1955

BOB ZEMECKIS

For the Back to the Future trilogy, the filmakers had to create 1955 not once, but three times. It is the central setting of Marty's first adventure, when he meets his parents as teenagers, and in the second film he returns to the very same time, trying to retreive the Sports Almanac from Biff as well as avoiding his other 'self'. The year 1955 is also the point of departure for Marty as he travels to 1885 to save Doc Brown in Part III.

On the original Back to the Future, the challenge was to create a town that could look quaint and fresh in 1955, but also display the passage of time and urban expansion in 1985. Deciding it would be too difficult to use an actual town, the filmmakers built the town square on Universal's back lot. The 50's scenes were shot first and then the town was 'trashed down' to reflect the ravages of time over the ensuing 30 years.

When first designing the 1955 town square, Back to the Future production designer Larry Paull 'began to delve into a lot of Life and Look magazines, and used a lot of photographic research of the time. I did a lot of digging , even in old high school yearbooks, in order to come up with a felling and a visual concept.' Paull constructed a set that featured a grassy town square surrounded by picturesque shops, which included a record store, travel agency and a malt shop painted in a vivid 1950's turquoise blue. Periods cars were bought in, primarily from the late '40s and early '50s, and the lack of foreign cars (proper for the period) is evident. 'The amount of detail that went into that set,' recalls Michael J. Fox, 'was incredible. In the shots wher I walk through the square for the first time in 1955, I had to convey a sense of amazement. On a set like that I didn't have to act.'

In many ways, Back to the Future's 1955 is not a real depiction of the era. It is one as seen through nostalgic eyes - a cleaner, fresh-faced version of the time. It is a year re-created by adults who tend to forget the negative aspects and recall things on a simple, more positive level, which is exactly the sense that Zemeckis and Gale wished to convey. Their 1955 Hill Valley is a town in its heyday. Everything is new and pristine, even the local high school (shot at Whittier High School where ex-President Richard Nixon was a student). Its the 1950s as seen with a 1980s hindsight.

Four years after the origianl sojourn to 1955, Bob Zemeckis set the Delorean's controls for 12 November 1955, and took his cast and crew back to the '50s for a second visit. "That was one of the reasons I was so excited about doing the sequel," explains Zemeckis. "I wasn't interested in just getting the cast together, having them go on another adventure, and call it the sequel to Back to the Future. Since we accept that Doc Brown has invented a viable method of time travel, we were able to do something that has not been done in a sequel before - to go back to the first film and rewitness scenes from that movie from a completely different perspective. We deliberately designed scenes that would jog the audience's memory of Part I, which is what's fun about going to see a sequel. It's like hanging out with friends again."

Warehouses and wardrobe departments were searched to find props and clothing that had not been used for the four years in between the films. Frames from the first movie were enlarged to re-create the look of the movie in minute detail. The gymnasium of the First United Methodist Church in Hollywood hosted its second 'Enchantment Under the Sea' dance, although it looked exactly like the first, with many of the same dancers returning to be a part of a most unique 'revival'.

The filmmakers were also aided by the memories of the majority of the crew who returned to work on the sequels. Dean Cundey recalls an incident on the first night of filming Part II. "We were re-creating the scene where lightning struck the clock-tower, and Marty is sent back to 1985. As we were setting up the lighting, someone said, "I remember we had a light over that doorway," and another crew member recalled the exact filter that went over the light. We were able to light the scene exactly as it had been done four years ago. In most case you would have to go back and redo a job because you don't get it right the first time. We had to go back years later to redo the job because we definitely got it right the first time."