THE GOING-INTO-BUSINESS STORY: GHOSTBUSTERS AND BE KIND, REWIND
Warning! Mild Ghostbusters and Be Kind Rewind spoilers ahead!
This is a silly post for a silly subject.
Ghostbusters is a key movie for Michel Gondry’s Be Kind Rewind: not only is it the first movie the Jack Black and Mos Def characters remake—”swede”— but the two movies actually share the same plotline: friends going-into-business.
Anyone can graph a simple story if he or she will crucify it, so to speak, on the intersecting axes I here depict:
“G” stands for good fortune. “I” stands for ill fortune. “B” stands for the beginning of a story. “E” stands for its end.
A much beloved story in our society is about a person who is leading a bearable life, who experiences misfortune, who overcomes misfortune, and who is happier afterward for having demonstrated resourcefulness and strength. As a graph, that story looks like this:
This story shape describes most comedies, especially romantic ones:
In the case of the going into business story, it goes like this:
- friends go into business to wild success (good fortune)
- business gets shut down by government agency (misfortune)
- the community rallies behind the friends to save their world (good fortune)
Here’s Ghostbusters:
- Friends get kicked out of Columbia, go into business for themselves, land on the cover of Time magazine, etc.
- Walter Peck from the EPA comes down and shuts down the power grid and all hell breaks loose
- the mayor gets the Ghostbusters out of jail, NYC rallies behind them, and they kick Gozer’s ass
Now Be Kind Rewind:
- Jack Black erases the tapes, so he and Mos Def have to record their own movies, and everybody loves them
- the lawyers from the MPAA come to shut them down (and the developers want to tear down the building!)
- the ‘hood rallies, they make the Fats Waller documentary together, and they have the screening in the building so the developers can’t tear it down
It’s a great plot because it has great American themes: friendship, capitalism, and community.
Okay. So this post might not pass the “so what” test. I’ve had a couple margaritas…sue me.
Can anyone else think of other “going into business” plotlines?
THE “SO WHAT?” TEST
Sophomore year of college. Classics 202: Greek and Roman Epic. Teacher doesn’t say a word, just passes out our papers, walks up to the blackboard, picks up a piece of chalk, and writes:
Then she says, “Ask yourself that next time you write something.”
Dang.
That’s one of those lessons I never forgot.
YOU MUST HAVE A PLAN
The soundtrack for this poem…
RENDEZVOUS IN LA CAGOUILLE ZINE
When my father-in-law was down from Cleveland last week, he brought me an envelope sent to our old address, postmarked Europe. I couldn’t imagine what European would be sending me anything, so it was a real treat and a surprise to find two copies of La Cagouille No. 6—a little zine that a couple of French folks put out. I had totally forgotten that way back Gabriel Papapietro had asked me if they could print an old comic of mine called “Rendezvous.” The package contained a note from Gabriel…so nice to get handwritten letters!
Other than my comic, everything else is in French, so I’m piecing my way through. Here’s a spread from Gabriel’s comic, “Royan Sur Brie,” which you can read online if you add him as a friend on Myspace.
Very cool. Thanks for the mail, Gabriel!
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