My general feeling about remakes of classic films is pretty simple: they should not be made. A classic is a classic because it's timeless. "The Breakfast Club" made me cry as a 13-year-old in the late 2000s, as I'm sure it made teens cry in the 80s. I watched "Say Anything" wanting a boy to hold a boom box over his head for me, as I'm sure many girls’ decades before did. Being read and watching "The Lorax" in class at 7 made me want to speak for the trees, the way I don't doubt it inspired 1970s flower children. It's perhaps for that reason that the 2012 live action film left me rocking in a corner asking, 'why did they do this?', but that's an entirely different article?
Remakes can do a real disservice to timeless tales, which is why when I heard there was going to be a new "Ghostbusters" film, I rolled my eyes. Why not come up with something new Hollywood? Then I watched the trailer, the names changed and yet it was different. A body diverse, gender bent, female driven film. A female driven film that looked pretty funny. I was moderately intrigued, and then I ventured into the comment section, it was Fifty Shades of Misogyny. Motivated by contrary nature and feminist ideals I resolved that I was seeing this movie. I liked to laugh and I liked supernatural films, there were worst ways to spend $10.
Then July 15th came and my friend and I went. "Ghostbusters" was not only not, bad, but hilarious. It was hilarious during a week when I personally was in desperate need of laughter. It was not only funny but, thanks to those special effects it was a little scary at times (some of those ghosts looked real). And it reminded us all that Chris Hemsworth is a beautiful, beautiful man.
The film played into your typical quartette group dynamics. You've got Erin Gilbert, the straight man, or in this case woman. The serious person, the practical person, the usually disillusioned person. The romantic, Abby Yates the sensitive person who's the heart of the group of people who logically shouldn't be friends. The mad scientist, Jillian Holtzman, because a side effect of a genius IQ as it would turn out is being completely bonkers. But someone's got to make the toys right? Then there was the street wise Patty Tolan, the street smart outsider character serves the purpose of asking questions to convey info to the audience and Leslie Jones was seriously funny.
"Ghostbusters" was refreshing! It passed tests that so many other movies routinely fail. It passed the Bechdel Test, for the non-scholars the Bechdel test is simple: two women in a movie have a conversation, that has nothing to do with a man. Easy A right, wrong: http://bechdeltest.com/ "Ghostbusters" goes farther, it has a supportive female relationships between four characters diverse in personality and body-type. This shouldn't be hard to find, but trust me it can be.
While we're on tests, it passes the Finkbeiner test: a media outlet has a female scientist to pass, it must and I quote not mention, "The fact that she’s a woman. Her husband’s job. Her child care arrangements. How she nurtures her underlings. How she was taken aback by the competitiveness in her field. How she’s such a role model for other women. How she’s the “first woman to…"
Other characters may question if the characters are sane, but that's not because they're women, it's because no one believes in ghosts. The audience knows they're intelligent and passionate about Ghostbusting and if you're like me you want them to succeed. And *spoiler alert* they do. Given how low the number of women in the STEM field is currently, a hilarious movie about 4 awesome scientists who save the world is epic.
In my opinion "Ghostbusters" successfully did what other remakes epically fail to do: honor the original, while providing a new take. People were bashing it before it came out, and it did well. So go see it. Laugh, cry, feel empowered and bask in Chris Hemsworth's beauty.
