The future was NOW!
I watched the old movie “Back to the Future 2” at the Habersham Community Theatre Saturday. Made by none other than Steven Spielberg, the 1989 movie showed Michael J. Fox traveling via flying DeLorean from the past into a future time. The future year, I was shocked to see, was none other than 2015! Yes! He traveled in a flying, banged-up, expensive sports car into THIS YEAR WE’RE LIVING IN!
Spielberg had the challenge of planning some things for Michael J. Fox’s character to see that would surprise him – because they were supposed to exist “in the future.” In 2015. Some of the things imagined by Spielberg were actually rather cleverly invented items that we have never experienced. Some of them, though – although they don’t exactly exist now – sort of rang a memory bell for a few things I have seen.
Examples:
The home television screen in the movie showed six different shows AT THE SAME TIME. Now, any woman who lives with a husband who has a remote control has had the experience of watching such fast channel switching that she feels like she’s watching TEN shows at once. And they’re ALL SPORTS! Spielberg was right on the money in imagining a six-screen TV. He just didn’t know he needed a remote control to make it really annoying.
In the movie, in 2015, when some of the people need to walk quickly from one place to another, they put their feet on oval-shaped “hover boards.” The hover boards have no wheels, and they fly. I couldn’t help but think about the kids who do Olympic-style competitions on skate boards, flying into the sky as they make turns at the upper edges of their skating surfaces, turning triple flips and otherwise terrorizing their mothers. But Spielberg had some of the people in the movie simply walking. I thought they must have represented people like me, who never mastered the art of standing upright on a skate board. Even when it wasn ’t moving.
Taxis in the movie can fly. Now, I have ridden in some taxis that I could have sworn were flying. In the movie, though, the taxis actually fly through the sky. And when you get through flying where you’re going, the taxis land on the ground. Then comes paying time. Spielberg imagined a little metal panel in the taxi door where the rider simply pressed his thumb. Then he had paid. That’s not much different, I thought, from sliding my credit card through a machine, feeling my money drain down my arm, through my fingers and into that blasted machine. Spielberg knows that feeling.
There was also a floating disc, six feet in the air, that had a dog leash attached. The dog leash had a dog attached. The disc floated around, taking the dog for a walk. Or maybe the dog took the disc for a walk. I don’t know how the disc would know when the dog had finished “doing his business,” but I’m sure Spielberg had a plan in place. I hope he lets us know.
But seriously…
The showing of “Back to the Future 2” was a joint effort of the Habersham Community Theatre, where the movie was shown, and the Clarkesville Main Street Program. It was only the second time in nearly 60 years that a film was shown in the theatre. Habersham Community Theatre has two dramatic productions coming up, the first being a comedy and the next a musical. See Now Habersham’s “Events” section for a schedule. As part of the Main Street Program, Clarkesville restaurants offering “Dinner and a Movie” specials in conjunction with the showing Saturday included The Attic, The Copperpot, Harvest Habersham, Hawg Wild BBQ, Java Joe’s, Midtown Grill, and Tucker’s Country Cooking.
