When deciding who I should write this final paper about I began to think about my favorite comedies growing up and a few quickly came to mind: Happy Gilmore, Groundhog Day, Full Metal Jacket, Caddyshack, and Tommy Boy to name a few. I quickly realized that one director was behind many of these films, Harold Ramis. After reading that name I thought it sounded familiar so I did some more research. Harold was an actor in Ghostbusters, Ghostbusters II and Stripes, which are also on my list of favorite comedies! I knew this was the man I would write my final paper about.
Harold Ramis was born on November 21, 1944 in Chicago, Illinois to a Jewish family. While reading about Harold’s early life and odd jobs after college it was interesting to see the many different paths he went down before finding himself an acting job. “In 1967, Ramis graduated from Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri, earning a degree in English literature. After a string of jobs, including as a substitute teacher, he landed a position at Playboy magazine as a jokes editor. He eventually became an associate editor at the publication, but left to join the famous improvisational comedy troupe Second City in 1969. While with Second City, Harold Ramis became known for his sharp intellect and quick ad-libs. (Other distinguished performers in the troupe during this time include John Belushi, Bill Murray and Brian Doyle Murray.) By the mid-1970s, Ramis had joined Second City's television show, SCTV, as a writer and performer. He worked with a number of other comic talents on the show, including John Candy and Eugene Levy” (Editors). It is intriguing to see the different and wide array of jobs that Ramis held and how you can begin to see how each of them may have later influenced his films.
Every writer or director needs their big break or that moment when it all comes together and their career begins to take off. This event happened when Ramis co-wrote National Lampoon’s Animal House, also one of my favorite comedies. I can remember watching this film for the first time with my father because as he put it, “your generation isn’t going to make films like these so you have to watch and appreciate good comedy” which to this point he could argue that he was right. After the success of Animal House Ramis set out on his own and began his directing career and in 1980 he directed Caddyshack. This was another film I watched with my father, but still to this day quote while golfing with friends.
Ramis then stepped back in front of the camera and starred in Stripes, Ghostbusters and Ghostbusters II . The Ghostbusters films may have been the highlights of his acting career, but he quickly returned to directing soon after. After achieving such great successes Ramis experienced a decline in popularity with some box office failures including Club Paradise, and Back to School among others. When asked about his early success Ramis explained, “My first few films were institutional comedies, and you're on pretty safe ground when you're dealing with an institution that vast numbers of people have experienced: college, summer camp, the military, the country club. “ I think that is the case with any venture that you might take, people are going to stick with what they know. Audiences flock to movies that they can relate to or experiences that they have gone through personally. Ramis went on to explain, “As much as we'd like to believe that our work is great and that we're infallible, we're not. Hollywood movies are made for the audience. These are not small European art films we're making.” Any director that puts out multiple films is going to have failures and you are going to go through ups and downs but how you handle those will dictate your future.
After enduring these failures Harold Ramis bounced back with arguably his best film, and one of the best films of all time Groundhog Day. This historic film was released in 1993 starring Bill Murray. Ryan Gilbey summarizes the film perfectly writing, “So, too, does its title, which has entered our language as shorthand for any period of intolerable monotony comparable to the one experienced by the misanthropic TV weatherman Phil Connors (Bill Murray). Phil is dispatched to the folksy town of Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania, to cover the annual 2 February celebrations, which revolve around a groundhog supposedly foreseeing the exact date of the arrival of spring. "This is one occasion where television really fails to capture the true excitement of a large squirrel predicting the weather," Phil sneers to camera. But when he wakes the following morning, it is 2 February again. And 2 February it will remain indefinitely, rebooted each day at 6am, until Phil can figure out how to arrest the cycle. The secret, it transpires, lies within him” (Gilbey).
While continuing to read about this film I came across a very interesting paragraph that made me look at the film in a completely different light. Gilbey goes on to write, “The mystery has only fortified the film's magic. Its chances of longevity were helped too by a purge on period references. Rubin urged Ramis, with whom he shares a writing credit, to expunge any nods to the 1990s: "You've gotta take all this out," he said, "because this movie is really going to go on for years and years." Compare this with Judd Apatow's films, which are peppered with gags about early-21st century celebrity culture. Parts of Funny People and This Is 40 will be incomprehensible in 50 years' time, whereas our descendants in 2063 will have no trouble understanding Groundhog Day when they download it on to their frontal lobes” (Gilbey). This is a perfect example of Ramis’ genius and ability to create memorable films. This film will make sense to any generation that watches it from the Baby Boomers to Millennials the jokes and story line will always make sense.
Harold Ramis passed away on February 24, 2014 from complications involving autoimmune inflammatory vacuities, which took away his ability to walk. Ramis passed away at his home in Chicago at the age of 69. People from all over gave their condolences from President Barack Obama to Bill Murray.
After writing this paper I am amazed at the way Harold Ramis was able to go from joke writer for Playboy to directing one of the most iconic movies of all time. This assignment allowed me to learn more about the director and actor in some of my favorite movies and now have a much greater appreciation for them. They say that a person’s life is judged off of the impact they have on the world and the mark they leave on others. It is safe to say that Harold Ramis left the world a better place than he found it in and has left an impactful memory with everyone he came in contact with. I have enjoyed writing this paper as well as learning about comedic films all semester. Harold Ramis’ films will forever be changed in my eyes and now will have even more meaning when I sit down and watch them with my children in years to come. That is the mark that Harold Ramis has left, and his films will live on forever.
Works Cited
Editors, Bio. "Harold Ramis." Bio.com. A&E Networks Television, 15 June 2015. Web. 04 May 2016.
Gilbey, Ryan. "Groundhog Day: The Perfect Comedy, for Ever." The Guardian. Guardian News and Media, 07 Feb. 2013. Web. 04 May 2016.
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