I Love this movie! Back to the Future fan Stephen Clark
If you have been reading this site for some time, you might recall that Back to the Future is one of my all-time favorite movies. Which is why this movie is a shoe-in for I Love This Movie! I contacted Stephen Clark, webmaster of the great Back to the Future-website BTTF, who responded with some very interesting answers to my many questions about those three wonderful movies, the closing of the popular theme park ride and whether or not the time/space continuum was actually ever broken in the three movies.
Q: What is it about Back to the Future that makes it so special to you?
A: BACK TO THE FUTURE is one of those rare franchises that appeals to almost everyone of every age, catering to everyone's sense of enjoyment and which does not shut out any of its audience. Since it appeals to sci-fi fans, western fans, nostalgia fans, and just about any fan of any genre, it has a very broad-based appeal. You'd be hard pressed to find someone who didn't like at least one of the films! But for me personally at the time, it was all about time travel.
The first time
A: I saw it opening weekend on July 5, 1985 -- just four days before I popped the question to my girlfriend at a Rick Springfield concert. My wife's been, characteristically, a very, very patient & understanding woman over the past couple of decades!
The film had a Saturday night sneak peek in some cities across the U.S. on June 28th, and then opened nationally on July 3rd. I thought it was a brilliant film and quite entertaining upon my first viewing. I was already a fan of Michael J. Fox's, but I was pleasantly surprised when I discovered that Christopher Lloyd was also in the film. Having been a huge fan of TAXI, I had somehow missed the fact that he was also in the film. Looking back now, I have no idea how I managed to not recognize him in the trailer, nor to miss his name in the credits, as I recall my glee upon recognizing his voice & face immediately as he emerged from the DeLorean towards the beginning of the film.
Q: What did you think when you had first seen the movie? Did you realize immediately that this movie was going to take up such a big part of your life?
A: No, I really had no idea. At the time, I thought it to be a classic Spielberg production and enjoyed Michael's performance enough to catch it a second time a few weeks later. I had always been a fan of good time travel stories and felt that this one ranked among the best I had ever seen at the time, but that's as far as my thrill for the film went.
That is, until the film came out on home video for the first time a year later. Upon my discovery of the brilliantly written article "The Other Marty McFly?" in the July 1986 issue of STARLOG magazine (written by Disney Imagineer Bruce Gordon), I was instantly hooked. As I read Bruce's descriptions of all these intricate little details in the film that I had inadvertently missed in theaters, I simply had to rent the film and watch it again. And again. And again. My fiancé simply couldn't understand why I kept rewinding and watching the film over & over looking for details, such as a mysterious figure in the mall parking lot scene, the changing of the name of the mall at the end of the film, the painstaking continuity of broken concrete ledges on the clocktower, the location of the torn pieces of Doc's letter, and so forth. So by the time the first sequel came out in 1989, I’m afraid my "geek switch" was permanently switched on.
Q: What made you decide to start a website for the movie?
A: The history of BTTF.com dates back to the summer of 1992 when I began operating a fan club for the series. I was, of course, a huge fan of the movies and had been since it all began in 1985, but after a trip to Orlando in early 1992 to Universal Studios Florida to take my maiden flight in a DeLorean time machine via BACK TO THE FUTURE...THE RIDE, I slipped into full geek-mode. I began constantly calling the studio trying to get my hands on a copy of the Ride's IMAX footage, and by total chance somehow found myself transferred one day to BACK TO THE FUTURE Writer/Producer Bob Gale's office. At the time, he still had an office on Universal's backlot while he was executive producing & directing CBS' BACK TO THE FUTURE Saturday morning live-action/animation series. Soon afterward, I began publishing a quarterly magazine (the "Hill Valley Telegraph") which grew to 500+ subscribers worldwide until late 1996. Going online was the natural progression of those earlier efforts -- allowing me to publish news instantaneously to my audience instead of my subscribers getting news only four times a year, most of which was already out of date by the time they received it.
Beyond the first movie
A: The sequels are what got me where I am today. I saw BTTF2 on opening night and knew upfront that both sequels had been filmed back-to-back, however, I had no idea that BTTF2 would end on a cliffhanger – I was as surprised as everyone! And trust me, that six month period between releases was the longest half-year of my life! I read everything I could get my hands on during that time while trying to find out what would happen in the final chapter of the series. I even participated in some of very early BBS online discussions long before the internet took off in the mid-90s, making contact with fans all over the world who shared the same passion as I did for these movies!
Q: Do you see the three movies really as one whole movie, one big storyline, or do you have a clear preference for one of the parts?
A: I've always thought that the entire trilogy plays like one big six-hour epic film. It's really hard to categorize the sequels out as separate films since they really do not stand easily on their own. While you'd be hard-pressed to find a month out of the year when there's not at least one of the films playing somewhere on cable, I often wonder what today's first-time viewers think about the series if they see either one of the sequels first without having seen the others.
In my opinion, seeing the films with an audience in a theater makes for a much more enjoyable experience than watching them on cable or home video. Most recently, I saw BACK TO THE FUTURE at the 20th Anniversary screening & cast reunion at the ArcLight in Hollywood (February 2005). In August 2006, I returned to Hollywood to attend the “Double Back” screening of the sequels at Mann’s Chinese. In both cases, there really is no substitution for seeing these films on the big screen with an audience that is already familiar with the films, laughing & clapping at all the appropriate times. And the latter experience was truly unique – Christopher Lloyd himself sat in the audience to watch the sequels with the audience! I can’t tell you how surreal that was to look over my left shoulder to see one of my favorite actors sitting one row behind me, while we both were enjoying his most famous performance on the screen in front of us!
