In a list of the most memorable films of the 1980s, it is certain that ‘Back to the Future’ will be in the TOP 10. The franchise – which brought time travel back to the world of cinema – is one of the greatest classics of recent times. decades, and to this day it is one of the biggest cinematic influences on the entire industry, as well as – of course – also being one of the personal favorites of many people in their 40s. A
Despite the resounding success – which made the production the most profitable of 1985 – not everything was smooth sailing on the way to telling the story of Marty McFly. What many don’t know is that there were 40 ‘no’s’, in addition to a scam from Disney, which refused to produce director Robert Zemeckis’ film.
Any average viewer already knows the iconic premise of ‘Back to the Future’. The 1985 film presents Marty, an ordinary teenager, with a standard life, but a very unusual friendship with a mad scientist, Dr. Brown, who has just developed a time travel machine in the shell of a DeLorean, a car sport that symbolized that entire era (largely because of the film).
After a terrible incident, Marty ends up in 1955 and needs to ask the Doctor from the past for help to return to the future. To make matters worse, he could have his existence erased from history because he met his parents, Lorraine (Lea Thompson) and George (Crispin Glover), who in those same days would meet and fall in love.
That’s if it weren’t for a certain Calvin Klein…
Much more than a classic ‘family film’, it is one of those incredible examples of making history in cinema. It is no coincidence that it became one of the biggest hits of the 1980s, a fact that guaranteed two more sequels, one set in the future (already in the past for us, 2015) and the other in the time of the Wild West of the United States. The trilogy is a milestone, a gem of the pop world and an incredible program of pure comfort for any occasion. It’s a shame that studios back then didn’t think so, however, and saw a specific problem with the script.
In 1980, after writing Steven Spielberg’s flop ‘1941’ and collaborating with the director again on ‘Used Cars’, the duo Robert Zemeckis and Bob Gale teamed up to write a film about time travel. Gale, inspired by a personal experience of seeing photos from his father’s school days and imagining ‘what it would have been like if he had known him as a teenager’, decided to put on paper the story that would bring Marty and George face to face, in 1955. The duo were quick to finalize the script and send it directly to Columbia Pictures, the same producer of ‘Used Cars’.
Talking to Frank Price, one of the corporation’s executive directors, the pitch ended up going nowhere. Looking at dozens of other options, incredibly no studio wanted to risk giving ‘Back to the Future’ a chance. It may even seem strange today; Because who would have the courage to reject such a brilliantly original narrative? But at the time, Hollywood was different, focused and not very courageous in betting on different plots. And the story was, for people inside the studios at that time, an outdated and unappealing idea.
According to Gale himself, he and Zemeckis were told that ‘time travel’ was a science fiction plot from 20, 30 years ago. No one from the 1980s would have had the courage to sit in front of a movie screen to see a recycled idea from B-category films, released in droves in decades that had the fear of the Cold War as inspiration.
In essence, the studios did not like the idea of a production that would bring back a type of plot that a few decades ago was no longer so popular with the public. It was hard to understand; Zemeckis and Gale had a rare jewel in their hands, more valuable than their previous film, ‘All for an Emerald’ (1984) and no one wanted to buy it.
After several doors were slammed in their faces, the duo decided to risk going further. In every meeting with big producers, they heard ‘Why don’t you try Disney?’, since, in addition to having their project called outdated, it was also classified as ‘sugar water’, ‘too good’ – something which Hollywood was not looking for at the time, as it was focused on double-entendre comedies for the teen audience, such as ‘Porky’s – The House of Love and Laughter’.
But Mickey’s House, on the other hand, still focused on family and formulaic films (it’s no coincidence that the 1980s are among the most forgettable phases for the studio).
What a surprise the response was: a huge mess, which left both Zemeckis and Gale face down. “Are you guys going crazy? Are you high? We can’t make a movie like that. You have a scene with the son and his mother in the car! That’s incest – and this is Disney. It’s too dirty for us,” an executive director would have declared, not happy with the strange project.
There were two extremes of responses: one side thought that ‘Back to the Future’ was too sweet and family-friendly, the other, however, saw Marty McFly’s plot as an immoral aberration about incest between a time-traveling son and a mother who She doesn’t know that her crush is, in fact, her own offspring. No one seemed to understand the narrative, much to the pair’s dismay.
It is a fact that Lorraine’s interest in Marty is at the heart of the story. For several moments, we see Thompson’s character trying to surround Michael J. Fox — who she thinks is called ‘Calvin Klein’ since the name was printed on his underwear.
But the line never quite crosses into “inappropriate” scenes; especially because, when Lorraine tries to kiss Marty, she herself realizes that there is something wrong with that. “I don’t know what it is…but when I kiss you, it feels like I’m kissing my brother”, says the character to Michael J. Fox’s frightened character, in the aforementioned car scene, mentioned by the Disney bigwig.
There was no one else to turn to. The options were almost nil after Disney’s denial. But there was a light at the end of the tunnel, and it was one of the brightest. The salvation of Robert Zemeckis and Bob Gale came through Steven Spielberg, an old friend of the two and with whom they collaborated even in their dark times of little fame.
The world turned for the American, who – suddenly – became the king of Hollywood by scoring ‘ET – The Extra-Terrestrial’, ‘Indiana Jones and Raiders of the Lost Ark’ and taking his chances as a producer on hits such as ‘Poltergeist – The Phenomenon’ . He was the star the duo needed, the miracle worker who could get them out of the mud.
A few years after delivering a draft of the script to the director of ‘Jaws’, Zemeckis had already established himself as a good director with ‘All for an Esmeralda’, and the time had come to put the most ambitious project into practice. In 1985, with Michael J. Fox and Christopher Lloyd in front of the cameras and Spielberg in executive production, ‘Back to the Future’ was a resounding success of 385 million dollars, a stratospheric value at the time.
Remember the trailers for the three films in the ‘Back to the Future’ saga.
*Edited by Luís Alberto Nogueira
