But I suspect that as a lifelong humorist, Ivan Reitman would approve.
I used to always confuse which movies Ivan Reitman had directed with which movies Harold Ramis had directed. They had much of the same on-screen talent and many of the same sensibilities. Turns out, Reitman directed most of them and Ramis, not all that many but some really big ones (Vacation, Groundhog Day).
Now they're both gone.
Reitman lived just long enough to see his son Jason direct a proper sequel to the two Ghostbusters films he himself directed, and then a few months later, he passed away in his sleep at age 75.
I made a pun in the subject of this post, but I think it was apt. Reitman really was the right man for the job with the comedies he made. That may seem like an obvious statement, but when I say that, I am thinking of his role as director in the same way you think of a manager of a major league baseball team, if you ever think of such a person.
Recently there has been a theory that a baseball manager doesn't actually do that much. The general manager brings in the players the manager must use, and lately the notion has even been put forth that in-game decisions often come down from the owner's box during games, since those decisions could affect such things as how much a player makes in arbitration etc. The manager is left being a personality who can gather everybody together and inspire them by being affable but strong, and projecting a sort of leadership other people want to follow.
I wonder if that's kind of what Reitman did. He gathered together people who were already really funny and did not require specific guidance from him how to be so. Because his movies didn't usually feature technique that called attention to itself, it seems more like he got behind the camera and called "Action!" rather than trying to execute some grand vision for the film. That sort of grand vision is not usually needed in a comedy, of course, and Reitman instinctively knew that.
Of course, some of his visions were grand. Ghostbusters was a sort of unprecedented melding of comedy and special effects, and though we laugh at some of those effects in 2022, we all remember them being amazing in 1985. He tried to marry effects with comedy again in 2001's Evolution, with significantly lesser returns, but the effort is what I'm talking about here. Even though I've characterized Reitman as a good production leader more than a creative visionary, neither was he content just to get funny people together to do funny things.
Then there was also the Frank Capra side of him. Dave is one of the best imitations I've ever seen of a modern-day Capra, perhaps even with more heart than a Capra film -- and it's also really funny.
He also had an ability to turn something that shouldn't have worked into something that did work. When we think about his collaborations with the likes of Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd and Ramis, we tend to forget that the most regular star of his movies was Arnold Schwarzenegger. Kindergarten Cop looked like a gross misfire when we first saw it advertised -- Schwarzenegger doing warmth and comedy? -- but I still cherish that film and am realizing that a rewatch of that would probably be an excellent tribute to Reitman. Maybe this weekend. Their other collaborations were not as big a success -- I didn't even see Junior -- but Twins rightly has a fond place in people's hearts as well. (Wikipedia says Arnold was also in Dave, but I don't remember that.) And if I said earlier that Reitman didn't need to direct his comedic actors, Schwarzenegger flies in the face of that. Arnold surely wouldn't have realized he had the ability to be funny if Reitman hadn't seen something in him and brought it out of him.
If I'm considering revisiting stuff, it might be wise to go back to two of his early efforts I saw ages ago but don't remember at all: Meatballs and Stripes. Yep, if any one person launched Bill Murray, it was probably Reitman.
As seems to happen with talents like Reitman, eventually the good ideas dry up. The 21st was not a good century for the director, as he followed up Evolution with My Super Ex-Girlfriend (bad) and No Strings Attached (almost as bad). However, I can genuinely say I liked his final film as director, 2014's Draft Day, which was a pleasant surprise that called up some of the Reitman of old.
I won't get into his producing credits, but there were some great ones there too.
The deaths of Ramis and now Reitman are a reminder that we're going to start losing more of these guys who either started out in SCTV or had some affiliation with it. It probably won't be that long from now -- hopefully at least a decade -- before I have to write one of these for Murray. So we should enjoy these guys now while we still can.
And if you want to look at Reitman's lasting influence, the examples are everywhere in comedy. I needn't name them. But one big example is his own son, now a successful director in his own right, who has made some good comedies, some not-so-good comedies, some interesting dramas, and a fascinating little body of work in and of itself.
Reitman was definitely the right man to make the comedies of my childhood, whether I remember them all perfectly today or not. I might have to make a little run through some of his work in the next couple months. And maybe I'll even watch Junior.
Rest in peace.
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