A radio and TV click into life, we pan round a room to see tens of clocks all ticking loudly (in an affectionate homage to 'The Time Machine') a toaster pops up, a tin of dog food attached to a mechanical arm automatically falls into an already full bowl. Eric Stoltz stands in front of a huge amplifier which hums gently as he raises his plectrum slowly and then brings it down, letting out a mighty power chord which propels him across the room an into a set of shelves: 'rock and roll' he remarks . Ah, the classic opening sequence of Back to the Future...

OK so I'm sure you're shouting f**k off it wasn't Eric Stoltz, it's Michael J Fox every idiot knows that, who is this clown?

In the same alternate universe where Stuart Townsend is Aragorn, Marty McFly is ginger. Stoltz (like Townsend) spent a few weeks playing Marty before everyone involved realised their first choice (who at the time had been too busy with 'Family Ties' to even be shown the script) was the only choice. They started from scratch with the 23 year old Fox in the role, working every weekday on the 'Family Ties' set and nights and weekends on BTTF; and he still manages to look 17!

I'm making a certain assumption here that most of you will have seen this film and if not that you'll at least know the basic plot; and I thought you might be interested in a few choice bits of trivia (like the one above) rather than a typical review.

For instance did you know that the time machine was at one point going to be a refrigerator? Not quite as snazzy as a DeLorean, the reason they scrapped it (and I love this) was that Speilberg and Zemeckis were worried kids would get trapped in their fridges while attempting time travel.

We all know, however, you can't assume anything so...

Marty Mcfly (Michael J Fox) is your typical 1980's teenager he lives in the small town of Hill Valley with his fairly unsucessful and put-upon family. His father (Crispin Glover) is bullied by his boss, his elder brother works in a fast food restaurant, his sister can't get a man, his uncle's in jail and his mother (Lea Thompson) doesn't understand him because kids just didn't behave like that in her day. Untypically, Marty is friends with the town's most eccentric resident Dr. Emmett 'Doc' Brown (Zemeckis included the giant amp in the opening sequence of the film to explain this friendship). Doc (Christopher Lloyd) has invented a time machine out of a DeLorean, a flux capacitor and a shittload of plutonium.

"The way I see it, if you're gonna build a time machine into a car, why not do it with some style?"

So after an unfortunate incident with some Libyans, Marty acccidently sends himself back to 1955. Rather than keeping his head down and trying to work out a way to get home Marty manages to interfere with his parents first meeting and endangers his own existence. What follows is a race against time to get his parents to fall in love before Saturday night when lightning will hit the clock tower providing the 1.21 gigawatts of electricity to power the time machine; and give Marty his only chance to get 'back to the future'.

So that's the set-up, pitched somewhere between John Hughes and H.G. Wells. Zemeckis and Gale spent most of the early eighties trying to get someone to give them the money to make this film. Which is incredible as it's one of the sharpest, funniest, heartwarming and totally original film scripts ever written. Zemeckis as writer/director pours so much love into this film you can't help but notice it. The script and direction make the complexities and paradoxes of time travel a breeze without ever feeling like it's been dumbed down. It's also got an incredibly daring oedipal sub-plot, which was one of the major reasons so few studios wanted to touch it. Ironically, this was the centre of the film's eventual ad campaign; most people went to see the film on the basis of a TV spot where Fox utters the immortal line

"Wait a minute, Doc, are you trying to tell me that my mother has got the hots for me?"

Zemeckis said that the trouble with Stoltz was that he acted the part whereas Fox was the part. I can't help but agree, Michael J Fox is Marty Mcfly. His exuberance, comic timing, charm and charisma just leap off the screen. I must have been about 6 when I first saw the film and I was in love with Fox for the next 5 years. He gives a performance that's funny, touching and feels completely genuine, a revelation when you consider he's only 23. Fox is the heart of this film; but he's by no means its only acting talent.

Christopher Lloyd will always be 'Doc' Brown and it's a curse as much as a blessing. He gives such a memorable performance that's it's been difficult for him to top since, his only real noteworthy performance in the years that followed being as Uncle Fester in the 'Addam's Family' films.

Thompson and Glover have the unenviable task of playing both a couple in their late forties and teenagers. Thompson is 23 (a week and a half older than her on screen son) and Glover a mere 20 years old. As a child I never even questioned that they weren't the ages they are meant to be in either 1985 or 1955. This is really to their credit as the 'old' make up isn't really that convincing; but it doesn't matter, the family dynamic they set up in the opening scenes of the film is so well done they could have been wearing no make up and I still wouldn't find it odd to hear Fox calling them Mom and Dad.

Glover is so endearing in his teen role, so achingly naive it is impossible not to feel a swell of joy when he finally lays out the tyrannical Biff Tannen (Thomas F. Wilson). Thompson has a ball playing the minx that Lorraine Mcfly (nee Baines) turns out to have been in the 50's. The scenes with her pursuing Fox are consistently funny and will have you wondering whether your mum was as innocent as she claimed to be way back when.

