Back to the Future Part II

The strangest thing about Robert Zemeckis’s 1989 sequel is that the George McFly on screen is mostly not Crispin Glover. Glover declined to return, saying the highest offer he got was 125,000 dollars, less than half what other returning cast members were offered. The production combined leftover footage from the first film with Jeffrey Weissman in a false chin, nose and cheekbones. That is why George is kept hanging upside down, turned away, or pushed to the back of the frame. Glover sued over the unauthorised use of moulds of his face, and the case produced new Screen Actors Guild clauses barring reproduction of an actor’s likeness without consent. The second thing is where the running time goes. The 1955 stretch restages scenes from the first film from backstage angles, so the pleasure is verification rather than discovery. Without the original fresh in mind, that section is just people running down corridors. Claudia Wells left the role of Jennifer to care for her ill mother, and Elisabeth Shue’s arrival meant reshooting the first film’s closing sequence almost shot for shot. Made back to back with the third instalment, it ends on a promise rather than a conclusion. Not for you if: you want a story that finishes. This is the middle of a whole cut in two.