30th Anniversary of BACK TO THE FUTURE

It seems I was always late to a party as a kid... I think back to seeing E.T. at age 7 in October 1982 , when that film debuted in June. Back to the Future debuted on July 3, 1985 but I did not see it until a friend and I split on which movie to see at the DeSoto Square Mall. I went to Back to the Future by myself as he went to Weird Science, which means it was sometime in August.

 

Back to the Future is my favorite movie. A classic. I was at Universal Studios back in 1989 and the future Hill Valley set was there. It was so cool driving on those streets. The tour guide said they were currently filming on location.

 

Some friends of mine were at the bowl. They said it was a really great time.

 

I got a good chuckle out of that, and also that they had flying cars but no HDTV.

 

I think about the movie every time I drive down Victory Boulevard in Burbank near Cypress St., which is the famous "Back to the Future Burger King" which Marty McFly rode by on his skateboard. (Right across the street from Arriflex HQ for LA, that red brick building on the right.)

Yes, a pal of mine at Warner Bros. got a friend and me into the recording session for Back to the Future III, which I think had a 120-piece orchestra doing the climactic scene where the train plunges off the bridge into the ravine. That was recorded on the early digital Mitsibishi X-800 32-track recorder, which was very hip and happening for 1990. Tons of mics, mainly Neumann U87s but also some classic RCA 77DX's on the strings. And Silvestri conducted it himself, which impressed the hell out of me. Didn't get to shake Silvestri's hand, but I was sitting about 6 feet away during a lot of the session. You forget how thunderously loud a full symphony orchestra can get at close range!

 

I think even though Stoltz and Fox were almost exactly the same age (both born in 1961), Fox had a kind of baby-face look and was only about 5'4" tall, so I think he looked the part more. I also think the script called for a light, comedic touch with moments of drama, and Stoltz was a much more serious actor -- and a very good actor, too. The theory has always been that Zemeckis shot with Stoltz for five weeks, then assembled a rough cut just as Spielberg was getting back to town after a long shoot in Europe. When he and Spielberg looked at the rough assemblage, they both shook their heads and realized it just wasn't working and they were going to have to recast. It's a credit to Universal that they agreed to spend the money and reshoot.

I got what Zemeckis and Gale were trying to do with the movie, and no question both BTTF II and III were very different films. You could compare the first three Star Wars films, which were also very different, plus #2 was a big downer in many ways, merely a setup for the third film. I liked all three films for their sheer audacity and ambition, and I think they work if you look at them very objectively and take in the big story.

The whole BTTF saga has a lot of complex time-travel issues that I think they worked out very cleverly. It's a film that manages to balance being poignant without being maudlin, being emotional without being cornball, and being funny without being slapstick, and somehow the whole thing works extremely well. Just amazing films, really well done.

BTW, there's a terrific web page that shows all the actual locations used in BTTF, including the "Lone Pine Mall" and all that other stuff:

http://www.seeing-stars.com/Locations/BTTF.shtml

As much as I'm immersed in the miasma of Los Angeles, even I was impressed at how seamlessly they stitched all these locations and sets together to create the feeling of one town for the film (in three different eras).

 

Great movie. The guitar playing part is really cool.

 

This recent article has some more details on the termination of Eric Stoltz. Apparently they continued filming for several days after the decision had been made to replace Stoltz.

 

Great article, Swandown! I don't know if anybody has yet written a book on the making of the Back to the Future film series, but there's lot of great inside stories on what went on... particularly on the departures of Crispin Glover and Claudia Wells, and how Eric Stoltz was replaced by Michael J. Fox. To my knowledge, Stoltz has never done an interview where he talked about the experience... but he was paid in full and he has worked steadily in the 30 years since the film.



I always liked the tidbit that Zemeckis and Spielberg (and their friends Lucas and Coppola) strongly disliked Universal VP Ned Tanen, so the villain of the movie was named "Biff Tanen"... and he couldn't change it.

 

The article is excerpted from this new book:

http://www.amazon.com/We-Dont-Need-...436059941&sr=8-1&keywords=we+don't+need+roads

 

That was a bigger part of the original script. The deal in the script was that Marty McFly kept getting stage fright and screwed up their 1985 performances because he'd choke on-stage. So when he finally got up on stage in 1955, he had to overcome his stage fright and perform in order to get his future parents-to-be to dance together. They omitted this from the final film because it was a plot complication that would've taken up too much time.

The original ending, where Marty had to drive to Nevada for a 1955 H-bomb test in order to harness the energy to use it for the DeLorean, was also changed to just get the power from a lightning bolt. That was a brilliant change that works totally well.

