I saw GB1 in 1984 when I was around 7-8 years old.
I think the age you are when you see it first can change your perception of it.
I was just learning to speak English as a 2nd language back then, so most of the dialogue and jokes went over my head.
Being 8 I was just starting to make sense of the world. For example, I knew what policemen and firemen, or people in uniform were. People in uniform represented authority and seriousness. To see these men in uniforms see Slimer in the hotel and be so surprised by it, had me as a kid believing it was real. I mean, I knew it wasn’t real, it was just a movie, but in my mind back then ghosts -could be- real. That scene between Ray and Slimer (to my mind back then) wasn’t a complete fantasy.
That meant the proton packs were real too. I had never seen machines like that, but had no reason to believe they could not exist. They looked like incredibly detailed black machines in a backpack form. I was fascinated by them. Most of all by the labels and decals (which were too small to read on screen). Those decals and labels to me were the proton packs’ connection to actual reality. There wouldn’t be instructions and warning labels on them if they weren’t real right? If I could just get a glimpse of a moment in the film where I could read one of the labels clearly, I thought I could work out some part of how it actually worked. (The beautiful mind of an 8 year old![😊]()
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In the years that followed I remember pausing the VHS over and over to get the perfect sharp frame on the proton pack and tracing it out with an A4 sheet of paper over the CRT tv. The scene where Ray is running to Peter in the hotel (2 sequences of sharp frames, people who’ve done it will know what I’m talking about.)
So for me it was about the equipment and how it worked. I didn’t understand the whole thing with Dana and Louis, keymaster and gatekeeper, it made no sense to my 8 year old mind. The army escorting the Ghostbusters towards the end of the film reinforced my (8 year old kid) belief that it (could be) real, that this was serious. The terror dogs scared me a lot. The scene where they take Dana had me terrified. Gozer not so much, I just thought she was weird and a little scary. I didn’t understand the whole “ancient God” angle. I didn’t even know what a “God” was. Staypuft I remember as scary and strange. I didn’t understand that Ray conjured it up by trying to think of something harmless. That massive giant monster looked far from harmless to me.
The very end of the film had me fascinated with the city of New York.
I think the age you are when you see it first can change your perception of it.
I was just learning to speak English as a 2nd language back then, so most of the dialogue and jokes went over my head.
Being 8 I was just starting to make sense of the world. For example, I knew what policemen and firemen, or people in uniform were. People in uniform represented authority and seriousness. To see these men in uniforms see Slimer in the hotel and be so surprised by it, had me as a kid believing it was real. I mean, I knew it wasn’t real, it was just a movie, but in my mind back then ghosts -could be- real. That scene between Ray and Slimer (to my mind back then) wasn’t a complete fantasy.
That meant the proton packs were real too. I had never seen machines like that, but had no reason to believe they could not exist. They looked like incredibly detailed black machines in a backpack form. I was fascinated by them. Most of all by the labels and decals (which were too small to read on screen). Those decals and labels to me were the proton packs’ connection to actual reality. There wouldn’t be instructions and warning labels on them if they weren’t real right? If I could just get a glimpse of a moment in the film where I could read one of the labels clearly, I thought I could work out some part of how it actually worked. (The beautiful mind of an 8 year old
)In the years that followed I remember pausing the VHS over and over to get the perfect sharp frame on the proton pack and tracing it out with an A4 sheet of paper over the CRT tv. The scene where Ray is running to Peter in the hotel (2 sequences of sharp frames, people who’ve done it will know what I’m talking about.)
So for me it was about the equipment and how it worked. I didn’t understand the whole thing with Dana and Louis, keymaster and gatekeeper, it made no sense to my 8 year old mind. The army escorting the Ghostbusters towards the end of the film reinforced my (8 year old kid) belief that it (could be) real, that this was serious. The terror dogs scared me a lot. The scene where they take Dana had me terrified. Gozer not so much, I just thought she was weird and a little scary. I didn’t understand the whole “ancient God” angle. I didn’t even know what a “God” was. Staypuft I remember as scary and strange. I didn’t understand that Ray conjured it up by trying to think of something harmless. That massive giant monster looked far from harmless to me.
The very end of the film had me fascinated with the city of New York.
Statistics: Posted by One time — October 4th, 2024, 11:09 pm