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wingedbeastBack to the Future is a very entertaining story. It has the main character, in painfully awkward manner, finding out that his parents weren't always his parents. But, for all of that, and for the light deconstruction of 50s teen romance tropes, there are still problems that could stand some deconstruction of their own.
One of these problems is Lorraine and George, Marty's mother and father respectively. Part of the comedy of the movie is that George isn't the perfect geek-gets-girl stereotypical story. He's a peeping tom and he's ready to go along with an attempt to trick Lorraine into marrying him.
Lorraine, on the other hand, is framed very well... but she undresses Marty while unconscious. The infatuation that she initially starts, her associating this boy with potential future marriage, all happens while he's unconscious. What else happens is her taking off his pants. She takes an effort to hide that fact from her parents.
This isn't to condemn either of them or to cast them as deserving of punishment. This is to say that they aren't as far from the other problem as framing would seem to claim.
The other problem with the trilogy is the Tannens.
It's not that Biff Tannen is unbelievable as a character. There are real people who are really... like that. An entire family line? That's not impossible, but it needs more exploration and explanation than just the assumption that Tannens=bad.
A bit of the framework for that exploration has already started in BttF 2. Biff Tannen strikes his younger self. The younger Biff Tannen, being struck by an elderly stranger, does not react with the level of violence or hostility to which he reacted to Marty tripping him in BttF 1. He even accepts the authority and listens to the old man.
This suggests that there's more going on to Biff than just blanket "bad". This suggests that violence Biff understands power dynamics. You hurt those with less power. Those with more power hurt you. And, liking someone or even loving someone has no relevance.
And, all of this is about saying that the "good guys" and the "bad guys" may still be the relative good guys and the relative bad guys, but they're not as far apart as first imagined.
That will setup for the trilogy.
In the first movie, the protagonist can be one or two of Marty's children, a new generation of McFly teenagers.
Production schedules being what they are and it already being 2015, we can't say they're the exact same teenagers that we saw in BttF 2. But, hey, if the original trilogy can fudge its rules, we can fudge that. Or claim that Marty having learning not to let accusations of cowardice affect him as much allowed him, in some chain of events, to delay having children by a couple years.
Boy, Girl, or one of each, either way, the setup would be very similar to the setup of the original movie. Introduce the protagonist(s) and introduce the Tannens. Much like the original trilogy, make the presentation as one-dimensional as possible. Tannens=bullies. This is true both in the case of the current Griff generation and the case of his parent(s) and the case of Biff Tannen, Griff's grandfather.
At this point, we are not supposed to like the Tannens. We're supposed to view the Tannens much as the original trilogy and even the cartoon viewed them, as just bad people, no explanation needed.
In the first movie, we'll need some reason to get the current crop of McFlies entangled in time-travel. I would use Jules and Vern Brown, the two sons of Doc Brown, now teens themselves. The time traveling family wouldn't be the only time travelers, or maybe the two teens have had a falling out. Either way, sometimes, there are simply things that need to be done and, sometimes, that involves tapping those who will eventually have met you to help out.
This will give the new protagonist(s) the opportunity to hear about what happened in the original trilogy and how that impacted what happens, now. Using similar and updated trick-photography, they can even witness some of the events, themselves. Watching teenage not-yet-dad deal with his own teenage not-yet-parents.
During another time-travel excursion, a protagonist can overhear this phrase.
"Don't even try to reach Biff. Just give him a smack. It's all a Tannen really understands."
That will seem all-too-right to the protagonist... until the protagonist learns that (s)he isn't in 1955, but 1945. Biff isn't 17 in this time. He's seven.
From there, the Tannens are seen in a different light.
In the second movie, the time travel shenanigans can take the protagonist through parts of lives of Seamus McFly and Buford Tannen.
The McFlies and the Tannens are going to have some chief similarities and differences. One key similarity is going to be their treatment by the rest of the community. Despite BttF 3's rosy picture, being Irish in the old west wasn't an easy thing.
One key differences will be the home life and how much the initial bad treatment is due to individual actions.
But, one other similarity would be that both Buford Tannen and Seamus McFly were war vets. Buford Tannen could be claimed to have fought for the South, a war into which he would have been drafted at a young age. And, an experience which would have left him, like many vets before him, unready to deal with peacetime.
Seamus would have been drafted, right from reaching the US, into the Union army.
The final movie would be the challenge. There's only so much that can be changed before one cannot go back home, simply because one doesn't exist to go back home. Buford Tannen can't get the counseling he might be able to use to more readily deal with anger issues. Biff Tannen cannot be given respite from his abusive homelife. But, something closer to home could happen.
Biff Tannen's child, going right along the path that Biff Tannen himself went, could have some good interventions. This wouldn't need much, especially if we want to maintain any of the lighthearted fun of the original series. But, the end result could still be a return to the future wherein Griff Tannen isn't a bully, but a friend.
