Great Movies- Back to the Future

Forty years ago,

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James Tolkan falsely accused Al Pacino of homosexuality in "Serpico"(and ran 'Numbers' for him in "Dick Tracy"), antagonized Tom Cruise in "Top Gun", and lived to be 94 years old. There are no small roles, only small actors, and Principal Gerald Strickland was the peak of a character acting career that began in the '60s. He made the most of his minutes in all three films. With zero encouragement from the bald bastard, Marty loudly and unsuccessfully auditions with his band The Pinheads before an unamused Huey Lewis, an inside joke.

At least Marty has a hot girlfriend(Claudia Wells) to make him feel better, and the local aerobics girls just remind him how badly he want to go camping with Jennifer by the lake for the weekend. Ahh, young love. But his mother never did anything like that when she was his age. Bob Gale's airtight screenplay has often been held up as something for young writers to aspire to. The enthusiastic clock tower collection lady() drops in with a flyer and some important exposition. She gets a quarter. Most movies have to choose between a soundtrack and a traditional score. Thanks to "The Power of Love", we get the best of both worlds.

Crispin Glover had appeared in the fourth "Friday the 13th" and a season 2 episode of "Family Ties"("Birthday Boy") with Fox when he landed the role that's sure to be mentioned first in his obituary. We'll get into the quirky actor's complicated relationship with "Back to the Future", but he's fantastic as George McFly. Tom Wilson recently called his performance the heart of the film. Marty's milquetoast dad just isn't good at confrontations(or much else it seems), even when his lifelong frenemy Biff Tannen borrows his car and totals it.

A boozy 47 year old Lorraine recalls her unlikely high school courtship with George. I love that Marty only has one line at the dinner table("Uncle Jailbird Joey"), letting Lea Thompson have the stage for some important exposition, under a convincing Ken Chase make-up job. Wendie Jo Sperber("I Wanna Hold Your Hand") and Marc McClure("Superman I-IV") make the most of their limited screentime as Marty's siblings Linda and Dave. George's legendary laugh caps off three minutes of character-building- "The Honeymooners" was heavily syndicated for decades.

Pepsi-Free foreshadowing.

Here we have Michael J. Fox's first week of work(mid-January 1985) as Marty McFly in the parking lot of the Twin Pines Mall which was actually the Puente Hills Mall in City of Industry, California. We all know the story- Zemeckis filmed with Eric Stoltz for seven weeks in November-December 1984 and had 70% of the film in the can before making a dramatic and unprecedented decision days before Christmas. Stoltz and his young Method intensity("Call me Marty") wasn't funny. With Spielberg convincing Sid Sheinberg, a desperate plea was made to "Family Ties" boss Gary David Goldberg to reconsider the availability of Alex P. Keaton. A 23 year old Fox was willing to endure sleep deprivation and juggle both roles for three months in one of the most consequential casting calls of all time.

It's interesting how Marty's wardrobe completely changed for Fox. Eric's talents can be seen in "Mask", "Some Kind of Wonderful", and "Pulp Fiction". It would be nice to see his McFly footage released someday. Let's go, Bob Gale. How about the 50th anniversary?

Christopher Lloyd is a manic delight as "Doc" Emmett L. Brown. "Professor Brown", as the character was known in the first draft, doesn't have the same ring to it, to give Sid Sheinberg some credit. Has any actor ever embraced a role more?

Doc's plan to vacation in the early 21st Century and check out the advancements of mankind(and some World Series results, planting a seed for "Part II") is postponed by the Libyan terrorists that he procured the plutonium from.

Need more evidence that "BTTF" and "The Wizard of Oz" have had a similar effect on audiences? Marty hits a scarecrow leftover from Halloween, a clever nod to the 1939 classic.

Huey Lewis and the News released a #1 album called "Sports" in September 1983. How cool is that?