at the start, showing Miles late for a meeting and through some dialogue this isn’t the first time, so it is recommended he go and get a Casio planner. Reluctantly Miles heads down to the nearest computer store (and set in San Francisco the heart of Silicon Valley, there are many to chose from) and he is amazed at the choice when he is up sold a full a PC.

Sales Person: Which is your preference? Apple, Hair, Wang.
Miles: Listen, I don’t know anything about computers!
Sales Person: Nobody does!

Having purchased a discounted PC because it fell from the shelf we know we have something special here. Then we are treated to what is probably the first unboxing video as he painstakingly puts all the pieces together. Edgar (the name we don’t learn until the last scene in the movie) is quite advanced for 1984, given it can render live video, advanced graphics (with light pen) yet still presents the user with a good old console input to type in commands. Though this is the not the end.

31 years ago the idea of your computer controlling your house was space age thinking, yet here we have Miles plugging in wireless devices to all the electrical outlets so Edgar can take control. The connected home that is being much hyped today by the likes of Samsung and Google was so accurately portrayed in 1984! It was like seeing the first tablet computer used in the 1960′s in 2001 movie.

Edgar, much like

Daryl Hannah in Splash, learns all about the modern day world through watching day time television. Interestingly Splash was out in the same year, so maybe great minds think a like? (or fools seldom differ).

The story is a far fetched as you can take it, though no more silly than Spike Jonze’s latest Her reincarnation. But trundle along it does at a steady pace with no major shocks or surprises.

Knowing the director mastered his craft directing 3 minute music videos, you will spot a pattern as the movie unfolds. Especially when you add in the fact that this was a vehicle to promote a number of artists on Virgin’s music label, including Culture Club and the Human League. There is a number of scenes that are simply music videos inserted into a movie. They aren’t too offensive but don’t really add much to the story line.

That said, the title track is very good and deserves at least a reminder play.

A wonderful jaunt down memory lane and while no where near as impactful as “shall we play a game?” of WarGames it is deserving of a rewatch.