Ghostbusters

Collector's Edition

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Details At A Glance

General		Extras
Category	Comedy/Horror	Theatrical Trailer(s)	Yes, 1 - 4:3, Dolby Digital 2.0 (mono)
Rating		Other Trailer(s)	Yes, 1 - Ghostbusters II Theatrical Trailer
Year Released	1984	Commentary Tracks	Yes, 1 - Ivan Reitman (Director/Producer), Harold Ramis (Writer/Actor), Joe Medjuck (Associate Producer)
Running Time	100:55 minutes	Other Extras	Menu Animation & Audio Scene Selection Animation & Audio Deleted Scenes - 10 Featurette - On The Scene With The Ghostbusters (9:29) Featurette - Meet The Special Effects Team (15:24) Featurette - Special Effects-Before And After Gallery - Concept Drawings Storyboards Photo Gallery - Ghostly Gallery
RSDL/Flipper	RSDL (46:43)	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu	Cast & Crew
Region	2,4,5	Director	Ivan Reitman
Studio Distributor	Columbia Tristar	Starring	Bill Murray Dan Aykroyd Sigourney Weaver Harold Ramis Rick Moranis
Case	Transparent	Starring
RRP	$34.95	Music	Elmer Bernstein

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	MPEG	None
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	2.35:1	Dolby Digital	5.1
16x9 Enhancement	Yes	Soundtrack Languages	English (Dolby Digital 5.1, 448 Kb/s) German (Dolby Digital 2.0 , 192 Kb/s) English Audio Commentary (Dolby Digital 2.0 mono, 192Kb/s)
Theatrical Aspect Ratio	2.35:1	Miscellaneous
Macrovision	Yes	Smoking	Yes
Subtitles	English German Polish Czech Hungarian Icelandic Hindi Hebrew Turkish Danish Swedish Finnish Norwegian Greek Russian	Annoying Product Placement	Yes
Subtitles		Action In or After Credits	No

Plot Synopsis

Ghostbusters has the dubious honour of being the first film I ever saw on a big screen. While it isn't quite the first film of any kind that I've ever seen, I still vaguely remember the time when I walked into the cinema as a child and saw the film in its intended theatrical exhibition, an experience I found quite enriching at the time. Maybe the film was a bit too adult-oriented at the humour level for me to understand some of the sequences then. However, now that I am a young man rather than a small child, I feel this film is like a fine wine in that it has improved with age. The only part of the film where this isn't quite true is the special effects, which, while being quite innovative in the mid-1980s, are rather dated by today's standards. However, many of the people who worked on this film's effects also worked on such films as The Empire Strikes Back, and it does show in key moments. The climactic sequence at the top of "Spook Central" is an excellent example of this, with stop-motion animation rendered so well that it still suspends my disbelief today.

As for the plot, it basically runs something like this. After being somewhat rudely sacked from the Parapsychology department at New York University due to a lack of understanding for their (admittedly bizarre) theories and approaches, Doctors Peter Venkman (Bill Murray), Raymond Stantz (Dan Aykroyd) and Egon Spengler (Harold Ramis) go into business for themselves. In keeping with the extraordinary nature of their scientific theories, they go into business as professional ghost investigators and exterminators. A sort of paranormal version of the Flick! company, if you will. At first, business is very slow, and nobody takes the company at all seriously. Then again, how can you? Soon, however, concert musician Dana Barrett (Sigourney Weaver in a role that was very different for her at the time) finds her refrigerator haunted by evil spirits. After investigating the matter and finding little to go on, the Ghostbusters find themselves deluged with new customers. Their secretary, Janine Melnitz (Annie Potts), provides some refreshing comic relief to the more business-like nature (by comparison, anyway) of the three scientists, and soon they add a fourth member to their team, Winston Zeddemore (Ernie Hudson). Shortly thereafter, Venkman gives a somewhat rude reception to a representative of the EPA, Walter Peck (William Atherton). Atherton is also famous as the unscrupulous reporter chinned by Holly McClane (Bonnie Bedelia) at the end of Die Hard.

Soon, things come to a climactic turn, with the spirits of the Keymaster and Gatekeeper coming to take possession of the bodies of Barrett and her nerdy accountant neighbour Louis Tully (Rick Moranis). After Louis, now possessed by the Keymaster, creates general havoc in the streets of New York, he is brought to the police, who in turn bring him to the Ghostbusters for analysis. After we learn the significance of the Keymaster and Gatekeeper, Walter Peck comes visiting again with a warrant to shut down the power to the Ghostbusters premises, and for them to stop all commerce. This is the only point I had difficulty with, as it is kind of hard to get such a warrant without a judge having a talk to a representative for the subject of such a warrant. This is the only plot point I feel was not given adequate exploration. In any case, the power is shut down and all the ghosts contained in the Ghostbusters' storage facility are let loose upon New York. Without spoiling the rest of the film for the few people out there who haven't already seen it, the Ghostbusters are finally called upon by the mayor of New York (leading to one of the most amusing argument sequences captured on film) to do battle with the evil spirits tearing up the city.

