Traditionally, Christmas was seen as ghost story season. Charles Dickens’s Christmas Carol may be universally praised as one of the genre’s crowning holiday achievements, but one of America’s contributions to the canon—1984’s Ghostbusters—deserves just as much consideration. This year marks the film’s fortieth anniversary, and it is certainly worth revisiting for the enduring themes it wraps in great humor.

　　I am Egon. Well, right now I’m not, as I’ve just gotten a much-needed haircut. But, when my hair is full (it doesn’t just get long, it gets full and big), I look so much like Egon (Harold Ramis) that it became my high school nickname when Ghostbusters hit the big screen forty years ago. Even to this day, people say I look like Ramis (may he rest in peace). But even beyond this personal connection, I possess a deep admiration for the philosophical and political themes of the movie. The way it mocks the false authority of power, while never undermining the true authority of the transcendent makes the film a perfect libertarian fable.

　　At the time it came out, in the summer of 1984, I was sixteen, and Ghostbusters became the highest-grossing comedy up to that point. Few had intentionally mixed the genres of comedy and horror (Young Frankenstein being a critical exception), and critics did not quite know what to make of it. “But, however good an idea it may have been to unleash Mr. Murray in an ‘Exorcist’-like setting,” The New York Times claimed, “this film hasnt gotten very far past the idea stage. Its jokes, characters and story line are as wispy as the ghosts themselves, and a good deal less substantial.” The Wall Street Journal, though, was much more taken with the film. ‘Ghostbusters’ is the most sophisticated and sweetest of this groups particular brand of schtick-em-up movies,” the paper noted, comparing it to Animal House and Caddyshack.

　　Time, however, has been quite kind to Ghostbusters—certainly more than the film’s original critics were—and it became a beloved classic immediately after its release. One might be tempted to call it a “cult classic,” but its popularity has gone well beyond “cult.” Indeed, it dominated the screen throughout the summer of its release. Additionally, it spawned (no pun intended) two animated TV series (The Real Ghostbusters and Extreme Ghostbusters) as well as three movie sequels (Ghostbusters II, Ghostbusters: Afterlife, and Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire) of varying quality. Then, of course, there were also comic books and video games based on the film. While the special effects and sets of the original movie looked great in 1984, they come across a bit cheesier forty years later, but this only adds to the overall charm of the movie.

　　At the time, Ghostbusters was simply hilarious, and it’s generally remembered for its innumerable witty and deadpan lines of dialogue: “Human sacrifice, dogs and cats living together … MASS HYSTERIA!”; “Ray, when someone asks you if youre a god, you say YES and “Back off, man. Im a scientist.”

　　The plot is fairly simple. A group of academics (Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, and Harold Ramis) at Columbia University lose their jobs, and, in response, they enter the private sector as “Ghostbusters”—paranormal psychologists and spook hunters. As it turns out, New York City—Manhattan specifically—has become the epicenter of otherworldly activity because of a crazy occult group founded in the 1920s. As such, the dead seem alive throughout the city. Despite the best efforts of the meddlesome EPA, the Ghostbusters (along with a fourth team member, played by Ernie Hudson), thanks to a series of fortuitous accidents, pinpoint the activity to a specific building. There, possessing a musician (Sigourney Weaver) and a tax accountant (Rick Moranis) as hounds of hell, a god of the ancient world, Gozer, recreates a portal to her demonic dimension. When the Ghostbusters fight her, she challenges them with an avatar—the Stay-Puffed Marshmallow Man, a beloved corporate product-character. In a dazzling fight, the Ghostbusters barely win their battle against Gozer and the Marshmallow Man, saving Weaver and Moranis. The film ends with the victorious Ghostbusters returning to the cheering streets of Manhattan.

　　Again, it all seems relatively simple.

　　Yet, in hindsight and several important respects, the movie is quite deep, especially given how rooted it is in the general anti-authoritarianism and libertarianism of the Reagan Era. In this, it resembles other movies of the mid-1980s, especially two of John Hughes’s films, Breakfast Club and Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. Indeed, it challenges, implicitly and explicitly, three authorities: the universities, the federal government, and the ancient gods.

　　Ghostbusters is a brilliant libertarian movie. It was the pop cultural expression of the Reagan Revolution.

