How The Original 'Ghostbusters' Is A Microcosm Of Reagan-Era Politics And Culture

Ghostbusters is not what we expect from Hollywood. The film doesn’t take cheap shots at generic “big government” as the left likes to do. It instead takes aim at a specific bureaucracy that was a mainstay of the liberal order of the the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). It’s hard to think of many movies that have had a bigger impact on popular culture than Ghostbusters.

In the summer of 1984, Ghostbusters was released, starring Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Harold Ramis, and Ernie Hudson as four parapsychology professors who decide to start their own business helping people get rid of ghosts. It’s arguably one of the better examples not only of conservative filmmaking — in 2009, flagship conservative journal National Review named it among the best conservative movies ever made — but of popular political filmmaking, period. What makes it work so well is that its political ideas are embedded in its story, characters, and world, growing organically out of the cultural context in which they are presented. The 2016 reboot of Ghostbusters was a muddled, misguided attempt to make a political statement about the role of women in society. But the original Ghostbusters never had that problem.

The original Ghostbusters is the best of the franchise for many reasons. For one thing, it's funny. It's also got a great plot; well-timed special effects; and a talented ensemble cast. But

perhaps most importantly, it skillfully showcases Reagan-era politics without picking a side.

Written by Harold Ramis and Dan Aykroyd in 1983, Ghostbusters was set in New York City during a time when people were worried about crime and an economic recession. The paranormal researchers (played by Aykroyd, Ramis, and Bill Murray) at Columbia University find themselves drummed out of academia by a dean who dismisses their work as pseudoscience. The researchers lose their jobs and have to form their own business to continue their research into the paranormal. They start a ghost catching bussniss use funny-looking equipment to capture ghosts wherever they find them — in homes and at famous landmarks.

The EPA inspector, Walter Peck, is convinced that the Ghostbusters are a menace and that they should be shut down before they can cause more damage. He sees himself as a white knight, fighting against corporate greed, but in reality he’s just another anti-market zealot who doesn’t understand how private enterprise works. He has no respect for private property and no appreciation for the value of innovation. He can only see threats to society where there are actually benefits.

Much like Ronald Reagan’s real-life EPA administrators Anne Gorsuch Burford and Lee Thomas, Ghostbusters’ Walter Peck believes that his job is to shut down irresponsible businesses like the Ghostbusters. Peck arrives at the Ghostbusters’ firehouse headquarters with an army of EPA agents demanding that the Ghostbusters show him how their paranormal containment unit works. The Ghostbusters refuse, citing the fact that they haven’t been given a warrant. Peck promptly seizes the device and starts removing it from its housing—but he doesn’t know what he’s doing. As a result, all of the ghosts loose themselves on New York City, and Peck is forced to admit that he was wrong and ask for the Ghostbusters’ help.

This is just one of several moments in which Ghostbusters reveals itself as a fundamentally conservative film. In another key scene, Venkman—inspired by a vision of a horrific “future” in which New York City is overrun by spooks and specters—realizes just how important it is for someone to step up and defend New York City from evil supernatural forces. Only Venkman knows that he and his friends are uniquely equipped to do so. Now that the government has failed to protect the good citizens of New York

Ghostbusters was made with what you might call a working-class consciousness. The professors are blue collar guys who happen to be intellectuals and have a lot of high-minded principles. When it all goes down, they don’t exactly spell out that the real enemy is big government and its agents of social security expansion and environmental regulation, but that is heavily implied. Our protagonists are not your standard brainwashed liberal good guys — they are, in fact, anti-socialist crank conservatives dressed up as jumpsuits and homemade hardware who want to take on the gilded elite. They’re pro-capitalist libertarians, but they know that at heart they’re still just idiots standing in front of a flood asking everyone to be nice. Smart comedy makes comedy with a strong ideology — defined by people like Will Ferrell, Michael Moore, and Ben Stiller going after George W. Bush — look stupid, which would explain why most film critics do not get Ghostbusters at all unless it is explained to them . . .