Ah, I did not know about the book. I'm already pissed that it isn't 800 pages long instead of a mere 280 pages long! You could easily write 100 pages just on the original scripts that were done and everything that was changed for the final films as released.

 

mmm.. Burger King..

 

The first film was extremely clever, smart and cute. An excellent movie superbly done. Great script. I cant stand the other films; I think they're unwatchable. All the phony makeup and dumb yucks are like a bad Billy Crystal sketch to me. I put the trilogy right up there with the "Jaws" trilogy as far as a descent into hell -- starting from the heavens.

 

I was really late to the party as I didn't see it until it was released on VHS. I saw the 2 sequels in theaters. I loved Part II at the time. I didn't enjoy Part III very much. It suffered, in part, from the overly sappy love story between Doc and Clara.

 

Aw, they're not that bad. I think the time-travel portion of the story is quite interesting. I just finished watching the first movie tonight and was struck by how much heart there is in the whole thing. Co-writer Bob Gale points out that Marty McFly has not only got to try to get back to his own time, he has to get his parents to meet and fall in love, he has to save his own family from non-existence, and he has to try to save Doc Brown's life. In fact, the sequence where Doc Brown is murdered is kind of shocking, particularly as it comes in the first half hour of the film, and I think it works very well.

The worst thing I can say about the second and third films is that they're uneven, as is the makeup, but I think it's the best they could do in the late 1980s. I think the degree of tragedy in the second film is really harrowing, particularly the "It's a Wonderful Life" slant on the horrible world that's resulted after the death of George McFly and the rise of Biff Tanen, and it's a very interesting, under-appreciated film. To me, the third film is the weakest, but even that one has no dull moments and it takes some unexpected twists here and there. None of them are unwatchable to me, but I concede the first one holds up the best overall after three decades.

Jaws 2 and Jaws 3D are absolutely unwatchable. Really awful movies that illustrate what happens when you really try to take one idea and run it into the ground. At least the BTTF series tried new things and new variations on a theme with each sequel, and I think they generally succeeded.

 

Luckily they put the ride on the box set. Too bad it's not at Universal anymore. I used to ride the hell out of that thing when it came out.

 

And here's an interesting write up of the Top 10 Things You Didn't Know About Back to the Future:

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/heat-vision/back-future-director-stars-producers-806768

Who knew that C. Thomas Howell, Johnny Depp, John Cusack and Charlie Sheen had all been considered to play Marty McFly in 1984? Or that the head of the studio wanted to title the film Spaceman from Pluto? Or that Lea Thompson initially disliked Michael J. Fox, considering him "just a sitcom actor"?

 

Part 4 anyone?


I love the first one, definitely one of my all time favorites.

 

I agree that "Jaws 3" is terrible, but I can't be objective about "Jaws 2". I was 11 when it came out and I saw it before I saw the original - 8 was too young for that one, so "Jaws 2" was my first cinematic experience with the series.

And I loved it! Saw it 6 or 7 times in theaters and thought it was a blast. When I saw "Jaws" during its theatrical re-release a year later, I still preferred the sequel - it has a lot more action, and for a kid, that's important.

Of course, I changed my mind eventually and saw "Jaws" for the classic it is. I know that "Jaws 2" isn't much of a movie, but I still maintain such nostalgia for it that I can't hate it.

I don't think it's actually "unwatchable" anyway:

http://www.dvdmg.com/jaws2.shtml

 

I've always loved this one.



My brain hurts.

Darryl

 

Saw Back to the Future at the Tampa Theatre this afternoon. A pretty big turnout for the film, probably 450-600 people. Lots of laugher throughout. Huge round of applause when George laid out Biff.

I was really enjoying Michael J. Fox's reactions this time. More than ever before, I was feeling that Christopher Lloyd was too over the top for the film, but that's easy to forgive considering it's such a witty, fast-paced and intricately constructed film.

Also, I'm sure others have noticed this before, but there seem to be (at least) three clocks set to a different time in the opening tracking shot. The first is near the start of the shot, behind the large clock that displays 7:53 in digits. The next is on the coffeemaker, and has a black "X" taped over it. Right between that and the TV is another clock which appears to be a timer - there's an arm that rides up and triggers a lightswitch which in turn powers on the TV.

Interestingly, these clocks all differ from the rest by only 15 minutes. Based on Doc's statement that all the clocks are 25 minutes slow, these three clocks would only be 10 minutes slow. I wonder if the original intent was to have the clocks be 15 minutes slow, but it was changed in looping afterward.

