The news of Ivan Reitman’s death hit at almost the exact moment the Super Bowl ended. One of the biggest popular culture events of the year ended with the news that the man who created so many cultural touchstones – two Ghostbusters movies, Stripes, Dave among them – was gone. Ivan Reitman just felt like one of those directors who would just be around forever.
It might be a strange choice that, hearing of Reitman’s passing, the first movie I thought about was Meatballs, which was Reitman’s first time directing a somewhat mainstream film. A few months ago I rewatched Meatballs and, honestly, I was expecting something crass or crude. (To be fair, most movies that take place at a summer camp tend to lean on the crass side.) But Meatballs is a surprisingly sweet movie – at least about as sweet as a late-’70s movie that takes place at a summer camp can possible be. But there’s a lot of interesting stuff in Meatballs that would help inform a lot of Reitman’s greater successes over the years.
There’s basically no plot to this movie. The entire film seems to hinge on turning the camera on and letting Bill Murray riff for however long he wants and about any topic he wants. Murray plays Tripper Harrison, a wiseass councilor for Camp North Star who, when we first meet him, is telling a news crew (while pretending to be from another, better, summer camp) about how Yasser Arafat and Henry Kissinger are going to come hang out at the camp with the kids. I have a hard time believing almost anything Murray says in this movie was actually in the script. There are scenes where it feels like Murray literary jumps into frame, does a comedy bit about something that has almost nothing to do with what’s going on in the movie, then jumps out. It’s a movie star performance like we don’t see anymore. It’s jarring, now, how the whole movie hinges on one actor’s ability to capture the screen – especially considering this is Murray’s first starring role and no one was quite sure if he had the ability to do that or not. (You will probably not be surprised to learn that right up until filming no one was quite sure if Murray was going to show up or not.)
What’s surprising about Meatballs is it never devolves into, well, pretty much every other movie from this era with similar topics. There’s no scene of “the boys peaking into the girl’s shower,” or any of the other crude tropes at the time. Tripper is just a positive guy who just wants the kids to feel good about themselves and do the best they can in the athletic competition against the rival, more expensive camp. It’s here that Murray delivers a speech about none of this mattering that is, strangely, both motivational and also feels like it’s not entirely part of the script. And about halfway through the kids in the room stop rooting for Tripper Harrison and begin rooting for Bill Murray.
One of Reitman‘s greatest attributes as a director is it feels like, after the success of Meatballs, he decided, “What if we let all these kinds of moments happen in a movie where there is a plot?” So instead of Bill Murray just kind of hanging out, not doing much of anything, the same kind of “anything goes, let’s see what happens” momentum was used in Reitman’s next two movies where Bill Murray joins the Army, then Bill Murray busts ghosts. There’s just something so freewheeling about all three of these movies and it creates a one-two-three punch of movies in a row that’s hard to beat for comedies from one director. (It’s the one thing about the original Ghostbusters that’s so difficult to recreate. It’s not the lore that makes it works, or really even the jokes, but more just the (at least displayed) laid-back atmosphere of the production. It’s basically Meatballs only with a plot and a huge budget. To the point, I think it’s just something that’s impossible to recreate. It was a perfect storm of happenstances that will probably never happen again.)
Reitman’s next movie after Ghostbusters, Legal Eagles, works as the exception that proves the rule. This is not a freewheeling movie where it feels like everyone is going with the flow. Legal Eagles is a movie that should be terrific. (To be fair, it was a fairly big hit at the box office.) Ivan Reitman, Robert Redford and Debra Winger all together (not to mention a hit Rod Stewart song with a video in heavy rotation at the time) should have been a recipe for success. To the point I also rewatched Legal Eagles somewhat recently in a, come on, this has to be good kind of way. But it gets bogged down with too much plot. To the point Reitman’s three prior films lean into their vibe, while the movie feels like it’s fighting against itself, resulting in a movie that is way more confusing than it should be for what it is. (I thought maybe I was just being stupid, then I looked up the contemporary reviews from the time and almost everyone complains about how confusing this movie is.)
What’s remarkable is if not for Legal Eagle, Reitman has a seven comedy film stretch that would be hard to beat. After Legal Eagles, Reitman puts out Twins, Ghostbusters II (I am in the camp that thinks this is a good movie), Kindergarten Cop and Dave. Few comedy directors have that kind of run.
Meatballls is not Reitman’s best movie. But I truly believe Reitman was at his best when he incorporated the feel and vibe of Meatballs into his big-budget movies. With Meatballs, it was proven Reitman could have a hit with no plot, no budget, and one charismatic star. That’s all it took to keep people entertained. Then was a deft enough director to realize, hey, what if we keep these elements that work and just add money and plot. And it worked and we, as a society, benefited and will continue to benefit from Ivan Reitman’s work. But I’m not convinced any of this happens without Meatballs.
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