A review by jo_kresge
We Don't Need Roads: The Making of the Back to the Future Trilogy by Caseen Gaines

5.0

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.