　　At the beginning of the film, we find our three primary Ghostbusters engaged in outrageous paranormal experiments at Columbia University. Dr. Peter Venkman (Murray) is clearly there only to pick up female undergraduates. Intensely involved in a card reading exercise, he favors the female subject over the male subject. If this is all we know about the three primary academics (and it seems to be), we know that they are total frauds, never interested in the academic aspects of the subject but only in the utilitarian aspects of the study.

　　Coming to its senses, Columbia University justly and rightly fires the three members of the paranormal psychology department. Such a twist in events, however, confuses the trio. They’ve never been out on their own, and the prospect of having to make a profit in business terrifies them.

　　As one future Ghostbuster notes, “Personally, I liked the university. They gave us money and facilities, we didnt have to produce anything! Youve never been out of college! You dont know what its like out there! Ive WORKED in the private sector. They expect results.”

　　It’s a brilliant line, and one to please any libertarian in the world.

　　Forced to go into the private sector, though, the three Ghostbusters buy an old firehouse and hire a secretary: the reluctant, hilarious, and deadpan Annie Potts. They began capturing old ghosts—many of them quite disruptive and distasteful (several being created in tribute to the died-too-young John Belushi). 

　　When the EPA becomes cognizant of the Ghostbusters, the agency immediately thinks the worst and investigates the now-foursome. From the beginning, the EPA agent Walter Peck (William Atherton) and Dr. Venkman think little of each other. In one hilarious exchange, Venkman mocks Peck’s pretensions and tendency towards petty tyranny, setting up his PhD in parapsychology and psychology against Peck’s meddlesome attitude.

　　In one of the most R-rated moments of the film, the Ghostbusters challenge the EPA in the mayor’s office. Stantz and Venkman mock Peck’s manhood, but insist that they are the best people to handle the supernatural crisis facing New York. It is humorous and vulgar, but it also demonstrates the film’s philosophical opposition to false claims of authority. The would-be authoritarians of the EPA deserve to be mocked, not followed blindly.

　　And, finally, Ghostbusters challenges the authority of the ancient gods. As with the university and the EPA, this challenge comes in the form of mocking. They don’t deny their existence, merely their authority. As Venkman cries out in the final battle, “Let’s show this prehistoric bitch how we do things downtown!”

　　Interestingly enough, the movie not only doesn’t challenge but actually celebrates two authorities: New York City (especially the cops and mayoral office) but also the Catholic Church. In a moment, admittedly probably an evangelical rather than Catholic moment, Stantz and Winston discuss the End Times and quote from Revelations.

　　It’s a critical comment that bridges the first half of the movie (wonder) with the second half of the movie (resolution). Winston, most likely evangelical rather than Catholic, has identified the likely culprit in all of this.In the brilliant second season of Netflix’s Stranger Things, the young heroes don Ghostbusters uniforms and claim that Winston is a lame character. Far from being lame, though, he and his belief are the crux upon which the whole movie turns. He alone realizes that Gozer represents the end times as predicted in St. John’s Book of Revelation, thus explaining the outrageous number of ghostly manifestations throughout the city. Admittedly, this puts the sequels in a bit of a quandary, unless we the audience are willing to admit that the end-times might take decades even centuries.

　　Even in the scene in the mayor’s office, the mayor greets the local bishop with a kiss of his ring, the bishop proclaiming that the Catholic Church can take no stance on the ghosts. When, however, the mayor sides with the Ghostbusters over the EPA, the camera swivels to the bishop, who nods his head in clear approval. As the Ghostbusters enter (and exit) the occult building, hoards of nuns and Catholic priests are there, cheering clearly for the Ghostbusters. For such an extreme anti-authoritarian movie, these brief—if humorous shots—of Catholic clergy and nuns stand out in stark relief to the false authorities of the university, the EPA, and the ancient gods. As Winston so bluntly states, “I love Jesus’ style.”

　　Don’t get me wrong, I’m not trying to suggest that Ghostbusters is a profound movie in the way that Alfred Hitchcock’s Rope or Christopher Nolan’s Interstellar are profound movies. But, in its own way and in its own time, Ghostbusters is a brilliant libertarian movie. It was the pop cultural expression of the Reagan Revolution. While it might not have spoken “truth to power,” it definitely mocked false or obsolete authority and spoke humor to power.