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.
