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3.81 AVERAGE
3.81 AVERAGE
informative
medium-paced
Extremely well-structured and researched!
It’s a good book. I have no idea why it took me over a month to read it since it’s an easy read with interesting anecdotes. I definitely didn’t know about the drama on Part II with Crispin Glover or the stunt that resulted in Cheryl Wheeler getting seriously injured. But it would also be a stretch to say that the making-of these movies was incredibly dramatic, and truth be told, that drama tends to arise from flops with disastrous productions rather than here where there were significant obstacles, but all three movies are good and continue to be well regarded.
I read this because I’m a diehard fan of the trilogy, so it was nice to learn some things I didn’t know about these movies.
I read this because I’m a diehard fan of the trilogy, so it was nice to learn some things I didn’t know about these movies.
This book was incredible. At first there were a few inconsistencies in the author's writing style that as a journalist I was bothered by, but I quickly overcame the minor annoyances and grew to love the narrative. The best part was when they talked about Eric Stoltz's first time walking through the 1985 Hill Valley town square and it being dark and overcast, and my favorite paragraph in the book follows about a chapter later after Michael J. Fox took over as Marty McFly. "As Michael J. Fox stepped out into the Hill Valley square, with bright orange vest, the clock tower high above, and period cars driving down the street, someone on the production team called the director's attention upward. Zemeckis looked up to the bright blue sky. The most beautiful clouds he had ever captured on film were suspended above the back lot, as if ordered out of a catalog and hung by the art department. In and of itself, the weather would have been enough to please the director, but there was added satisfaction in this moment. Fox, in his bright costume and with equally bright landscape behind him, was a marked departure for the footage Zemeckis and his editors had screened months earlier." I don't know why this part struck me so much but I finished that paragraph with a lump in my throat. It's almost as if the heavens opened up in approval of the new McFly, the RIGHT McFly. This book is fantastic, of course the information contained in this book dates back more than 30 years to "The Bobs" inception of the story, so there's no telling how accurate the facts are but the author goes to great lengths to piece the story together through first hand interview with the cast, crew, and The Bobs themselves, as well as using and citing solid sources taken from period newspapers, magazines, videos, etc. If you, like me, love BTTF you will enjoy this book. It reads more like a narrative than an after-the-fact revision of the facts. Just a great read.
I was fifteen when I saw Back to the Future in the theater for the first time, and I've watched the trilogy almost as many times as I've seen The Princess Bride. Naturally, I was drawn to this book and requested a copy from NetGalley.
The best parts about the book are the cover and the Introduction. It goes pretty much downhill for me from there. Maybe I just had grand expectations. Or maybe I was too eager to find out cool behind-the-scenes info/trivia that would make me love these movies even more (as if that were possible).
But, no such luck.
Instead, the information revealed was dry, haphazardly written, and frankly, quite depressing. The first chapter, "Think, McFly, Think" is supposed to be about Michael J. Fox stepping into the role of Marty McFly (I think), but it digresses into a list of films that the directors of BTTF had previously worked on, but wait! Here's a blurb about Steven Spielberg. Now, back to the boring list of films and people they knew and how they felt about their other films and all the negative crap that happened. Who cares?!
And that's just the first chapter.
Every chapter has a catchy title and a date, both of which are almost irrelevant to the stuff that's actually in the chapter. Why use a specific date when the content is all over the place?
2. Erased From Existence
Thursday, January 3, 1985
Back in mid-August, when Meredith Baxter was put on bed rest as her due date neared, Family Ties went on a brief hiatus . . .
Maybe other readers actually enjoy reading about all the negative crap that went into the films, but bashing Crispin Glover, mentioning the rest of the actors' negative reactions to the George and Jennifer replacements, and the 'film is falling apart' scenarios left a sour taste in my mouth and tainted my view of the movies.
I expected a more light-hearted, uplifting history full of hilarious antics, how they actually captured famous scenes, dog trivia, and inside jokes.
The best parts about the book are the cover and the Introduction. It goes pretty much downhill for me from there. Maybe I just had grand expectations. Or maybe I was too eager to find out cool behind-the-scenes info/trivia that would make me love these movies even more (as if that were possible).