 

I know! And now, sadly, you DO need a credit card to ride this train.

 

Haha, if you have an Android download the "Zedge" App. Search notifications for "Back To The Future" and the twinkle is one of the notifications. If people at work hear it they will know what it is but can't remember what it is from until a wise guy figures it out

 

I agree, it is the best trilogy (and I love Star Wars too). My 13 year old daughter recently mentioned to me that we need to watch the first movie again. It's nice when we can watch a movie together from my teen years and she finds it as enjoyable as me and my wife do. I don't believe she has seen part 2 or 3 but I think she would be amused by 2015. We should pull these out this up coming weekend and watch all 3.

 

Crispin on Part 2:



Crispin & Weissman as George:



At the time I never knew Jeffery Weissman played George in the 1955 shots, I thought he was only used for the 2015 part of the movie. I also heard the "George upside down" bit was intended for Crispin. I believe he was supposed to be in the film and they wrote it in for him to be upside down just so they could hear him complain.

WEISSMAN: I got a call one day from the friend who originally asked me if I could play Stan (he had a "lookalike" booking company), and he asked if I knew who Crispin Glover was. I said, "Yes, I had worked with him on a film at AFI back in '83," and he asked if I thought I was about the same height and weight as him. I told him, "No, Crispin was taller and heavier than I, but I thought I might be close." I asked if this inquiry was to be a stand-in for him for the sequel to Back to the Future…? And he said that he wasn't at liberty to say. I said, "Get me a meeting." And he did.

I next went through a series of meetings, auditions and screen tests. I met with assistant director David McGiffert, and next went to read (along with other actors), the "George and Marty hanging the clothes in the backyard" scene from the first film for casting director Judy Taylor. Co-casting director Mike Fenton (along with associate Marci Liroff) had cast me in Twilight Zone: The Movie, so he may have vouched for me. I then met with make-up designer (from the first BTTF film) Ken Chase, and sat for make-up sessions in his backyard workshop, to fit prosthetics to play 17-year-old George for screen tests with Robert Zemeckis and Dean Cundey. The prosthetics made me look like Crispin, but not exactly. Robert asked Dean what he thought of my performance, and I heard Dean say, "I think we have Crispin without the trouble." This was the first time I had an inkling that I was possibly being more than just a stand-in or photo-double.

HASSLEIN: Your portrayal of George McFly was so dead-on that even now, some fans still haven't figured out that it's not Crispin Glover hanging upside-down.

WEISSMAN: Yes, when I tell people that I played the role in the sequels, they often tell me, "No, that wasn't you." And I often have to point them to IMDb or show them photos of me on the set. I heard from a crew member that Bob and Robert had purposely written George hanging upside-down because they wanted to torture Crispin during the shoot, as payback for the headaches he caused on the filming of the first installment.

I daily went through three to four hours of make-up as George at ages 17, 47 and 77, and then was hung upside-down for all of the McFly household 2015 scenes. It was hard on my face and back. Lea, Tom, Michael and Elizabeth, we all had to be put into old-age prosthetics during the shoot. I was just the lucky one that got the bonus torture of being hung upside-down for often 20-plus hour days.

HASSLEIN: Was George a difficult character to step into?

WEISSMAN: It wasn't hard for me to "get" the young George McFly character, because Crispin had done such a fine job fleshing out his pacing and quirkiness. His behavior, walk, speak and mannerisms were brilliant, very idiosyncratic and fun to find. As you know, we re-created scenes from the first film from different angles, what had been done already, similar to doing lookalike work.

When I first stepped on set, there was awkwardness. Because they didn't have the original George, yet they had to have him, people were stand-offish or even were in denial of not having him. I had an awkward time often being called "Crispin" by director Bob Z. (Robert Zemekis) and others. The first time Michael J. Fox met me on set in the make-up of young George, he said, "Crispin isn't going to like this." I had heard also from Billy Zane that he and others were sure that Lea had grown to be very fond of Crispin, perhaps in a romantic way, and thus, when she had to kiss me, et al., in the prosthetics, she was very uncomfortable. And I was uncomfortable because there was the feeling of being a "scab," with all of the response I was getting.

To make matters worse, Spielberg came up to me during the shoot and said sarcastically, "So, Crispin, I see you got your million dollars after all." Which is a rude thing to say to your actor whom you are paying a few thousand a week (at that moment, I saw that I was saving production about $975,000). How would that make you feel…?

- See more at: http://hassleinbooks.blogspot.com/2...-down-actor-jeffrey.html#sthash.ULfX6X60.dpuf