Back to other futures
A: Well, I wouldn’t say that there have been a “lot” of projects after the films – at least not nearly as many as I’d like there to be. The Animated Series was nice while it lasted, and I enjoy it to this day, but the majority of fans do not consider it to be up to the same level of quality as the films. They’re enjoyable and I’m glad we have them, but they could have been so much more had everyone from the films come back to provide their voices as had originally been planned and announced.
Q: Have you ever been on the theme park ride? If so, what did you think of that?
A: I am quite fond of The Ride, and have always counted it a true continuation and extension of the BTTF saga. I’m really quite peeved at the present time regarding Universal Orlando’s decision to permanently close it at the end of this month (March 30). I know it is all just business to Universal, but this decision gives the unfortunate appearance that they absolutely have no loyalty to their fans nor to one of their top franchises. Its closure is a real sore spot with me right now, and I really don’t know how to truly express in print what I’m feeling at the moment beyond the feeling of betrayal.
Q: Do you think the Back to the Future movies are the best thing in the careers of the principal actors? Or are there other movies they made that you also like?
A: Like most fans, I came into BTTF already quite familiar with Michael J Fox (FAMILY TIES) and Christopher Lloyd (TAXI). I’m pretty much a fan of anything Michael J. Fox, Christopher Lloyd, Tom Wilson, Lean Thompson and Mary Steenburgen do. There are films & television series that I like more than others, but I always try to support anything they do outside of BTTF.
Continuum
Q: Have you, while watching the movie, ever analyzed whether or not all the stuff relating to the time-space continuum was correct? Or have you found any errors in all the time travelling?
A: Oh, I wrote countless articles back in the ‘90s about the accuracy of time travel in the BTTF universe. I have always been under the guise that any so-called “errors” could easily be explained with assumptions that can be made based upon data & information we can glean from the dialogue & events in the films. I’m a huge Bob Gale fan, and I know that he painstakingly diagramed each and every possible twist & turn to remain faithful to the time travel rules that he & Bob Zemeckis set forth in the original film. I’ve never found any “errors” in the trilogy’s logic, and have always been able to explain any proposed errors using events & spoken dialogue – either seen on film or implied.
Q: There has been talk of a fourth movie. What is your opinion on that?
A: I go back & forth on the subject. For years, I was the top supporter of having a fourth film. It was my top priority, and I spent endless hours sending letters of support to Universal. But after Michael announced his illness in 1998 and the years since that time, I’ve come to the realization that it’s just simply not going to happen. Indiana Jones fans are finally getting their fourth chapter next year. Bruce Willis fans will get to see him hit the streets once again this summer in yet another Die Hard film, but alas, it was apparently never meant to be in the cards for BTTF fans to get another sequel.
I have no doubt whatsoever that some day, Universal will dust off the property and give it new life with an all new cast via a remake. But right now, it doesn’t appear that this franchise is topping any of their “to-do” lists…
Q: Every time I watch the Back to the Future movies (and I watch them a lot), I'm still amazed at how inventive they are, and how ingenious the whole trilogy is put together. Do you still feel a sense of wonder when you watch the movies?
A: The film is still praised & hailed even today for its film-making professionalism & quality, solid storytelling & writing, and perfect dead-on casting. Robert Zemeckis emerged as one of Hollywood's most successful directors unafraid of taking a few risks, and pioneering some of the industry's coolest gadgetry along the way. Michael J. Fox went on to continue his domination of comedic television on ABC's SPIN CITY until his illness sidelined him (only temporarily, I pray). And Huey Lewis is still packing venues while singing about "The Power of Love".
It's like they always say -- it all starts with the story. Story, story, story! BACK TO THE FUTURE is known for a lot of things, such as turning Michael J. Fox into a movie star and making it cool to own a DeLorean, but you can't deny the fact that the script is almost 100% flawless in its setups & payoffs. Bob Gale & Robert Zemeckis were completely in the zone and wrote what has been considered one of the best scripts in Hollywood history. Years ago, I had heard there were several script writing courses taught in film schools which used Part I's script as part of the curriculum. I assume those reports weren't urban legends.
To read more about Back to the Future, visit Stephen's excellent site www.bttf.com.
In the pictures, taken from Stephen's MySpace site, you see him with several of the leading actors from the movies (to be specific, Lea Thompson, Tom Wilson and Christopher Lloyd).
wow i luv this movie micheal j fox is so cute i think it should of one an award for efects back in 1985
Posted by: sammie | July 10, 2007 at 04:58 AM
HI!!! BACK TO THE FUTURE´S FANS... IM FROM ARGENTINA... AND WHEN I SAW THE FILM BY FIRST TIME I LOVE IT... ITS THE BEST FILMS 80´S... IAM 19 YEARS OLD... AND I WANNA MAKE FRIENDS THAT LOVE THIS GREAT FILM... SEE YOU...
Posted by: Dante | October 27, 2008 at 03:16 PM
I remember back in the late 90s, Back to the Future took me over. Maybe it was the retro appeal, or maybe that I had a eleven year old girl crush on Michael J. Regardless, I found genuine guidance from this film. Its not just entertainment, there are moral lessons here to be learned. And to Stephen: thank you. Your website was such an influence back then. I remember I tried to join your fan club (my mom bought me the subscription for Christmas), but then it was canceled a few months after. That was alright, though: I had the forms and that e-mail list serve.
What happened to 'futuregirl'? I think the link was bttf.com/futuregirl. I used to read her fan fiction by printing it off on reused paper and putting them in binders. She was a beautiful writer.
Posted by: Tori | November 23, 2008 at 12:26 PM