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| An example of Back to the Future being sneaky awesome. |
Folks, you might have heard this already, but we are finally
in the “present” of the
Back to the
Future series. The second installment is set in 2015, and while we don’t
yet have those self-lacing Nikes or hoverboards, I’m positive they’re right
around the corner! As a result, you should check out that second movie – it’s
the oddest of the three, while still being really good. My power rankings go 1
> 2 > 3; I find the third to be just “more of the same” from the
perspective of the series, whereas the second at least does some weird and
confusingly fun stuff with the time travel.
I recently re-watched the trilogy, because it’s awesome. (I
mean, I don’t really need any other reason beyond that, do I?) However, it’s
also because there is always something new to notice, because director Robert Zemeckis
and writer-producer Bob Gale took so much care with the details.
Two prime examples: When Marty goes back to Hill Valley in 1955,
he knocks over one of the trees at Twin Pines Mall. Also, when Doc Brown is
trying to rig up the lightning bolt at the end of the movie, he slips and
breaks some of the stone ledge. When Marty is returned to 1985, the name of the
mall has changed to Lone Pine Mall, and at the end of the first movie AND in
the second movie, the ledge where Doc Brown fell from is still broken.
If you’re as nuts about the movie trilogy as I am, then I
heartily recommend that you poke around the Internet and on the DVD / Blu-ray
collections for the commentaries on them. There are multiple commentaries with Gale
and producer Neil Canton, and there are three Q&A sessions – one on each
movie, with questions about the overall series sprinkled in – with some really
interesting insider stuff, from Gale and Zemeckis.
Famously, Crispin Glover didn’t want to participate in the
second and third movies, and they instead re-used footage from the first film.
The producers and studio were later sued over this and lost, I believe. In the
commentaries, Zemeckis gets into why they couldn’t reach a deal with Glover –
he wanted the same salary as Michael J. Fox and Christopher Lloyd, as well as a
bunch of creative control they even the top two stars didn’t have.
Also, contrary to rumors, there were never plans to do a
fourth movie, or something like “Marty McFly and Dinosaurs.” Eric Stoltz was
first cast as Marty, but he never was the first choice – Fox was. When they
tried to do it without Fox and with Stoltz, they noticed the movie just didn’t
work, and the initial effort and the time they wasted was actually the only way
they were able to get Fox. Because they had the delay, Meredith Baxter-Birney
was able to return to the cast of Family
Ties, and that gave Fox justttt enough wiggle room to film both Family Ties and Back to the Future.
Also also – Jennifer, Marty’s girlfriend, was actually cast
three different times. The original actress was
Melora Hardin and picked
to match Stoltz, who is taller than Fox. She was fired at the same time as
Stoltz.
Claudia Wells
played Jennifer in the first film, but she was a very minor character, and
featured in only two or three scenes. As a result, the part was re-cast after
the first movie, and Elisabeth Shue was chosen.
You don’t need to feel too bad for Hardin though, since she
was Jan in the U.S. version of The Office,
and Wells… Well, she didn’t really do much after Back to the Future. But still, she’s eminently available for all of
the reunion stuff, whereas Shue is not. Speaking of future Future stuff, the characters do belong to Zemeckis and Gale, but
the name belongs to Universal. So unfortunately, there is a risk that there
could be a reboot without the original creators or actors at some point.
There are two plot holes in the movie, one that the
producers picked up, and one that they didn’t. In some scenes of the movie,
Marty’s jacket zippers are up, and then, in the next scene they’re down. This
is just an editing error.
However, the second one has been noticed by Cracked and Dave
Dameshek, and I wrote about it based on their comments
way
back when. Specifically, it’s never commented upon by Marty’s parents that,
wow, he looks EXACTLY like their old friend Calvin Klein that got them together
in the 1950s! It seems like an odd thing for them to forget. (Not a plot hole,
but just kind of cool – At one point, there are four DeLoreans in 1955. For
more info, check
here.)
Anyway, I know it’s a very controversial opinion, but y’all
should check out these movies.
Much of the info and
some of the photos for this entry come from the excellent Back to the Future wiki. The
photos of the actresses are common ones taken from The Internet and IMDB /
Wikipedia.
