Lockdown watch: Back to the Future writer Bob Gale on the lure of the past
As a professional film-maker and lifetime movie buff, I have quite a collection of films, so in times of distress, my wife and I turn to the classics – our cinematic equivalent of comfort food. We shun dystopian dramas and depressing tales of personal trauma and sour relationships in favour of historical epics, film noir and golden age movies with the great Hollywood stars.
As British history buffs, we recently watched Anne of the Thousand Days and A Man for All Seasons, a great double feature because both tell the same story from a different point of view. Similarly, Becket and The Lion in Winter feature Peter O’Toole as Henry
II early and late in his reign. With more time available, we’re watching longer films. Cleopatra (1963), although flawed, is especially breathtaking today when you realise it was made long before CGI, so every set was built, and the thousands of extras you see were actually there. The DVD and Blu-ray editions include a compelling featurelength documentary about its making.
George C Scott is still mesmerising as Patton, and I expect we’ll soon be revisiting David Lean’s Lawrence of Arabia and Bridge on the River Kwai. We love the great black-and-white noir dramas of the 40s and 50s, particularly
Double Indemnity, Out of the Past, The Narrow Margin (the original, a lowbudget masterpiece), This Gun for Hire, Gilda and The Postman Always Rings Twice, as well as their colour descendants Chinatown and LA Confidential.
And we’ll watch almost anything featuring Clark Gable, Henry Fonda, Katharine Hepburn, Barbara Stanwyck, Cary Grant, Humphrey Bogart, William Holden, John Wayne, James Stewart or Bette Davis.
And what do I recommend? Well, The Great Escape, starring Steve McQueen, about a real-life POW escape in 1944, is particularly recommended if you have boys aged eight or older in the house. Ken Burns’ recent 14-hour series Country Music is terrific, even if you’re not a fan of that kind of music. (My wife was not – until she watched it.) The personal stories of the people who created this music are very powerful. I always tout a fantastic documentary called Dealt, about a card magician – the less you know about it going in, the better. And I’d be delinquent to not mention my own Back to the Future trilogy, all three of which continue to entertain over repeated viewings.
• Bob Gale is a Hollywood filmmaker, best known as screenwriter and producer of Back to the Future and its sequels. He wrote the book for the film’s musical version, which recently debuted in Manchester and which is expected to return to the UK stage after the pandemic.