This is the climactic rooftop scene of the greatest movie ever made, "Ghostbusters". The gang is ascending the staircase to the rooftop where all the madness will take place. "Zuul" and the "keymaster" are already there, anxiously waiting for "Gozer", the ancient, ultra-powerful, malignant entity who was summoned to New York City to destroy the world. We see close ups of the boys, showing us their emotions (or lack thereof in Bill Murray's case), and then a few point of view and over the shoulder shots to show the movement and where they are going. Upon stepping out onto the destroyed rooftop, the camera slowly pans out to an extreme long shot of the roof, building, surrounding city and angry swirling clouds above. You get the big picture, realize the danger of how high up they are and how powerless they seem.
When Dana and Louis are then transformed into the form of the demons that possess them, we seem some top notch 80's special effects. The writhe around and start to float and electric purple shocks surround them. Then giant evil monster dogs appear in their places and a medium close up of the Ghostbusters shows us their freaked out faces.
When Gozer the Destructor first appears, we see her from a distance through a long shot. This adds mystery and emphasizes her power as we see her in all her glory. "ARE YOU A GOD?" Amazing. We get to experience Gozer's powerful purple electric shocks shooting from her hands from all possible views. We get the point of view of the men, shocks coming at us, over the shoulder of the beautiful Gozer, from above, from the side, as well as a low angle shot of the crowd below looking up and screaming. When Gozer jumps to miss the first ghostbusting rays, there is a shot of her spinning through the air point-of-view as if we are looking up ourselves.
The sound effects are great, lots of smashing at zapping at the appropriate times, and a constant electric sizzle. When Gozer speaks it is booming and powerful, in combination with the lights and wind, it seems her voices itself is pushing back the guys. There is also a shot of all the crowds below looking up and around as she speaks, giving the impression that her voice is godly and filling up the air, coming from no detectable direction but just everywhere.
When the boys are asked to choose their destroyer and try to empty their heads, a close up of each guy reveals to the audience which one could not do it, Dan Aykroyd's character.
The giant marshmallow man is hilarious. We get a sense of his magnitude by shots of him moving through the city and by low angle shots at his feet.
I won't spoil the ending for you, this is truly a magnificent piece of art and Bill Murray is a god. Everyone go watch it again.
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