But, no such luck.
Instead, the information revealed was dry, haphazardly written, and frankly, quite depressing. The first chapter, "Think, McFly, Think" is supposed to be about Michael J. Fox stepping into the role of Marty McFly (I think), but it digresses into a list of films that the directors of BTTF had previously worked on, but wait! Here's a blurb about Steven Spielberg. Now, back to the boring list of films and people they knew and how they felt about their other films and all the negative crap that happened. Who cares?!
And that's just the first chapter.
Every chapter has a catchy title and a date, both of which are almost irrelevant to the stuff that's actually in the chapter. Why use a specific date when the content is all over the place?
2. Erased From Existence
Thursday, January 3, 1985
Back in mid-August, when Meredith Baxter was put on bed rest as her due date neared, Family Ties went on a brief hiatus . . .
Maybe other readers actually enjoy reading about all the negative crap that went into the films, but bashing Crispin Glover, mentioning the rest of the actors' negative reactions to the George and Jennifer replacements, and the 'film is falling apart' scenarios left a sour taste in my mouth and tainted my view of the movies.
I expected a more light-hearted, uplifting history full of hilarious antics, how they actually captured famous scenes, dog trivia, and inside jokes.
An absolute must read for anyone who is a fan of the series! Back to the Future is my favorite movie of all time, and reading this was amazing. It had so many fun facts that I didn't know about before, including photos from set. Now I can rewatch the movies and notice all sorts of things I didn't notice before.
As a Back to the Future fan I loved this book for its insights into the making of one of the greatest movies and trilogies of all times. Even if I wasn’t a fan, it was entertaining and had some revelations about movie making in general.
A good book with some decent behind the scenes stories. It felt like the later movies got the short stick, however. Part 3 barely registers for all of the Interviewed participants talking about how much fun they had.
There's 1.21 gigawatts of information packed into this little Pepsi Free sized book.
The most compelling parts include:
*A detailed account of a stunt gone horribly wrong in Part II.
*The bad deal Crispin Glover's replacement got--mistreated on set then tricked into fueling Crispin Glover's lawsuit.
*Why Eric Stolz was recast
*Backstory on Claudia Wells and Elizabeth Shue
This book is packed with stories and interviews about the making of this movie trilogy. At times, while not afraid to document negative things, it feels too promotional, but it is worthwhile, fun book. Also it has color photos in the middle!
I found myself reading a lot of entertainment based click bait articles on Facebook. I wanted to stop, so I tried reading this entertainment journalism book. It worked, I scrolled less and felt better--as I always do reading a physical book.
I found this at the Loussac Library, which is part of the Anchorage Public Library.
The most compelling parts include:
*A detailed account of a stunt gone horribly wrong in Part II.
*The bad deal Crispin Glover's replacement got--mistreated on set then tricked into fueling Crispin Glover's lawsuit.
*Why Eric Stolz was recast
*Backstory on Claudia Wells and Elizabeth Shue
This book is packed with stories and interviews about the making of this movie trilogy. At times, while not afraid to document negative things, it feels too promotional, but it is worthwhile, fun book. Also it has color photos in the middle!
I found myself reading a lot of entertainment based click bait articles on Facebook. I wanted to stop, so I tried reading this entertainment journalism book. It worked, I scrolled less and felt better--as I always do reading a physical book.
I found this at the Loussac Library, which is part of the Anchorage Public Library.
I am a big fan of Back to the Future and so it was fun to visit from a different angle. Most of the stuff I learned was a bummer (stunt accidents, shortcuts that seemed thoughtful but weren't, the reasons Crispin Glover wasn't in the sequels), but a few things were kind of fun. I never knew there was another actor cast for the part of Marty McFly. When they redid things with Michael J. Fox, they decided to change his girlfriend because of height disparity. That girlfriend was Malora Hardin (who was later in The Office, which seems significant because it was that book that inspired me to read this one). She seemed cool about it.
The final bits about the theme park rides and the fan clubs really made the whole thing peter out for me.
The final bits about the theme park rides and the fan clubs really made the whole thing peter out for me.