Don’t know where I would have lunch with Christopher Lloyd. If I am recalling correctly, he is rather shy so I assume it would be a quiet out-of-the-way restaurant. I’d probably have to adjust my schema to the fact that he is 73 since I have been watching him in shows and movies since the mid-70s. Loved him in Taxi. What does a yellow light mean? Slow down. Whaaatt dooeesss aaaa yeellloooowww liiiigghhhttt meeeaaannn? Slow down. Whhhhhhhaaaaaattttttt doooooeeeeesssss aaaaaaa yeeeelllllloooowwww liiiiiiiggghhhhhhttttt mmmeeeeaaaannnn? Classic. I would definitely thank him for Reverend Jim.
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest would be an interesting discussion. I love the movie. It’s an amazing film, with an unbelievably talented cast. The acting, the story, the filming was brilliant. The filming was so very stark and the characters were not caricatures which was a step forward for a film dealing with mental illness. Still, my frustration would be that the film still did put folks with mental illness in a crappy light and set back acceptance within society in some ways. ECT is a very valid form of treatment but after the film the concept was looked at as obscene and cruel. It is still used today (Carrie Fisher gets it about once a month, so she says). Lobotomies by the 1960s had fallen out of vogue as more research showed that lobotomies took away more from a patient than necessary and as more and more medicines were available that gave superior results. Yes, they were still using lobotomies as treatments in the early 60s, but by the time the book was made into a film, over a decade had passed and they were nearly obsolete as a standard treatment. I don’t know how many people realized that in that decade treatments had changed dramatically. The film perpetuated an antiquated procedure. Nevertheless, the film is a landmark piece of American film history and Mr. Lloyd was splendid in it. He had a child-like innocence in his character which is quite realistic, sort of an arrested development. He showed the muted energy of one heavily medicated.
Who Framed Roger Rabbit? was another film that affected the future of films. No it wasn’t the first human-cartoon pairing (hello, remember Mary Poppins? Song of the South?) but it revolutionized it. Christopher Lloyd is one character actor that can play the most trustworthy character (Doc) and also a great villain, as in Roger Rabbit. Judge Doom is a wonderfully cartoonish meany.
But let’s face it. The majority of the conversation would center around Back to the Future. I watched all three today, twice, thanks to HBO. Lloyd does some amazingly nuanced performances in these films. The continuity of character is unbelievable. He has to play the same character in three different centuries, with different amounts of knowledge about his time machine and about the world. He uses his voice so brilliantly for this character, as he did with Reverend Jim. The cast as a whole is again amazing, but it’s the chemistry between Marty and Doc that make the movies. The mentor/friendship/father&son relationship would make great fodder for a college course or dissertation and I’m sure someone has already done that. I suppose another reason why I like the character of Doc is that he is a geek and shows it. While I’m a geek of a different color, all geeks can connect on some level. I suppose it’s the pure joy he has at various moments in the movie, the free laugh of joy he has several times when things work out the right way.
The other aspect that the two characters share is both are outcasts. Marty and Doc just don’t quite fit the standard mold. These films were released while I was in high school and then college. I was not in the “in-crowd” (I’m still not, and about twenty years ago I got comfortable with that concept). These two outcast characters were so easy to connect with for me. I also love to look for errors in continuity in films and these three presented a lovely challenge. I don’t recall any major issues, though I think there was a question at one point in time that there are one too many DeLoreans at some point, though while watching today I couldn’t remember it. Plus the movies have some wonderful tongue-in-cheek moments, a diverse use of vocabulary and general playfulness with language, and a fun historical angle.
Finally, I think well after dessert, I’d get to Clue. If you haven’t seen it, stop reading and go watch it. It is reminiscent of Murder by Death (in fact, the two films share Eileen Brennan in their casts) and is freaking hysterical. Lloyd as Professor Plum is perfectly cast. The film is so wonderfully quotable. “Wait a minute, so who did I kill?… My butler… Oh, shucks.” “Why has the car stopped?… It’s frightened.” “Nevermind about the key, unlock the door.” (This last one is not one of Professor Plum’s lines, but it must be included.) “Even if you were right, that would be one plus one plus two plus one, not one plus two plus one plus one.”
You could easily spend the day watching Christopher Lloyd movies in your pajamas, as I did today. I may in fact break out my Clue dvd after the trilogy finishes again. I will then feel the need to watch Murder by Death. Luckily, we get that extra hour at 2:00am.
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