11 years ago

@dunpealhunter - After the BTTF films, 1991 was a good year for MJF's career as he had two successful films back to back; The Hard Way (http://trakt.tv/movie/the-hard-way-1991) and Doc Hollywood (http://trakt.tv/movie/the-hard-way-1991). Sadly the year ended on a tragic personal note.<br /> <br /> I worked in a cinema in the early 90's and as you can imagine you get to see a film [often too] many times. This is back in the day when you had to do a 'change over' halfway through the film to seamlessly switch between the two projectors, so you had to keep your eye on it for the cues. I loved being in the Bio Box, around the film reels, so I would spend a lot of time in there, splicing my own trailer reels together etc. In between my various jobs I would watch great lengths of the films I was screening through the small window. <br /> <br /> I remember watching Doc Hollywood and after seeing it a number of times I noticed that MJF kept putting his hand in his pocket. It was strange as the action seemed unnatural and I mentioned to another projectionist to see what he thought. We realised he was trying to hide/stop his hand trembling. We thought "Oh no, has MJF got Parkinson's". Years later he went public with his condition and said that it was during the shooting of Doc Hollywood it became apparent something was wrong and later in 91 was diagnosed.<br /> <br /> On a random sidenote the Pixar film 'Cars' (http://trakt.tv/movie/cars-2006) is a beat for beat rip-off of Doc Hollywood. Beat for beat. My jaw hit the floor while watching Cars, I couldn't believe it. It's my least favourite Pixar film because of it.