Transfer Quality

Video

This film was made in the year 1984, a time when television sets only had one speaker and all the colour and volume adjustments were done with knobs or sliders on the front, which makes the restoration work done by Columbia Tristar all the more impressive. This transfer blows away a lot of transfers done with films that are much younger. When you add the fact that this film was made when the concept of VCR rental libraries was still in an embryonic stage, it seems all the more impressive. The transfer is presented in the original 2.35:1 aspect ratio, with 16x9 enhancement. Given the cinematography involved, which often becomes a subtle New York tourism advertisement, this is one of the best DVDs I have ever seen in video terms.

The only real giveaway for the age of this film lies in the shadow detail. Objects lurking in the midst of shadows often become little more than a black smudge, but this is perfectly fine given that this is how night-time sequences were rendered in the original theatrical exhibition. Whereas the actual subject of the shot is easy to make out in the night-time sequences, the backgrounds tend to become somewhat indistinct and vague, unless they were optically composited. Given that the film was made at a time when going to real-world locations to shoot a scene in a particular city was more practical than digitally or optically compositing the shot, I think we can let this one slide. No MPEG artefacts were present, and only mild aliasing occurred at one point of the film. All in all, this transfer is better than anyone could have possibly expected.

This disc is an RSDL disc, with the layer change taking place at 46:43, just after the dialogue about the level of ghost activity taking place in New York City. To be even more precise for those who also have fond memories of this film, it occurs just after Venkman delivers his classic "What about the Twinkie?" line. Although there is supposedly another point where the video and audio pause, this is not a layer change, and it did not show up on my trusty Grundig. While the pause that did show up on my player, which is the actual layer change in the film, is noticeable, it is not particularly disruptive.

Audio

Three audio tracks are presented on this disc: English Dolby Digital 5.1, German Dolby Digital 2.0 surround-encoded and English Audio Commentary Dolby Digital 2.0, mono. The disc defaults to English Dolby Digital 5.1, which is perfectly fine with me given that I don't speak German much. I listened to all three tracks, because the Audio Commentary makes a reference to the dubbed German version, and my memory of the original English version is so well defined that I felt like a change. If you want to find out how to say "he slimed me" in German ("Er schleimte mich voll"), then I suggest you listen to this dubbed soundtrack as well, because it's hilarious. Then again, I just found this track particularly enjoyable because I have memorized the dialogue to the point where I can understand the German dub without the benefit of translation. Okay, I admit it, I lead a very lonely life.

The dialogue was mostly clear and easy to follow, and where it wasn't, this was because of the film itself. The most notable example of this is the point in which Walter Peck (William Atherton) gets a ton of liquid marshmallow dumped on him from above. The much-loved Peck also suffers from a minor audio sync problem during Chapter 15. His dialogue was slightly out of sync with his lip movements at this point, but again, this has more to do with the film than the actual transfer. I say this because I have memories of his dialogue in this part of the film being slightly out of sync in the theatre, and the speech he gives during this scene is no different on the DVD version. This leads me to believe that part of this dialogue was altered in post-production in order to avoid a more restrictive rating from the MPAA when originally released.

Extras

This disc has a top-notch selection of extras, which make the disc worthy of purchase by themselves.

The main menu is three-dimensional, animated, and it has the added bonus of the Ray Parker, Jr. Ghostbusters song playing in the background. While this menu, and other sub-menus such as the commentary options, suffer from bad looping, they do not suffer this effect nearly as much as some others I could name, like those that accompany The Matrix, as an example. The scene selection menu is particularly well-animated, although some of the scene animations don't quite match the scenes they correspond with. As an example, chapter 11, labelled "We've Got One" in the listing on the case, actually begins with the Ghostbusters' entry into the Sedgewick hotel. It is represented in the scene selection menu by a miniature of Janine shouting and hitting the bell, which occurs about 90 seconds (something like that, anyway) before the start of the actual chapter.

Theatrical Trailer

Ah, this one brings back memories. It's fun to see it again in digital (albeit mono) after all these years. Whilst it doesn't look any better than it did 16 years ago, it's nice to have it on a media where it won't be worn out by repeated viewings.

Deleted Scenes - Scene Cemetery - 10

A collection of ten scenes that were cut from the original theatrical exhibition, and (sadly) could not be restored due to the rather savage way time has treated the footage. The sequence in which two bums, played by Bill Murray and Dan Aykroyd, argue about nothing with any relevance to the film, is very amusing to look at. Others fill holes in the story (such as a more explicit explanation of why the Sedgewick hotel's management call the Ghostbusters) that didn't really need filling.

Featurette - On the Scene with The Ghostbusters (9:29)

A simple piece of media propaganda, or an advertising extra in other words. It does not have much value to all but the most curious, although it does provide some insight into the massive (by 1984 standards, anyway) advertising campaign this film was given.

