So, I'm a fan of time travel stories as you might have noticed. It's honestly one of the most amazing storytelling engines in all of science fiction. Like the trope of the alternate universe, there's so much that can be done with it. Back to the Future, both on its own and as a trilogy, is probably the most widely-known and beloved version of time travel in popular culture - so much to the point that Doctor Who, a show that predates it by twenty-two years, has referenced it. The first film was the biggest film of 1985 and for good reason - it's absolutely fantastic.
It didn't start out that way, though. Enter future screenwriter Bob Gale and future producer and director Robert Zemeckis, who in 1980 wanted to make a time travel movie but didn't have a story that they liked. Then Bob Gale found his father's high school yearbook and wondered if he would have been friends with his father, realizing that he could find out if he had the ability to travel through time. From there, along with some other details from Gale and Zemeckis' lives, the story began to take shape.
However, it was only after the success of Robert Zemeckis' film Romancing the Stone in 1984, and a more than significant push from the one and only Steven Spielberg that Back to the Future became even a remote possibility. After over 40 rejections from various studios (some of them being multiple rejections), July 3, 1985 finally saw the movie released to the world at large.
So let's take a look at what they gave us, shall we?
Marty McFly (Michael J. Fox) is an aspiring musician living in the year 1985 in the town of Hill Valley, California. He has his loving girlfriend Jennifer (Claudia Wells) who supports Marty's desire to become a musician, even as he lacks confidence and fears becoming like his parents: the doormat known as George McFly (Crispin Glover...please don't sue me for including you here, Mr. Glover) and alcoholic Lorraine (Lea Thompson).
With his siblings (Marc McClure and Wendie Jo Spencer) also being failures, Marty is rather disillusioned with his life.
That changes when a friend of his, Doctor Emmett Brown (Christopher Lloyd) unveils a time machine he built out of a 1981 DeLorean...that runs on plutonium. With the flux capacitor, when the DeLorean hits 88 miles per hour...well, do I even have to say it?
But when some Libyans terrorists that Doc Brown conned into giving him the plutonium come back and gun the man down, Marty makes a daring escape from them in the DeLorean...accidentally going right back to 1955. After chance meetings with his parents, he interrupts them meeting and falling in love. Thanks to a picture he has of himself and his siblings, Marty and Doc Brown of 1955 work out that he's fading from existence, and thus Marty has to set right what once went wrong, avoid the wrath of George's bully Biff Tannen (Thomas F. Wilson) and hope that his next leap will be the leap home.
. . .we have about four years until that? Alright, cool.
Back to the Future is definitely a science fiction film, that much is certain, but it is also a particularly skillful comedy. The first film alone has many moments that still make me laugh even on repeat viewings, with the delivery being as good as it is. Many of the jokes involve things from the then present of 1985 being used in 1955 (such as Marty dressing up as "Darth Vader" to convince his nerdy sci-fi loving father to ask his mother to the Enchantment Under the Sea dance), even to the point in one scene that famously made Ronald Reagan ask the theater staff to stop the film and rewind it just to hear the joke once again.
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| Oh, he's not fading out of existence. He's wincing because someone asked him to play "Free Bird". |
. . .yes, that one. Which I admit was probably a lot funnier in 1985, but is still pretty chuckle-worthy even now.
The time travel isn't just for jokes, of course. Beyond just getting Marty to 1955 so that he must get back to the future, foreknowledge also is what will help get Marty back to the future - given knowledge of a lightning bolt that will strike the town's clock tower that will provide the DeLorean enough power to travel through time once again. Marty's knowledge of how his parents met and fell in love is also used to try and get them together again, as well as giving a chance to learn that he and his old man aren't so different after all.
. . .and that Lorraine was not nearly as truthful about her youthful exploits as she insists she was.
The score is done by Alan Silvestri, adding another feather in his cap to an already awesome legacy of films he's worked on. Yes, believe it or not, he did actually make music before the Marvel Cinematic Universe snatched him up, and he made one of his most iconic compositions for this movie. His style is honestly perfect for it, infusing almost every scene with exactly the right notes needed at every point. I'm admittedly not so educated in music that I'd be able to explain it but, as a wise man once said, I know what I like. And I know that Alan Silvestri score gave a big boost to this movie.
Also, Huey Lewis and the News doing "The Power of Love". If you hate it, you're lying!
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| "Bro. Your mom's hot." |
Another big boost the film has is it's great cast. Michael J. Fox just exudes charisma in pretty much any role he's in and is instantly likeable almost as soon as he gets onscreen. Christopher Lloyd is a legend. Lea Thompson, apart from being gorgeous, also manages to play both the teenaged and both versions of the adult Lorraine astoundingly well. Even Crispin Glover, who comes across as creepy in pretty much every other role he's ever had and in real life is really good as George, Marty's assistance in building his confidence after interfering with the timeline to begin with shows us a much better person than the spineless doormat we see in 1985.
And yeah, spoiler alert, Marty's and his family's lives are vastly improved when he does finally return to 1985. His parents are happy and successful, his father having even published his first novel. His sister has gone from a proto-Daria to being a social butterfly, and his brother has an office job instead of working at a fast food joint. Even their house has better furniture and knick-knacks, up to and including Marty having a truck he was wanting at the beginning of the film.
I mean, sure, it's shameless consumerism, but what are you gonna do? It was the 1980's.
I honestly really can't overstate it, this movie is great. It not only serves as a perfect feel-good film, but also is something of substance. It came out at exactly the perfect time, with all of the elements working for it to utter perfection. It is a film of its time, which ironically enough makes it kind of timeless. Sure, it has the trappings of the 1980s and that is indeed part of the charm...but that isn't what makes it great, although given the ratio of good films to bad in the 1980's it certainly helps.
There is, of course, the question of how exactly the time travel works in the Back to the Future universe. Yes, there are obvious changes that are made when Marty returns...but there are certain things that were already going to happen such as Goldie Wilson running for Mayor of Hill Valley (an idea that Marty puts into his head in 1955...but obviously couldn't have done before) or the writing of the song "Johnny B. Goode" as made famous by Chuck Berry.
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| Not even close to the most ridiculous thing Michael J. Fox wears in this movie. |
There's also how rather easy-going the timeline is about Marty and his siblings slowly being erased from existence...as well as what happened to the original 1985 that Marty first travelled from to get to 1955.
Of course, one might say that that's needlessly overcomplicated things. One would probably be right, in this case. I'll be honest, I can't dislike this movie. Not one part of it. No, not even the incest-y bits with Lorraine (which she quickly abandons as soon as she and Marty kiss...which makes me kind of thing he should have just gotten on with it and taken on the trauma to spare us all).
It's just...so damn good. Really! Don't take my word for it, though. It was the highest grossing film of 1985, it won an Oscar at the Academy Awards in 1986, it's stored in the Library of Congress as something culturally significant...and it's also spawned two sequels and a slew of other merchandise up to and including theme park rides and even a stage musical. It was beloved in 1985 and it's still beloved today and for good reason.
We keep coming back to it, and I think that's good.
. . .what's that? The two sequels? I think we'll cover those another day. As for Back to the Future - if you haven't seen this, then welcome to this the year 2021 (adjust for what year you're reading this). Go get a copy.
Now.
Right now.
Go!
Back to the Future is brought to us by Amblin Entertainment and Universal Pictures.
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