Our family recently spent a long weekend introducing our 12-year old son to the Robert Zemeckis classic Back to the Future trilogy. On a weekday we started with the original 1985 film that made Michael J. Fox a star and secured the promise of Zemeckis’career. I have always had a lot of affection for the series and think it’s a great case study in screenwriting. Part of it is my baby boomer nostalgia for the 1950s which is mostly the rosy memories of a toddler and the innocent times we associate with childhood. Another part is the theme of choices and consequences that demonstrates the ramifications of our actions. The films have a comic zaniness and delightful convolutions to their plots that plays fair and bears repeated viewings quite well.
I had heard that Tom F. Wilson, who plays various versions of Biff the bully in all three films, was a devoted Catholic believer and so I did a google search and found his website, a rather extensive place that demonstrates Wilson’s multifacted talent: stand-up comic, composer, singer, painter, writer, worship leader and speaker, as well as an actor. And a husband and father of four kids. Wow.
To finish off the weekend, we went back to the past with a screening of George Pal’s original version of The Time Machine (1960). Australian leading man Rod Taylor plays George H. Wells in this classic take on one of the seminal science fiction novels of H.G. Wells. Alan Young (Mr. Ed, the voice of Scrooge McDuck in Ducktales) plays David Filby, George’s friend who understands better than anyone George’s need to explore the future.
The DVD of the film had a making-of feature unlike any I have seen. It’s an hour documentary on the making of the actual time machine prop and how fans of the film had found and restored the relic of their cherished movie. Hosted by Taylor more than thirty years after the film’s production, it ends with Taylor and Young in character reunited when the time machine returns to George’s laboratory just as David is closing it up. A poignant epilogue to the original story, it is a gift to fans of the film.
If you’re tired of the disappointing summer blockbusters, you might want to take a time travel journey of your own this weekend and revisit or discover some great storytelling. For what are classic movies but little time capsules containing a world of entertainment?
Funny. I spent last weekend doing almost the same thing.
Keith and I got to talking about great movies from the 80s, and the Back to the Future trilogy came up. I mentioned that I thought the second one got a bit confusing at parts if you didn’t pay attention, and he said that he didn’t remember ever seeing it. (He has a severe case of sequelphobia. If it’s a sequel, he probably hasn’t seen it. Except LOTR. He’s seen all of those lol.)
So we rented the trilogy and watched the first one. About 20 minutes in he said that he didn’t remember seeing ANY of it! So I basically introduced him to it for the first time.
I’d love to see the featurette of Time Machine. Though, neither movie was as good as the book, but hey! What movie is? (I ADORE Alan Young by the way. I loved Mr. Ed, I loved Scrooge McDuck, and I adore Hiram Flaversham (Great Mouse Detective is the most under appreciated Disney Movie ever!!!!! SEE IT NOW!) Of course, one cannot mention the amazing works of Mr. Young without talking about “The Alan Young Show” and his great work on the best radio series ever created: Focus on the Family’s Adventures in Odyssey. (Which I’m actually listening to now like I do every night!)
That last line tells it all. Classic movies are the time capsuls of culture, and not only culture itself, but history. Where else can you rent a DVD of Casablance, and see it as your grandparents did, with the “Buy War Bonds” commercial and everything!
Well, I’m off to cure Keith’s sequelphobia. I just found out that he’s never seen Toy Story 2.
I hope Benjamin enjoyed the films. My dad told Keith “You’re not a Snyder unless you’ve seen the Back to the Future movies at least once a year!”
Later!
Comment by Ashley — August 16, 2006 @ 7:25 pm |