Instead of merely defeating the Tannens, the greater task can be completed to save them. It's something.
As always, I'm hungry for comments. So, your thoughts?
One of these problems is Lorraine and George, Marty's mother and father respectively. Part of the comedy of the movie is that George isn't the perfect geek-gets-girl stereotypical story. He's a peeping tom and he's ready to go along with an attempt to trick Lorraine into marrying him.
Lorraine, on the other hand, is framed very well... but she undresses Marty while unconscious. The infatuation that she initially starts, her associating this boy with potential future marriage, all happens while he's unconscious. What else happens is her taking off his pants. She takes an effort to hide that fact from her parents.
This isn't to condemn either of them or to cast them as deserving of punishment. This is to say that they aren't as far from the other problem as framing would seem to claim.
The other problem with the trilogy is the Tannens.
It's not that Biff Tannen is unbelievable as a character. There are real people who are really... like that. An entire family line? That's not impossible, but it needs more exploration and explanation than just the assumption that Tannens=bad.
A bit of the framework for that exploration has already started in BttF 2. Biff Tannen strikes his younger self. The younger Biff Tannen, being struck by an elderly stranger, does not react with the level of violence or hostility to which he reacted to Marty tripping him in BttF 1. He even accepts the authority and listens to the old man.
This suggests that there's more going on to Biff than just blanket "bad". This suggests that violence Biff understands power dynamics. You hurt those with less power. Those with more power hurt you. And, liking someone or even loving someone has no relevance.
And, all of this is about saying that the "good guys" and the "bad guys" may still be the relative good guys and the relative bad guys, but they're not as far apart as first imagined.
That will setup for the trilogy.
In the first movie, the protagonist can be one or two of Marty's children, a new generation of McFly teenagers.
Production schedules being what they are and it already being 2015, we can't say they're the exact same teenagers that we saw in BttF 2. But, hey, if the original trilogy can fudge its rules, we can fudge that. Or claim that Marty having learning not to let accusations of cowardice affect him as much allowed him, in some chain of events, to delay having children by a couple years.
Boy, Girl, or one of each, either way, the setup would be very similar to the setup of the original movie. Introduce the protagonist(s) and introduce the Tannens. Much like the original trilogy, make the presentation as one-dimensional as possible. Tannens=bullies. This is true both in the case of the current Griff generation and the case of his parent(s) and the case of Biff Tannen, Griff's grandfather.
At this point, we are not supposed to like the Tannens. We're supposed to view the Tannens much as the original trilogy and even the cartoon viewed them, as just bad people, no explanation needed.
In the first movie, we'll need some reason to get the current crop of McFlies entangled in time-travel. I would use Jules and Vern Brown, the two sons of Doc Brown, now teens themselves. The time traveling family wouldn't be the only time travelers, or maybe the two teens have had a falling out. Either way, sometimes, there are simply things that need to be done and, sometimes, that involves tapping those who will eventually have met you to help out.
This will give the new protagonist(s) the opportunity to hear about what happened in the original trilogy and how that impacted what happens, now. Using similar and updated trick-photography, they can even witness some of the events, themselves. Watching teenage not-yet-dad deal with his own teenage not-yet-parents.
During another time-travel excursion, a protagonist can overhear this phrase.
"Don't even try to reach Biff. Just give him a smack. It's all a Tannen really understands."
That will seem all-too-right to the protagonist... until the protagonist learns that (s)he isn't in 1955, but 1945. Biff isn't 17 in this time. He's seven.
From there, the Tannens are seen in a different light.
In the second movie, the time travel shenanigans can take the protagonist through parts of lives of Seamus McFly and Buford Tannen.
The McFlies and the Tannens are going to have some chief similarities and differences. One key similarity is going to be their treatment by the rest of the community. Despite BttF 3's rosy picture, being Irish in the old west wasn't an easy thing.
One key differences will be the home life and how much the initial bad treatment is due to individual actions.
But, one other similarity would be that both Buford Tannen and Seamus McFly were war vets. Buford Tannen could be claimed to have fought for the South, a war into which he would have been drafted at a young age. And, an experience which would have left him, like many vets before him, unready to deal with peacetime.
Seamus would have been drafted, right from reaching the US, into the Union army.
The final movie would be the challenge. There's only so much that can be changed before one cannot go back home, simply because one doesn't exist to go back home. Buford Tannen can't get the counseling he might be able to use to more readily deal with anger issues. Biff Tannen cannot be given respite from his abusive homelife. But, something closer to home could happen.
Biff Tannen's child, going right along the path that Biff Tannen himself went, could have some good interventions. This wouldn't need much, especially if we want to maintain any of the lighthearted fun of the original series. But, the end result could still be a return to the future wherein Griff Tannen isn't a bully, but a friend.
Instead of merely defeating the Tannens, the greater task can be completed to save them. It's something.
As always, I'm hungry for comments. So, your thoughts?
