Alejandro's Reviews > We Don't Need Roads: The Making of the Back to the Future Trilogy

A wonderful way to invest time!


THERE IS A TIME...

I am fan of Back to the Future film trilogy, so it wasn’t hard (at all) to decide to read this book.

It’s a book describing all the behind-the-scenes process implied to present to audience the wonderful trilogy of Back to the Future since even before that the production got a green light to begin.

Caseen Gaines, the author, not only have read several research books about the topic, but also he was able to make direct interviews with many people involved in the film franchise.

Obviously since I am a geek, I knew a lot about the film trilogy but it was refreshing to find out several things that I didn’t know about, and also to “live” again the whole development of the trilogy, step-by-step, all the good and all the mess.

The author gives away both versions of the story when it’s about a polemic issue without taking a stand, he just presents both sides of each incident, and you are the one to decide who was right or wrong, even the chance that nobody is totally right or wrong, and the truth can be found, just in the middle of both versions of how the events happened.

The casting, the visual effects, the locations, the artwork, the music, the impact and the aftermath, you are a first line witness in an engaging narrative, making a true time-travelling trip to the history of one of the most beloved film franchises.

To be continued...


TIME FLIES WHEN...

I remember having read (several years ago) a 3-part article in a Spanish-translated edition of Starlog magazine, published in Spain, where the author of the article made an AMAZING job detailing all the paradoxes created in the trilogy and certainly I had the time of my life reading the 3-parter article. (and yes, I still have those magazines, somewhere in my boxes).

This book at hand isn’t about the implications and paradoxes on the script. This book is a detailed behind-the-scenes access to the whole long process that it was made to make possible the production of the iconic first film and its two sequels, making a timeless trilogy.

Also, you will read about the impact of each movie, how they were received by the audience inside of USA and around the world, in the same way the aftermath involving side-projects, fan clubs and marketing in all its spectrum.

Depending of how much you may know about what happened during the filmation of the trilogy, it’s likely that you will know many of the facts revealed here, but I trust that (like my own case), the book will be able to surprise here and there. Telling you some stuff that you hadn��t the slightest clue, or even if you were kind aware of some stuff, it’s quite possible that the deep exposition will be able to expand your own knowledge of certain incident and/or anecdote or giving you an unknown angle until now.

To be concluded...


NO TIME LIKE...

While I truly think that the book deserves its my personal rating of 5 stars, since I enjoyed each second of the reading experience, I believe that some stuff wasn’t exposed as it was detailed others.

There isn’t anything about the casting process for Christopher Lloyd, maybe the Bobs (Robert Zemeckis and Bob Gale) always wanted him for the role of “Doc Brown” but in the book it’s told cases like that (if there’s the case at all) for support characters, so it’s odd not having at least some paragraphs dedicated to the co-star of the trilogy.

During the narrative it’s clear that the author had access to many people, including key persons like Zemeckis, Gale, Lloyd, Lea Thompson, Thomas F. Wilson, etc… but my impression is that he wasn’t able to contact Michael J. Fox, since while the book have a lot about him and his life experience while filming the trilogy, when it’s about Michael it seemed to be something that he was told about by a third party and/or read somewhere, and while it’s my humble feeling about it (I can be wrong) it’s a pity not having first hand comments from the star of the film trilogy.

But don’t take me wrong. The book is a real treat to any fan of Back to the Future and I am sure that if you love the trilogy as much as I do, you’ll love to read this book too.

The End.