Trailer - Ghostbusters II

As long as you're watching the original, why not see an advertisement for the sequel? Of course, this trailer is in much better condition than the other one, owing to the fact that it was made seven years later. Still, this trailer doesn't quite grab my fancy, which can be explained by the underwhelmed feeling I had for the film it relates to.

Featurette - Meet The Special Effects Team (15:24)

A very informative and stimulating featurette, giving an interesting insight into the days when special effects were in a highly experimental stage. Again, this extra is a lot like the advertising extra mentioned previously, except it is intended for fans of the film and those with a budding interest in special effects.

Featurette - Special Effects, Before And After

If you've ever wondered how special effect shots look before the finished product, then this extra is for you. This also makes Ghostbusters one of the few discs I know of, other than the pornographic titles that are only available in Region 1, that makes any use of the angle feature. To put it simply, this featurette consists of a menu linked to three key special-effects sequences, and the angle button allows you to switch from viewing the shot before post-production effects were added (in some cases mere storyboard animatics) to after said effects were added. A very interesting extra, indeed.

Gallery - Concept Drawings

This gallery is mainly an exhibition of the original concepts for several key ghosts in the film. It's worth a few looks, but it is nothing to get particularly excited about.

Storyboards

This extra combines still sequences, and split-screen comparisons of storyboards with the final version of the scenes they correspond to. Two storyboard sequences for shots that did not make it into the film are shown, and they are explicitly described as such in the menu. The first of these is for a sequence involving a Molester Ghost, which, as far as I can tell from the storyboard, harasses Janine at an unspecified point in the movie. The other is of a fashion parade in which a Mink Coat comes to life and attacks its wearer - a concept that was shelved for the original film but revived for the sequel. From the storyboards relating to Louis' retreat from his apartment, the fact that the character was written with John Candy in mind becomes more apparent. The sequence in which he encounters a group of muggers during his search for the gatekeeper, while interesting in concept, looked somewhat impractical to shoot in the conditions presented by the limits of technology, which is the main reason a lot of the unused scenes and storyboards do not appear in this film.

Photo Gallery - Ghostly Gallery

A smallish photo gallery of stills involving special effects shots from the film. This extra should have been left out, in my opinion.

Audio/Video Commentary - Ivan Reitman (Director/Producer), Harold Ramis (Writer/Actor), Joe Medjuck (Associate Producer)

This commentary was the standard by which I judged all others, at least until the El Mariachi/Desperado double feature came along. Insights aplenty into the writing and execution of the film, with actor/writer Harold Ramis also giving some fascinating information about his relationship with the rest of the main stars and their collective relationship with Saturday Night Live peers such as John Belushi, the man Dan Aykroyd's role was originally intended for. Two interesting examples of the quality of this commentary are that which accompanies the notorious Slimer's first appearance in the film. According to this commentary, Dan Aykroyd liked to think of this ghost as that of John Belushi. Another wonderful piece of commentary accompanies the moment in which Bill Murray is "slimed". This is the point where the reference to the dubbed German version of the film is made, and also where the three men take credit for turning the word "slime" into a verb. The silhouette feature has received mixed reaction from many viewers, but I think as a concept it is a wonderful idea. It certainly helped me understand exactly who was speaking at what time, because although it's easy to identify Harold Ramis' voice, the other two do not have much separating them. I can think of plenty of DVDs with commentary in my collection that would have benefited quite a lot from this, or some other method of distinction.

R4 vs R1

The Region 1 version of this disc has a couple of extras that do not appear on the Region 4 version;

Subtitle text notes from the book Making Ghostbusters
Some DVD-ROM content

Given that I have no intention of ever using a DVD-ROM to view my films because of my severe discomfort with looking at a monitor too much during my leisure time, and the cost of sourcing DVDs from Region 1, I see little reason to source the Region 1 version. especially given the much preferable use of the PAL system in Region 4.

Summary

This is a very nostalgic and enjoyable film for me, although you might feel somewhat differently on either aspect, especially given that time has taken a slight toll on the relevance and freshness of the story. Countering that is the fact that this is also a superb restoration effort by Columbia Tristar.

The video quality is amazing, given the film's age.

The audio quality is is about the same as the original theatrical exhibition, which was revolutionary at the time by virtue of being in surround stereo.

The extras are astounding in quantity, and mostly a paragon in quality.

Ratings (out of 5)

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall

Review Equipment

DVD	Grundig GDV 100 D
Display	Panasonic 51cm and 68 cm models, via RCA inputs. Sony 90 cm model, via RCA inputs.
Audio Decoder	None
Amplification	Sony STR-DE535
Speakers	Panasonic S-J1500D front speakers, Sharp CP-303A back speakers, Sony SS-CN120 centre speaker, Yamaha B100-115SE subwoofer