Back to the Future Trilogy (Robert Zemeckis, 1985-1990)

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flyonthewall2983
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Re: Back to the Future Trilogy (Robert Zemeckis, 1985-1990)

#201 Post by flyonthewall2983 » Sat Aug 01, 2020 5:21 pm

The vistaglide shots in the sequels have aged the worst for me. The second one would clearly have benefited from having Crispin Glover in it to help give more depth to the 1955 scenes, and perhaps whatever else would have been written for him to do. Still, having Biff kill off George in the alternate timeline was a needed twist to help hammer home the damage the sports almanac caused.

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Re: Back to the Future Trilogy (Robert Zemeckis, 1985-1990)

#202 Post by mfunk9786 » Mon Aug 03, 2020 4:03 pm

Thankfully there's an edition without a hoverboard or steelbooks or any other gimmicks, and it's only $42.99 on Target.com right now (guessing it may even be a misprice considering how it's priced on other sites)

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Re: Back to the Future Trilogy (Robert Zemeckis, 1985-1990)

#203 Post by beamish14 » Wed Aug 05, 2020 6:24 pm

The second film will be my perennial favourite. I truly think it's the greatest work of postmodern science fiction to ever be created within the Hollywood system.
It is endlessly rewatchable and rewarding.

One things has always bugged me about this trilogy, though. It takes place just 5 days before Halloween, and yet there are no decorations anywhere
or any sense that the town is prepping for it. Wouldn't you see SOMETHING in Marty's school hallways or in his neighborhood?

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Re: Back to the Future Trilogy (Robert Zemeckis, 1985-1990)

#204 Post by flyonthewall2983 » Thu Aug 06, 2020 4:03 pm

Amazon has the pre-order at 42.99 now


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Re: Back to the Future Trilogy (Robert Zemeckis, 1985-1990)

#206 Post by beamish14 » Mon Sep 13, 2021 3:15 pm

The musical adaptation premieres tonight in the West End

Interesting to note that the song lyrics are by Glen Ballard, co-author of Alanis Morissette's Jagged Little Pill, which she is currently touring for its diamond anniversary. It's like they say about everything old...


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Maltic
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Re: Back to the Future Trilogy (Robert Zemeckis, 1985-1990)

#208 Post by Maltic » Wed Apr 06, 2022 8:38 am

So, we got a new DeLorean before the hoverboard

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Re: Back to the Future Trilogy (Robert Zemeckis, 1985-1990)

#209 Post by therewillbeblus » Wed Apr 06, 2022 10:48 am

Technically we did get a hoverboard, it just wasn’t nearly as cool as promised by this series

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Re: Back to the Future Trilogy (Robert Zemeckis, 1985-1990)

#210 Post by beamish14 » Wed Apr 06, 2022 11:19 am

flyonthewall2983 wrote:
Tue Apr 05, 2022 7:54 pm
First look at the new DeLorean

In the decade preceding his death, John Z. DeLorean did try to get a new model off the ground. The DeLorean Motor Company of today also sells beautiful refurbished DMC-12’s.

I take slight umbrage at the article’s claim that the original model was essentially junk. Mechanically, they were flawed, but the cars got better as time progressed, and some of the latter ones made in 1982/83 are significant improvements on the earlier ones. People have to take into account that the company had the incredible task of training a completely neophyte automotive factory workforce in a country besieged by internal chaos at the time.

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Re: Back to the Future Trilogy (Robert Zemeckis, 1985-1990)

#211 Post by flyonthewall2983 » Wed Apr 06, 2022 7:05 pm

therewillbeblus wrote:
Wed Apr 06, 2022 10:48 am
Technically we did get a hoverboard, it just wasn’t nearly as cool as promised by this series
I’d rather have the Pitbull. Those boards don’t work on water, unless you’ve got power.

But really I’d rather have the car. I live near a well-known car museum and although I haven’t been inside for 30 years I think they still have the DMC I gawked at, during the time in my childhood I was just obsessed with cars. My dad watches those Mecum Car auctions on MotorTrend and occasionally I’ll check it out myself.

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Re: Back to the Future Trilogy (Robert Zemeckis, 1985-1990)

#212 Post by beamish14 » Wed Apr 06, 2022 7:23 pm

flyonthewall2983 wrote:
Wed Apr 06, 2022 7:05 pm
therewillbeblus wrote:
Wed Apr 06, 2022 10:48 am
Technically we did get a hoverboard, it just wasn’t nearly as cool as promised by this series
I’d rather have the Pitbull. Those boards don’t work on water, unless you’ve got power.

