Is "Money Equals Happiness" The Message Of Back To The Future

I've seen the interviews with Crispin Glover where he discusses the problems he had with Back To The Future.  The story he tells is one where he had a problem with the way the movie ended.  He didn't like the message he felt it sent that money equals happiness.  Ironically, the movie's producers tell a different story.  Their story suggests that he wanted the same pay that the star, Michael J. Fox, was getting.  Crispin disputes this claim.  Whatever the case, they decided to do the next two movies without him.

Here's where it gets interesting.  They cast somebody else for Crispin's role in the second movie, but they made it appear as if it was him.  They even used the makeup mold that was created from Crispin on the other actor's face.  They did what they could to make it so that people never got a really good look at that actor's face, and many people assumed it was Crispin.  He sued them over this.  As a result, there are laws on the books that prevent other studios from doing this.

It's not very difficult for me to believe that Crispin would believe the first movie ended with the message that money equals happiness.  Nor is it difficult to believe he would have a problem with that.  Crispin has had an interesting career and has taken on some memorable roles.  He's not somebody who believes life is all about money.  He was raised that way, and he learned to make it on his own.  He is the son of an actor, but his father didn't live a fancy life either.

Having said all of that, I disagree with Glover's assertion that the movie ended with a money message.  It did not.  First of all, the family still lived in that same middle class home.  It was a little nicer looking, but by no means was it upper class.  He should have taken into consideration that Marty altered George's life path by interacting with him.  George and Lorraine were meant to be together.  However, because she didn't meet him after he fell out of the tree and was hit by her father's car, their relationship had to happen another way.

It was established that George was a science fiction fan and wrote stories that he was too scared to let anybody see.  He lived a life where people put him down and bullied him constantly, so he didn't want to risk any more rejection by putting his creative side out there.  It's not difficult to believe he wrote quite a bit since he probably didn't have many friends and spent much of his time at home.  Therefore, he got good at telling these stories.  What held him back was his own inferiority complex that was made worse because of all the bullying he went through.

His biggest bully was Biff.  The bigger boy made him do his homework, told him where he could go and where he couldn't and made his life a living hell.  The minute Marty appeared in the past, he altered George's life path.  It came to a head when George knocked Biff out in one punch to defend Lorraine's honor.  Marty had been encouraging him to stand up and believe in himself, and that was his moment of truth.  When George finally kissed Lorraine, it was George declaring, "You are my woman, and we were meant to be together."  It's not difficult to believe the kiss in the original timeline was initiated by Lorraine.

The altered George McFly had more confidence in himself.  He wasn't going to take anything from Biff anymore.  With Lorraine by his side, he eventually started seeking publishers for his writings.  He found one.  This was never about money.  It was about George pursing his passion as a writer.  Since he believed in himself and he was actually good, he became a published writer.  Naturally, you get paid something for that, but the family was still more middle class than rich.  I disagree with Crispin when he says the message was about money equating to happiness.  It was more about believing in yourself and pursuing your dreams.  When you do that, anything can happen.  Money was a side effect of the outcome, not the goal.

Now, about the idea that George and Lorraine knew that Marty visited them in the past when he returned from his first adventure.  Come to think of it, as Marty got older, Biff would probably recognize him as well.  Marty's antics resulted him him crashing into a manure truck twice.  I doubt he'd forget something like that.

Movie Review: Cars 3

I finally got an opportunity to see Disney's Cars 3.  I was a big fan of the first movie and the message it conveyed.  The second one lost me because it got away from what made the movie special.  It would have been better to call it Mater's European Adventure or something like that.  They about killed the franchise with it, but Disney executives figured there was more money to be made if they want back to what made the first one special. In the first movie, Lightning McQueen learned a lesson about taking time to slow down and appreciate life, and we also learned the lesson of how sometimes there are good things that we give up on in the name of progress.

In the latest movie, Lightning is still a big star on the Piston Cup racing circuit.  This is the movie's equivalent of NASCAR.  He has a few rivals who have fun racing together and playing tricks on each other.  This is not unlike things that happen in NASCAR.  One day, a faster, more technologically advanced car comes to race, and things change.  Suddenly, the new car is winning, and other new cars start coming in to replace all the old cars.  This pretty much happened to Lightning's mentor, The Fabulous Hornet.  We learn that he has died, and suddenly Lightning is the only one left from his era of Piston Cup stars.

When do you call it a career and move on?  Lightning wrestles with the idea that he will decide when it's time to quit.  This is not unlike what happened in NASCAR with Richard Petty.  Petty was perhaps the greatest of all time and certainly one of them.  He stayed long past his last win, and it got to a point where he was crashing spectacularly on regular occasions.  You could almost set your watch by it.  Lightning gets passed one race late in the season, and he pushes himself beyond his ability in an effort to catch up.  He crashes, and everybody assumes he's finished.  This happened to his mentor years ago.

NASCAR and racing in general is similar to what happened in the movie.  As a long time racing fan, I don't know if that's a good thing.  You're almost considered over the hill at 30.  Locally, we have old timers.  One driver at my home track raced until he died at 87 years old, but there are more kids starting in Go Karts when they are barely old enough to walk.  For every car you see in NASCAR, there are probably a half a dozen youngsters lining up to be the next driver.  If they have enough money behind them, they just may get a shot one day.  Almost gone entirely are the days where stars rose through the ranks of the local tracks and one day got to race in the big times.  I don't believe this has helped the sport.  It hurts it for reasons I won't get into here.

Lightning has some soul searching to do.  His loyal sponsors sold their company to a car that wanted it in order to market the legacy of McQueen after he retires.  McQueen is determined to prove them wrong and show them that he can sill race and win.  He even has a female trainer who is trying things that ultimately annoy him in order to get him motivated and make him faster.  It turns out that she has dreams of racing.  Lightning is still searching for answers that he might have gotten from his old mentor.  He finds The Fabulous Hornet's mentor and learns some things he never knew before.

That's the basic gist of what the story is about, and I can't say much more without spoiling the story for you.  This wasn't the best Cars movie, but it was much better than the second one.  It has a positive message.  I'm sure long time auto racing fans can appreciate what the movie is trying to say.  Eventually, we all face similar situations in life.  Somebody will eventually be gunning for your position.  I think a lesson we can take from that is that we are all links in the chain of life.  It was there before we got there and will be there after we leave.  What we do when it's our time is what matters, so we should make the most of it.  I am a fan of the Pixar Animation movies.  Most of them are at least pretty good.  If you get a chance, you should check out this movie.