For a sci-fi comedy the film is surprisingly light on special effects. It doesn't need many and it adds integrity to the story that Zemeckis doesn't go over the top. The action sequences work best (most notably the skateboard pursuit) without them. However with Speilberg as Executive Producer ILM's work on the special effects that do crop up are state of the art. State of the art in 1985 which does mean some of them look a little hokey nowadays, especially Marty's disappearing hand which Zemeckis can no longer bear to watch; but you can't fault a film made in 1985 for having slightly dated special effects, it's not as if they had a time machine is it?

The soundtrack mixes 80's and 50's tunes very effectively and Huey Lewis was Oscar nominated for his theme to the film 'The Power of Love' unusually not containing the film's title. Marty's performance of 'Jonny B. Goode' is a real showstopper which nearly didn't make it into the film's final cut. On the musical trivia side, Huey Lewis makes an uncredited cameo as the High School Band Audition Judge who tells Marty's band 'The Pinheads' (playing a version of Lewis' song 'The Power of Love') that they're just 'too loud'.

This film is doubly nostalgic today; not only can we relish Zemeckis' technicolour vision of the fifties, but also look back on the eighties with a smile. Despite a few pieces of colourful language and the slightly disturbing sub-plot this is a very innocent film. Zemeckis escapes the unbelievably awkward situation created by Marty's plan (feel up mother in car, have father come and beat me up - which isn't working as his mum is more than up for it) by having Lorraine declare with a look of horror on her face

"It's like kissing...my brother"

problem solved, pure genius. It's quite simply a joy to watch and there's enough going on, on so many levels that I'd recommend it to the whole family (as long as your not prudish about your kids hearing a few mild swear words - and if you are why? Maybe you should take a look at Lorraine and remember what you were like at their age).

If you haven't seen it watch it right now: If you have watch it again you've probably forgotten how good it is.

“Physicists propose that two alternate histories, two equally valid realities, could exist side by side: the one you know, and the one in which you don’t exist. Time itself may have many potential dimensions, despite the fact that we are condemned to experience only one of them.”
---Carl Sagan

cool. good work...

Ahem, Judge Doom in 'Who Framed Roger Rabbit?', as well as his memorable cameo in Malcolm in The Middle as...Doc Brown Wilkinson. Blast!

Taxi!

Nice job, Zoe.

EDIT: D'oh!

I think you've proved my point. Type casting's a bitch.



'Taxi' finished two years before BTTF was made.

His appearence as "Doc" in Spin City to reunite the two, was the one cameo, that made the whole thing lovable.

It always botherecd me about the plot hole.

No, I don't mean all thde tortuous time-travel paradoxes, but the Libyan terrorists. In 1985, they crash into a little hut, and that's all you see, but the next day (BTTF3) you have Marty driving round, clearly not worried that there's a van-load of terrorists who tried to kill him, fairly groggy, very pissed off, and in the Lone Pine shopping mall carpark...

Wasn't there something about them being arrested? I have an image of a newspaper with a headline saying that.

That was Back to the Future 2 involving Griff and his hoverboard gang.

This isn't a plot hole, it's just something that's not explained in the movie. BTTF is a work of fiction so there are lots of ways this could be explained. The Libyans crash into a photohut and at least two of them are standing up (one has his head through the sun roof) when they hit it. That's going to cause some serious injuries if not death.

Or the van could explode just after Marty has travelled back in time.

Or the police could turn up minutes later and arrest them all.

Just because we don't see what happens doesn't mean it's a plot hole, and as for Marty not being concerned - I think he had bigger things on his mind by then.

The holes don't start emerging until BTTF2 really. The first one works beautifully.





So wrong.

Those are fantastic!

I've never seen any pictures of Stoltz in the Marty role, thanks for that Whitey.

Found a bunch over here. They obviously shot quite a bit more than I realised.

Wonder what the film would have been like had they finished it with Stoltz?

There's more shots of Stoltz here, too.

ED: Or not. Something's up wth my 'net connection.

I knew he'd done a few weeks filming and it was a substancially reshoot, but from those it looks like they'd shot an awful lot.

This is hysterical.



I feel bad for Eric, it must be disappointing to be replaced. I wonder if any of the footage of Stuart Townsend as Aragorn exists anywhere?

It must be shit, especially when its so obvious that the thing is going to be massive (as in the case of both this and LOTR). The unsung heor of the BTTF trilogy for me is Tom Wilson as the various Tannens. He nails them all and pretty much saves the less focused third film as Buford 'Mad Dog' Tannen. Shame his career's in the toilet. He could quite easily have been one of those "it's that guy" guys.

He doesn't sound to bitter in the following interview; at least he's retained a sense of humour about it:



This is quite sweet (from another interview):



It sounds as if he knows it was the right decision on Zemickis and Gale's part, though in a funny way it must hurt more when you're just not delivering the performance your director wants. Townsend was apparently just a difficult cunt who didn't realise he was replaceable.

Tom Wilson's still been quite busy, though, according to the IMDB:

Thomas F. Wilson

Did it take you 21 years to write this review or did you come from the future?

I began it at the age of four via the medium of crayon, but it's taken me this long to type it up.