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Jan. 1st, 2020 09:40 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
between_time_and_42I went to see a screening of Back to the Future tonight, which is one of my favorite movies ever. Despite the children around me talking, plus a guy who kept laughing and applauding at nearly every single scene (though tbh I don't blame him because the movie is a masterpiece!! just keep it down so we can enjoy said masterpiece, okay?), it was great. Exactly what I need to start off the new year! The whole thing with George and Marty being inspired to pursue their respective dreams resonated deeply with me, especially considering my new year's resolutions (but I'll make another post about that).
Last night we were discussing celebrity deaths that might occur in 2020 (it was part of an even more fucked up conversation, consider yourself lucky that this is the only part of it I'll repeat), and some big ones that were named as particularly heartbreaking, should they occur, were Betty White, Anthony Hopkins, and Clint Eastwood. I really don't have a personal connection to any of those people, but I realized tonight that one celebrity death that I just know will hit me hard is Christopher Lloyd. I love Michael J. Fox so much, and I love him as Marty McFly, but honestly, from Christopher Lloyd's very first scene in BTTF, he straight-up steals the movie out from under MJF's nose. I've only seen him as Doc Brown and Judge Doom from Who Framed Roger Rabbit, but I truly think he is a gift to this world. (At least, Doc Brown certainly is.)
This time watching the movie, I got to thinking about George and Lorraine's relationship. It's interesting to me that they stayed together in the second timeline that Marty inadvertently created, seeing how George was so much different, personality-wise. It definitely seemed to make them happier- the scene where the McFly family is having dinner and Lorraine is watching George laugh at the TV and she just seems so low-key regretful always gets me, like she's as ashamed of her husband as he is of himself. She didn't really know him when she claims to have "fallen in love;" she just felt sorry for him and wanted to act as a mother hen, plus I'm sure her rebellious nature made her more eager to take up with a boy as soon as possible. So when he turned out to be, well, a wimp, and she wanted a strong man to protect her, it makes sense why she'd eventually be disappointed with her life. In the second timeline, her attraction to George began because George was precisely the kind of man she was looking for, and I just can't help thinking about how drastically that must have changed their relationship. Really, when you think about it, it's surprising that so much of their future stayed intact, at least regarding the kids. Could the changes in George & Lorraine's relationship have affected their decision to have kids? What if they'd decided to have them earlier or later in life? What if they'd decided to only have two kids, and Marty was never born at all? Obviously in the movie is didn't affect them, but hypothetically, could that affect someone's future? I love George and Lorraine, they're a cute couple, and I wish we could see a little more of them. The BTTF comic books thankfully satisfied this need, with one comic about George & Lorraine, where George says "I'm your density!" as a couple's inside joke and it's the cutest thing ever. Plus I like thinking about the McFly siblings and how they probably think Marty's a nutcase after he comes back from 1955 the first time, but they love him and want to help him no matter what strange things he's going through.
Also, I realized what's interesting about this series is how part of the first movie's message has George becoming more assertive/gaining more confidence by accepting traditional masculinity- sure, Biff really deserved it, but it's interesting how the day/Marty's life/the entire future is saved by George knocking Biff out with one punch, as if violence will solve all problems- but then the next two movies deconstruct that by showing the negative repercussions of being unable to let go of one's pride and walk away from a fight. This is what leads me to believe that the Marty in the second and third films has been affected by the new future he created in a ripple effect way, because Goerge probably taught those values to his kids and Marty took it to heart.
Last night we were discussing celebrity deaths that might occur in 2020 (it was part of an even more fucked up conversation, consider yourself lucky that this is the only part of it I'll repeat), and some big ones that were named as particularly heartbreaking, should they occur, were Betty White, Anthony Hopkins, and Clint Eastwood. I really don't have a personal connection to any of those people, but I realized tonight that one celebrity death that I just know will hit me hard is Christopher Lloyd. I love Michael J. Fox so much, and I love him as Marty McFly, but honestly, from Christopher Lloyd's very first scene in BTTF, he straight-up steals the movie out from under MJF's nose. I've only seen him as Doc Brown and Judge Doom from Who Framed Roger Rabbit, but I truly think he is a gift to this world. (At least, Doc Brown certainly is.)
This time watching the movie, I got to thinking about George and Lorraine's relationship. It's interesting to me that they stayed together in the second timeline that Marty inadvertently created, seeing how George was so much different, personality-wise. It definitely seemed to make them happier- the scene where the McFly family is having dinner and Lorraine is watching George laugh at the TV and she just seems so low-key regretful always gets me, like she's as ashamed of her husband as he is of himself. She didn't really know him when she claims to have "fallen in love;" she just felt sorry for him and wanted to act as a mother hen, plus I'm sure her rebellious nature made her more eager to take up with a boy as soon as possible. So when he turned out to be, well, a wimp, and she wanted a strong man to protect her, it makes sense why she'd eventually be disappointed with her life. In the second timeline, her attraction to George began because George was precisely the kind of man she was looking for, and I just can't help thinking about how drastically that must have changed their relationship. Really, when you think about it, it's surprising that so much of their future stayed intact, at least regarding the kids. Could the changes in George & Lorraine's relationship have affected their decision to have kids? What if they'd decided to have them earlier or later in life? What if they'd decided to only have two kids, and Marty was never born at all? Obviously in the movie is didn't affect them, but hypothetically, could that affect someone's future? I love George and Lorraine, they're a cute couple, and I wish we could see a little more of them. The BTTF comic books thankfully satisfied this need, with one comic about George & Lorraine, where George says "I'm your density!" as a couple's inside joke and it's the cutest thing ever. Plus I like thinking about the McFly siblings and how they probably think Marty's a nutcase after he comes back from 1955 the first time, but they love him and want to help him no matter what strange things he's going through.
Also, I realized what's interesting about this series is how part of the first movie's message has George becoming more assertive/gaining more confidence by accepting traditional masculinity- sure, Biff really deserved it, but it's interesting how the day/Marty's life/the entire future is saved by George knocking Biff out with one punch, as if violence will solve all problems- but then the next two movies deconstruct that by showing the negative repercussions of being unable to let go of one's pride and walk away from a fight. This is what leads me to believe that the Marty in the second and third films has been affected by the new future he created in a ripple effect way, because Goerge probably taught those values to his kids and Marty took it to heart.
