Christopher Lloyd, Crispin Glover, and Wendie Jo Sperber

In this blog we were asked to identify three actors within the film and classified them according to the type of acting style that we would associate them with. I have chosen Christopher Lloyd who plays Doc Brown, Crispin Glover who plays George McFly, and Wendie Jo Sperber who plays Linda McFly. Christopher Lloyd is an impersonator; he even admitted that he modeled the character Doc Brown after Albert Einstein and conductor Leonard Stokowski. Crispin Glover and Wendie Jo Sperber are both character actors the reason why I am characterizing them as character actors is because in every movie that I have seen them in they have played the same type of character. Crispin Glover tends to be the “nerdy” teenager ordered the out of place socially impaired adult. Whereas, Wendie Jo Sperber tends to play the happy and immature heavyset teenager in a family as she does in Back to the Future.

In Back to the Future, Doc Brown wears his hair just like Leonard Stokowski but is also a quirky but smart individual which is only how I could imagine Albert Einstein was when he was alive. Doc Brown throughout the movie is a loner but is always trying to come up with the next invention that will save the human race. Crispin Glover plays Marty McFly’s nerdy father in 1985 and in 1955 he plays a nerdy but dreamer George McFly. Even though we only see Wendy Jo Sperber as Linda McFly she is playing the happy but immature middle sister of the McFly family.

I believe the Christopher Lloyd is only an impersonator, I do believe that he is type casted within this category if you look at some of the other films and TV shows that he is done he is been typecast as sort of the quorky extra in television as well as movies

Christopher Lloyd (Doc Brown)  in Back to the Future. Notice the white flowing hair of Christopher Lloyd who is in the white radiation suit

Leonard Stokowski conducting; notice the white flowing hair just as Dr. Brown has in the picture above.

Christopher Lloyd as Jim Ignatowski in Taxi notice once again the wild flowing hair

Dialogue, Sound Effects, and Music

In Back to the Future, Marty McFly is a normal kid growing up in 1985. His dialogue that he uses is that of a teenager in 1985. Marty uses the word heavy which was slang for deep, hard to deal with, or hard to understand. Furthermore, heavy was also slang for cool, awesome, and good. Just as technology was evolving in 1985 so was the American language evolving, things that meant one thing in 1955 had evolved into separate meanings in 1985 in the American language. In 1955 Marty used “heavy” several times when the Doc Brown of 1955 explained scientific principles of both time travel and the space time continuum. Doc Brown of 1955 was unsure why in 1985 everything was so “heavy”; however he did assume that the gravitational pull on objects in 1985 made things heavier in the future. The use of heavy is not the only word that was misunderstood in 1955; Marty wrongly assumes that in 1955 that the Pepsi Company produces a sugar-free Pepsi-Cola and asks for a Pepsi free. The soda shop employee tells Marty that he must pay for a Pepsi and will not be getting it for free; Marty in turn asked for a Tab. Marty’s response invokes anger in the employee saying “hey listen pal you are not getting a free Pepsi or starting a tab”. With taking dialogue of 1985 showed that Marty McFly was actually from 1985 and not the time of 1955 that he was transported to when he reached 88 mph after activating the flux capacitor in the DeLorean.

Just like the dialogue the music chosen fit the timeframe of either 1985 or 1955 and because music also has evolved over the three decades that is spanned in this movie the audience could tell which timeframe Marty was in. During the time that Marty was in 1955 music from different time periods was used twice the first time was in the scene to scare his then teenage father George. Marty McFly places headphones on George and plays Van Halen shocking George awake. This starts a sound effect that will be discussed later in this blog. The second time that music is pulled from a different timeframe during this movie is Johnny B. Goode; a Chuck Berry rock ‘n roll song from 1958; towards the end of the song Marty goes into the electric guitar riff that can only be defined as in 1985 era music rendition of Johnny B. Goode.