But really I’d rather have the car. I live near a well-known car museum and although I haven’t been inside for 30 years I think they still have the DMC I gawked at, during the time in my childhood I was just obsessed with cars. My dad watches those Mecum Car auctions on MotorTrend and occasionally I’ll check it out myself.

$25KUSD will get you a solid DeLorean in weekend drive condition. You could always rent it out through a car share service and hopefully get a return on your investment, too. You never know-there might be a local porn shoot or music video production crew that needs one, or just a kid going to prom.

Now if you have REAL money, you'll aim for one of the 3 gold-colored DeLoreans made by American Express


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Re: Back to the Future Trilogy (Robert Zemeckis, 1985-1990)

#214 Post by flyonthewall2983 » Fri Jun 02, 2023 8:50 pm

The sequence in the recent doc on Michael J Fox about the whirlwind his life would become starting with filming his part as the lead in a very successful tv show and a major Hollywood film at the same time, really brings it to bear what a special performance he puts in the first movie. Just charming and charismatic and physical enough that it is maybe lost in the finer points of fantasy the film delved in, how good he was and the right actor at the right time with the right material he was given.

The sequels come off better for chipping away at Marty’s shortcomings, less the way it’s been done in more serious teen movies but elemental to the way those movies function in terms of pushing the story instead of hitting the same beats. They do that too, and cleverly so but subtle as well.

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Re: Back to the Future Trilogy (Robert Zemeckis, 1985-1990)

#215 Post by flyonthewall2983 » Mon Sep 04, 2023 4:16 pm

Challenges are open but I cannot think of a more evil villain in a family friendly movie than Biff. I was bullied in school so I can tell how much Tom Wilson based the character in that same mindset as being so bullied himself. It’s a really fascinating theme in and of itself of American life that I don’t think has been nearly examined enough. Could be too painful to examine, as either survivors of that or as parents of bullied children.

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Re: Back to the Future Trilogy (Robert Zemeckis, 1985-1990)

#216 Post by beamish14 » Mon Sep 04, 2023 4:40 pm

flyonthewall2983 wrote:
Mon Sep 04, 2023 4:16 pm
Challenges are open but I cannot think of a more evil villain in a family friendly movie than Biff. I was bullied in school so I can tell how much Tom Wilson based the character in that same mindset as being so bullied himself. It’s a really fascinating theme in and of itself of American life that I don’t think has been nearly examined enough. Could be too painful to examine, as either survivors of that or as parents of bullied children.

Wilson’s performance as “Mad Dog” Tannen in the 3rd installment is probably the best from the entire series. He’s absolutely incredible in it.

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Re: Back to the Future Trilogy (Robert Zemeckis, 1985-1990)

#217 Post by flyonthewall2983 » Mon Sep 04, 2023 4:52 pm

I think he did most of if not all of his riding too. There weren’t many Westerns made on that budget around that time I believe so a lot of people turned up in front and behind the camera who were veterans of movies and tv shows. Quite ironically they were close to getting Reagan to play the mayor but this was right around the time he slowed down on public appearances.

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Re: Back to the Future Trilogy (Robert Zemeckis, 1985-1990)

#218 Post by colinr0380 » Mon Sep 04, 2023 6:57 pm

flyonthewall2983 wrote:
Mon Sep 04, 2023 4:16 pm
Challenges are open but I cannot think of a more evil villain in a family friendly movie than Biff. I was bullied in school so I can tell how much Tom Wilson based the character in that same mindset as being so bullied himself. It’s a really fascinating theme in and of itself of American life that I don’t think has been nearly examined enough. Could be too painful to examine, as either survivors of that or as parents of bullied children.
In some ways though, whilst being an obviously cartoonishly villainous character, Biff is arguably the most tragic figure of the entire trilogy! Especially the 'middle generation' Biff who runs through 1955 and 1985, although perhaps that is because we get more focus on them than the others. We always see the 1955 era Biff being undermined: by the nagging voice of the grandmother (significantly not mother?) as he is leaving the house; by the Principal giving him a dressing down at the Prom (ironically in the same way the Principal was doing to Marty himself at the very beginning of the first film. Although thankfully this does not get overdeveloped into a 'we're not so different, you & I'-type thing, but instead it feels more that Marty and Biff are trapped in occupying archetypal hero and villain roles throughout time, forever meeting eternally in a cycle of future generations. Generations that in an ideal world would have remained separate and blithely oblivious to how they were just recycling their plotlines over and over again until the time travel conceit both reveals the pattern of the universe and knottily complicates things); and even by his own future self in Part II, where the self-hatred (or rather hatred of past self) is allowed to get fully expressed!

