From horror movies to political satires, Reitman’s work was always grounded in humor and humanity
In 1984, a film about blue-collar entrepreneurs fighting a war against government bureaucracy — and an omnipotent eldritch god — solidified Ivan Reitman’s cinematic legacy. If there’s one film that Reitman, who died Saturday at the age of 75, will probably be remembered for, it’s “Ghostbusters” — the blockbuster adventures of four misfits that blurred the lines between broad comedy, monstrous horror and working-class heroism. But while “Ghostbusters” may have been Reitman’s biggest financial success, it’s that particular blurring of the lines that was the filmmaker’s lifelong calling card. Reitman repeatedly told stories that precariously but impeccably elevated the humor and heart in practically every genre. The son of Hungarian Jewish immigrants (his mother an Auschwitz survivor and his father a World War II freedom fighter), Reitman grew up in Canada and studied music in college, gradually working his way into producing low-budget independent films. Reitman directed the comedies “Foxy Lady” (1971) and — with a couple of up-and-comers named Eugene Levy and Andrea Martin in the cast — “Cannibal Girls” (1973). He also produced David Cronenberg’s first two groundbreaking horror features, the parasite thriller “Shivers” and the vampiric “Rabid,” the latter starring famous adult superstar Marilyn Chambers. Reitman produced several grindhouse thrillers in the 1970s — including the disturbingly violent “The House by the Lake” (1976) and, under a pseudonym, the notorious “Ilsa the Tigress of Siberia” (1977) — before collaborating with director John Landis and co-writer Harold Ramis on a film that would change all of their careers. “National Lampoon’s Animal House” (1978) was a sleazy, wacky, boorish and anarchic college comedy about heroic, over-sexed loser frat boys waging a culture war against snooty, hateful, corrupt and wealthy frat boys. Although much of the film’s comedy plays rough today, the film helped solidify a new comedic movement dedicated to celebrating working-class slobs as they undermined stuffy social structures and humiliated stuck-up elites.