Not very many sound effects are use during this movie, but there are a lot of sound enhancements that are made like the time that George hits Biff, or when Marty hits Biff. There were some sound effects that were not just sound enhancements in the movie. The sound effect of the Time Machine traveling through time gives it a science-fiction sound just like when the Enterprise from the Star Trek series travels to warp speed. In the Darth Vader from the planet Vulcan scene you can hear the mechanical breathing just as in any episode of Star Wars were the antagonist Darth Vader appears. This mechanical breathing ties to a familiar 1980’s character that the audience can relate to which is not distracting from the movie.

Lighting

In this scene from Back to the Future the lighting is traditional three point lighting this gives the appearance of a sunny day with natural light shining in the windows of the 1950’s soda shop which the kids are socializing in after a day of school. This style of light allows for attention on the actors and not the props around them (Goodykoontz, B., & Jacobs, C. P., 2014). This lighting technique suited this film in the way it mimicked real life lighting and was inviting to the audience in being able to relate to the movie charactors.

In contrast to the three point lighting this scene in which Marty (Michael J. Fox) plays Darth Vader.

Backlighting is used as in some horror genre movies. This is used to scare George McFly (Crispin Glover) Marty’s father from 1955 as a teen to ask Lorraine Baines (Lea Thompson) then George’s Peeping tom interest in 1955. As George is a self proclaimed Sci-Fi author he truly believes that a space being has ordered him to ask Lorraine to the Dance at their school where they share their first kiss, thus repairing the space time continuum. If any other type of lighting would have been used the believability of George being scared enough to concur his insecurities of this “nerd” asking a beautiful, popular girl to a dance would have been less than believable.

Media retrieved from:

http://www.youtube.com

References:

Goodykoontz, B., & Jacobs, C. P. (2014). Film: From watching to seeing (2nd ed.). San Diego, CA: Bridgepoint Education, Inc.

Wk 1 Blog – Lindbloom

The full length film that I have decided to Blog on is Back to the Future

Written by Bob Gale and Robert Zemeckis

Directed by Robert Zemeckis 

Major Actors in the film are Michael J. Fox as Marty McFly and Christopher Lloyd as Doc Emmett Brown

Released in 1985

The story in the movie is the desire of Doc Brown to invent a working invention and in 1955 after a fall from a toilet he had a vision of the “Flux capacitor”.

The Plot of the movie is Doc Brown spent his family’s vast wealth over the last 30 years making his idea reality. As a friend of Doc Brown, Marty is asked to meet him at a mall parking lot to unveil his newest invention and have his first trip videotaped by Marty. Without Marty’s knowledge Doc Brown has stolen the plutonium to full the “Flux capacitor” with the 21,000 gigawatts needed for time travel. The faction that Doc Brown stole the plutonium from attacks both of them; Doc Brown is shot and Marty jumps into the time machine and activates the “Flux capacitor” which makes time travel possible. Marty after reaching 88 mph in a flash is transported back to 1955 the day that Doc Brown fell and had the vision of the “Flux capacitor”. As Marty is investigating 1955 he changes the space time continuum by saving his young nerdy father from being hit by Marty’s soon to be grandfather when he fell out of a tree while peeping on Marty’s mother. Thus, replacing Marty’s father with Marty in the story of how his parents met.

Marty searches out the Doc Brown of 1955 to assist him to go “Back to the Future”. Doc Brown must figure out how to create the power to fuel the “Flux Capacitor” while Marty must work on bring his teen Mother and Father to meet thus repairing he time space continuum that was disrupted by Marty himself. Marty must also deal with Buff the high school bully who has his eyes set on Marty’s mother. Marty is successful in repairing the continuum and Doc has succeed in sending Marty Back to the Future.

The film was presented chronologically or as best as a time travel movie could be presented. With the way it was presented the audience was able to follow the order of the movie. In the 1955 scenes the develop Biff the bully and George McFly (Marty’s father) helps explain why George is walked on by Biff of 1985 and how he became the boss. The movie would have created confusion if presented in a non-linear style.