The 1985 Biff is eventually fully neutered at the end of Part I, and that is presented as the best outcome for all involved, although we do see that initial flash of anger at a stranger touching the truck in the garage before he recognises Marty that suggests he is now having to repress his true self (and has been since being punched out thirty years before!), at least until his long festering resentment finally gets its moment to 'repair the timeline' as an old man in 2015. But whatever Biff's goals are, they are not going to end up making him particularly happy either - his pursuit of Lorraine in the first film is willfully blind to the fact that she is not interested in him (turning him into the Bluto-style villain who steals the girl just to give the initially wimpy Popeye some foe to 'man up' and prove himself against) and when we get to the alternate 1985 timeline where all of Biff's dreams have seemingly come true, Lorraine is just a trophy gangster's moll wife who utterly despises him, and mourns the man Biff killed in order to claim her as his prize. Even if you do superficially get everything you want out of life, others are still able to have their own feelings about the situation that may significantly differ from yours.

The 1885 and 2015 members of his lineage seem a bit more in control of things, perhaps because of being older and not quite as obliviously dumb as the 1955 Biff. But even there the 1885 Buford is bested in the end; and the older 2015 Biff even goes so far as to wipe himself out of the current timeline through the achievement of his goal to change the course of his life into something that favours him. So he seems to be destined by fate to never really 'win', even when he succeeds in his ambitions. And that's kind of tragic, even if the character is a bully, to be trapped as just the bad guy without any prospect of either yourself or any other member of your line of descent (i.e. 1885 Buford and younger 2015 generation Griff) ever being able to change that destiny. (But that may be reading too much into things! :) Or a suggestion that I have watched Wreck-It-Ralph too many times! :-k )

That suggests to me that the bullying comes about as a result of feeling powerless and (wrongly) responding by trying to push others around in turn. Which bullying of course inevitably has to fail because he's a character fundamentally in the wrong, and who never learns his lesson. Instead Biff (and Buford; and Griff) is always destined for that face full of manure whatever he does; whilst Marty is eventually able to overcome his own hot-headedness to escape that seemingly pre-destined car accident at the end of Part III and get to choose his own future by the end of the trilogy.

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Re: Back to the Future Trilogy (Robert Zemeckis, 1985-1990)

#219 Post by flyonthewall2983 » Thu Sep 07, 2023 7:11 pm

I’m also thinking more of the Biff from 55 to 85 who we first meet when he’s bitching to George about the car. That’s thirty years of Biff as the guy who wasn’t punched. Maybe that’s the saddest version. At least when we come back he owns his own business.

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Re: Back to the Future Trilogy (Robert Zemeckis, 1985-1990)

#220 Post by colinr0380 » Thu Sep 07, 2023 7:42 pm

Maybe that's part of the subtext as well. Biff at the start of the first film is still pushing George around even in middle age, still angry and needing to lord it over others (as he seems to have learned from his upbringing/education/maybe inherited destiny of his lineage). If instead of being the domineering guy proving he is unsuitable to manage other people Biff gets repressed and neutered into being a safe person to have around, that might end up working out well for him in the revised 1985 timeline because George, in his empowerment that leads to becoming a successful author that all stems from that fateful punch, is the type of person who instead of acting like a bully when he gets a little bit of power will put down his fist and be able to use his dominance in a more benign manner and let the spoils 'trickle down' into employing Biff to wash his cars for him.

But, as we see from the final moments of the first film, and Part II as a whole, even that 'perfect ending' does not change Biff into a completely different person. He's still Biff, and whilst 1985 is now as good as it can be for the McFlys, everything is inevitably resetting back to the same set of situations by 2015. The hegemonic battle for control never really ends, and there's always some sort of strange pull away from either side fully and permanently dominating the other back towards the middle, which seems to be the universe allowing for a limited amount of space for free will to assert itself, a place where either heroes or villains are given the opportunity to leave their own mark on the historical record, even if only for a moment.

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