Note: The little stars (*) are footnotes. When you see them, look to the bottom of the post for more information.
Ghostbusters (1984) is without a doubt my favorite movie of all time. As a child growing up in the 1990's, it might strike some as strange that this mid-80's action-comedy would qualify as my favorite film. Last night, I went to the local theater in Montgomery because Ghostbusters was re-released this October and was in 500 theaters nationwide. This trip inspired me to write a timeline of how this film has managed to keep being my favorite since I was five years old.
Late 1995- I used to stay at my Grandma's house a a lot growing up when my parents both had jobs. My family is interesting: My grandparents had two children in the late 60's (my mother and my aunt) and then my Uncle Matt came along in 1980.
My Uncle Matt and I have a relationship I feel that most uncle-nephew combos do not have. In 1995, I was the most annoying child on the face of the Earth. I knew I drove my Uncle insane and loved it. I constantly jumped on him and bothered him, a craft I had perfected by 1995. *
Matt's role is very simple in this story: He had toys as a kid. Toys that my Grandma must have kept for the Ball of Hell she probably assumed would be me. When I found these toys in a basement I have so many childhood memories in, I found some pretty cool stuff: Some He-Man action figures, Legos, toy guns, but most importantly: A gun from the movie Ghostbusters. At the time I had no clue what it was, but I was going to find out soon enough.
1996- DVR did not exist yet and my Grandma was the Tape Queen. She taped everything she wanted to watch, including her favorite soap opera, Guiding Light.** I soon discovered a tape with the title "Ghostbusters" written on the front. Grandma at some point had taped this from TV, so I began to watch it.
Instantly the gun was making sense. The thought of catching ghosts and using laser guns to get them the most incredible idea ever for five-year old Chad. Grandma gets unlimited amounts of credit for taping Ghostbusters, I cannot thank her enough.
1997- My baby sister Madison is three years old and in the hospital. One of her kidneys is not growing at a normal pace, so she has to go to get that one removed. Since my Mom and Dad were with Madison a lot, I was once again staying at my Grandma's house, where some of my favorite toys and the NES lived.***
Madison surgery went perfect and her kidney was removed. My Grandma (once again, a hero) got me Ghostbusters 2 on VHS for being a "good big brother" while my sister was in the hospital. Ghostbusters 2 plays out eerily similar to the first one, but who cares!? It is newer looking and different to me! I was once again mesmerized by the men with their Proton Packs, saving the day.
1999- I am getting older. Probably annoying Uncle Matt less (don't quote me on that) and Extreme Ghostbusters the cartoon was hitting the scene. I had gotten a toy Proton Pack from the series and I loved it. I was eight and still destroying ghosts, but that was all getting closer and closer to ending.
November 5, 2001- Moving to Alabama was the worst thing ever. I was leaving everything that I truly cared about: my best friends, my grandparents and other family, along with the basement I had poured so much of my childhood into. I could never re-visit what it would be like to watch and play as a Ghostbuster like I used to. You could say I was pretty disappointed.
2002-2008- Probably watched this movies 30 times during this period of life, nothing else notable pertaining to my love of the film.
2009- Myself and some of my best friends in Alabama come across Ghostbusters 1 & 2 DVD combo pack for $9 dollars at Wal-Mart. I buy it without thought, it needed to be done. We watched the first one together and everyone seemed to enjoy it. Top purchase of 2009, with the exception of my Pens Stanley Cup Champs swag.
2010- Madison and I watch Ghostbusters 2 and it is pretty bad. Simply nowhere close to the original and it shows. I will still manage to watch this horrible film at least three times before I die, because I still love it.
October 31, 2011, 7:00 PM- I am in college, sitting around my dorm and very lonely on Halloween night. My girlfriend goes to school about 40 minutes away and my family is about an hour away. I love Halloween, even if I had not dressed up since 7th or 8th grade, it was still fun to be with my family on that night. So instead of eating as much candy as possible and probably vomiting, I decided to go see the re-release of Ghostbusters that got extended through Halloween weekend. I had no time to see it in the weeks prior until now, on Halloween night. It is safe to say I was really excited.
I bought my ticket for a ridiculous $8.50. I got both movies on DVD for $9 bucks two years ago, but hopefully it would be worth it to have this theater experience.
7:30 PM- I walked into the theater and I am super excited. I will probably never see this film like this again. Overflowing with joy, I make my way to the top row of the stadium seating and I see a little boy, 7 or 8 years old, and his older sister are sitting a few rows below me. I was happy to see that this kid was at the movies instead of trick-or-treating, because in my most honest opinion, he was in for a great treat with this movie.
8:45 PM- Sister and kid are gone. Maybe they were scared. I do not think this is a scary movie. Maybe they just hated it. Who cares, this is the way I wanted it anyway: Watching my most beloved film in a cozy theater, all to myself.
8:56 PM- I am getting closer towards the end of the film and there is a wide-shot of NYC. The first thing that catches my eye is the World Trade Center, something no one would think about back when the movie was made. It was an interesting moment that left me feeling strange. The shot is in the video below, it is pretty easy to find them in the back.
9:02 PM- We have arrived folks. The trademark scene at the end of this film, featuring the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man. Seeing all of this in a theater was so special, all the years of loving something that never really changed but felt so different by a dark room and a big screen. It was too much fun.
9:03 PM- Still alone, I feel myself starting to get sad because I do not want this to end. This movie is just my favorite one and there is not really a way to explain it. The final scene was great once again, but hard to watch because I knew it was all over.
9:13 PM- The movie had been over for a little while by this point. I watched the credits and just appreciated the fun of it all. Any loneliness that I brought into the theater was left there and what I brought back with me was a kind of happiness and nostalgia I had not felt in quite some time.
Through my lifetime, I have felt like I have needed this movie. Ghostbusters helped me play as a child and laugh as an adult, but most importantly it helped a stressed college student on a lonely night to open his eyes and remember what it was like to sit in his Grandma's house and just be a kid, something we all should do sometimes.
Chad Underwood is the editor-in-chief of Students of the Game. He is currently attending Auburn University at Montgomery and majoring in Mass Communications. He also loves Ghostbusters.
*Nowadays, Uncle Matt and I are good friends. I would not blame him for hating me forever after torturing him as a teenager, but he waited till I grew up and realized that I was awesome. He even let me be in his wedding. I will be traveling to West Virginia in December to see him and my Aunt Robin (along with a Pens game!).
** Guiding Light is a show that has made it rounds in our family. My Grandma watched it for like forty years until it went off a few years ago. My Aunt Tracey was also a regular viewer. My Uncle Matt, my step-dad and my mother also had Guiding Light fever in certain parts of their lives. I'll admit, one summer I watched it for like three weeks, then quit in fear of an addiction.
*** Another great way to try to bug my Uncle Matt to death was stealing his "The Legend of Zelda" NES game and play it and delete files. He would hide it where he must have thought I could not see.
