Let me state for the record that I’ve been a huge Robert Zemekis fan for over 25 years now.
By that I mean: I’ve liked this filmmaker ever since January of 1978, when I first caught a screening of “I Wanna Hold Your Hand.” For those of you who haven’t seen Zemeckis’ directorial debut, “IWHYH” is this great little movie about these crazed teenagers from New Jersey who are determined to crash the Beatles’ American television debut on “The Ed Sullivan Show.” The film has this really clever script. It moves along at a lightening pace. It’s just this really fun time at the movie.
Mind you, I went to the theater that evening because I was a Steven Spielberg fan. And — given that Spielberg had exceutive produced “I Wanna Hold Your Hand” — I had high hopes for this picture. But when I left the multiplex that same night, I was now a Robert Zemekis fan. I was amazed that one guy (working with his longtime writing partner, Bob Gale, of course) could write and direct such a fun motion picture.
Unfortunately, “I Wanna Hold Your Hand” bombed at the box office. As did Zemeckis’ next two collaborations with Spielberg — 1979’s “1941” (Which “The Two Bobs” wrote and Steven directed) and 1980’s “Used Cars” (Which Robert directed, Bob produced and Steven Spielberg executive-produced). Which is why it was kind of lonely being a Robert Zemeckis fan back then. I mean, you could have held this director’s fan club meetings in a phone booth back in the early 1980s.
Of course, all of that changed with the release of 1984’s “Romancing the Stone.” Zemeckis became a hot commodity with that Michael Douglas / Kathleen Turner romantic comedy/action adventure. And — what with a string of blockbusters like 1985’s “Back to the Future,” 1988’s “Who Framed Roger Rabbit” and his 1994 Academy Award winner, “Forrest Gump” that followed — he’s stayed on top ever since.
So — given the continuing interest in Robert’s career — it would stand to reason that there might be a market out there for a well written book about Zemeckis’ career. Sadly, Norman Kagan’s “The Cinema of Robert Zemeckis” (Taylor Trade Publishing, May 2003) is NOT that book.
What’s the problem. To be honest, I don’t know if this is Kagan’s fault or if Taylor Trade just wasn’t willing to spring for a quality proofreader, but “The Cinema of Robert Zemeckis” is just riddled with typos and/or misidentified performers & studio executives.
Take — for example — this passage from the chapter that covers the production of “Who Framed Roger Rabbit”:
“Even before Zemeckis shot his first scene, he had to have every frame of the movie in his head; he had to build in his brain what Disney’s Jeffrey Katzenback called ‘a giant hero sandwich.’ “
That’s admittedly a fun quote. Except that the last name of the then-head of Disney Studios was Katzenberg. NOT Katzenback
This same thing happens when Kagan includes a quote from Steve Spielberg that praises “Roger Rabbit” ‘s human star:
“The first cut looked like ‘The Invisible Man Returns’ … tea cups, seltzer bottles and shot glasses with bourbon in them floating around Ron Hoskins’ head.”
Again, another great quote. The only problem is that the actor who played Eddie Valiant was named Bob Hoskins. Not Ron Hoskins.
Midn you, if it were just one or two typos that we were talking here, I might be able to overlook it. But misspellings and/or misidentifications run rampant through “The Cinema of Robert Zemeckis.” Ned Beatty from “1941” is misidentified as Warren Oates. Jim Carrey’s name is mispelled C-a-r-e-y. And on & on it goes.
Which (to my way of thinking, anyway) just undercuts the effectiveness of Kagan’s book. I mean, if the author and/or publisher didn’t care enough about “The Cinema of Robert Zemeckis” to properly copy edit the manuscript … Well, then what else did they get wrong in this thing?
Which is really a shame. Given that there are some really great stories to be found “The Cinema of Robert Zemeckis.” For example: Where you can still find Eric Stoltz (I.E. The actor who was originally supposed to play Marty McFly in “Back to the Future,” who was replaced — weeks after this film was into full-blown production — by Michael J. Fox) in the first film of the “BTTF” trilogy. Or how about this story from Ken Ralston, the head of visual effects on “Who Framed Roger Rabbit” :
“At one point, Baby Herman was the villain, then Jessica. Then, in the last script I got, this character I’d never heard of, Judge Doom, was the villain. It was madness.”
Which is — admittedly — a great yarn. One that I’d love to add to my list of fun “Roger Rabbit” related stories. Except that — given how sloppy the fact-checking is on the rest of this book — I’m kind of reluctant to take what Norman Kagan says here as the gospel truth.
Which — again — is a shame. For Robert Zemeckis’ career really is worthy of some serious study. And perhaps somedayin the future, someone will rise to the challenge. But — for now — we’re stuck with “The Cinema of Robert Zemeckis.” Which is okay, I guess. If you’re willing to overlook a lot of misspellings and misidentications.