Season 7, Episode 06—Gremlins, Back to the Future, and Howard the Duck, PT.2
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Troy and David talk about three movies in this two-part episode:
Gremlins (1984)
Back to the Future (1985)
Howard the Duck (1986)
PT. 1 looks at Gremlins, and begins the discussion on Back to the Future.
PT. 2 finishes the discussion on Back to the Future, and then moves on to Howard the Duck.
PART 2: Back to the Future & Howard the Duck
Our second episode continues our discussion about Back to the Future, and concludes with Howard the Duck.
Troy talks about his love/hate relationship with Back to the Future. He described it as having “a glorified Brady Bunch plot but with some weird incest running through it.” Marty has a weird family, with a pervy dad, and he likes to hang out with an older, eccentric man. There are also musical nitpicks that are concerning, especially the Johnny B. Good scene and its cultural appropriation.
David goes into how the opening 5-10 minutes sets up the entire film, where things mentioned or shown are then referred to later, like the term, “Chekhov’s Gun” which means if a gun is shown in act one, it must be used by act three. David also refers to this as “Sulu’s Phaser” and “Peltzer’s Sword.”
David shares his favorite quote from the movie, where Doc Brown lets Marty know how important he has been to him:
- Dr. Emmett Brown: You know, Marty, I’m gonna be very sad to see you go. You’ve really made a difference in my life. You’ve given me something to shoot for. Just knowing that I’m going to be around to see 1985. That I’m gonna succeed in this!
- [gestures at time machine]
- Dr. Emmett Brown: That I’m gonna have a chance to travel through time!
Troy and David then move on to Howard the Duck.
Many consider this a terrible movie. There was an episode on it by the webcast: TMS: This Movie Sucks. It did horribly at the box office, mainly through word of mouth and reviews. Troy mentions that one of the people working in the theatre warned Troy not to watch it.
Howard the Duck was #54 in the box office in 1986. But there were notable films that did worse that year!: 57 = Legend; 63 = Little Shop of Horrors; 68 = Labyrinth; 72 = Big Trouble in Little China; 75 = Brazil; 80 = Blue Velvet; 92 = Maximum Overdrive.
Troy and David go into the many reasons why the film failed, but also at its endearing qualities. They also summarize the triple bill, the connections between the three films they looked at in this two-episode show.
We hope you enjoyed the two shows!