Back to the Future (1985) Review

“Rock and roll”

THE FOLLOWING REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS OF THE DISCUSSED FILM. READERS DISCRETION IS ADVISED.

We all say time is precious because the memories made within are just the same and the last thing that needs to happen are unintentional changes


PLOT


1985’s Back to the Future follows teenager Marty McFly who lives in Hill Valley, California, with his parents, Lorraine & George, and his older siblings Dave & Linda (Marc McClure & Wendie Jo Sperber). He aspires to be a musician and after a failed audition, he confides with his girlfriend Jennifer Parker (Claudia Wells) that he’ll lose ambition like his parents. At night, he meets up with his friend, scientist Doctor Emmett Brown at Twin Pines Mall where he reveals he’s made a Time Machine out of a DeLorean car. He tests it with his dog Einstein and it’s proven to work when having it go at exactly 88mph, taking him only a minute into the future. Doc doesn’t have time to celebrate his success and test going 25 years into the future, when he gets shot by terrorists he stole plutonium from. With no choice, Marty drives away with the DeLorean and unknowingly travels to 11/5/1955 where Doc first conceived the time travel invention. But with no spare plutonium left, he has no way back to his present. As he roams around this time period, he meets a teenage version of his dad who was always bullied by Biff Tannen before he ever became his boss in a white collar office job. That same day, he catches his dad on a tree spying on Lorraine changing, in which he remembers being told by them he was bird watching. When George falls into the path of the street, Marty saves him from being struck by a car driven by Lorraine’s dad. This unintentionally leads to Marty’s mom becoming infatuated with him instead of his dad. He later meets a younger Doc and is able to explain his predicament to him. Understanding the stakes, 50s Doc explains that the only source in his time period to generate 1.21 gigawatts for the DeLorean to work would be a lightning bolt. Marty knows there will be one coming soon as it is celebrated in the future. Within one week’s time, the plan is to harness the bolt’s energy, and channel it into the flux capacitor for it to work. Just as he suggests to avoid contacting people for the time being, Marty admits he’s contacted his parents and that incident has jeopardized the existence of himself and his siblings; The proof is shown in Marty’s photograph of them where his siblings slowly disappear from it. Because of this, Doc also requests him not to tell him of his future. Needing to undo his actions, Marty must spend with time with George to help him win Lorraine’s heart by the time of their school dance, where they’re supposed to share their first kiss. It becomes difficult for the most part as Lorraine is firm with how she feels for her future son without knowing who he really is, but Biff also constantly bullies them. Because Lorraine asks Marty out to the dance, he comes up with a plan to stage making advances on her so that George can intervene and impress her. That doesn’t go according to plan because when Marty drives her to the dance, she kisses him but does realize she wasn’t into it. Shortly after, Biff throws him out of the car to take advantage of the boy’s mom. Despite not planning for Biff to be there, George steps up and knocks him out with one punch. They do dance together, but only after Marty fills in for a band guitarist do they officially share their first kiss, securing the future of the McFly family. With the future secured, Marty meets up with Doc outside the clock tower. Wanting to save Doc, he returns 10 minutes before he got shot. He is able to go as planned once the lightning strikes and rushes to his friend in the present. Rather than grieve, Doc sits up alive & well because he read his note from him and had a vest in advance this time. After taking Marty back home by morning, Doc chooses to travel 30 years into the future. When Marty sees his parents again, George is now a successful sci fi author, Lorraine is happy instead of depressed like before, Dave has a successful office job instead of working at McDonalds, Linda is more confident than before and Biff is now a servile valet in George’s employ. Just when Marty is about to tell Jennifer what he went through, Doc returns from the future to warn them their future children are in for a terrible fate and the film ends in a cliffhanger where they all go together to save their future.


THOUGHTS


The idea of time travel has been a popular concept since HG Wells’ 1895 novel, The Time Machine, but in arguable sense, this has grown to be the definitive tale of the subgenre due to how immersive the whole concept is fleshed out here and throughout the trilogy. Director Robert Zemeckis & cowriter Bob Gale is able to make every detail & each moment matter in this adventure because the rules are well explained as you follow along. Marty’s presence in ‘55 changes so much when he’s not even intending to do anything because besides the interference with his parents’ meet-cute, he ends up turning a soapbox scooter into a skateboard and inspires Goldie Wilson to be mayor as he remembers. Simple things can become big when you’re not paying attention and that is what makes life special if you let it. Dean Cudney’s cinematography & Alan Silvestri’s score really get the ground going in sparking impeccable excitement throughout. The visual effects for the lightning & fire alone is impressive, but even the costume & makeup to show how different two different generations can be really brought pure elevation on what an experience time travel can be. With all of these elements, this movie has remained timeless because it also teaches us you can be the master of your destiny with every choice that matters and you catch on to it with each character that comes to understand it themselves. Marty and Doc have been the greatest dynamic duo in cinema history because the chemistry is goddamn powerful between Michael J Fox & Christopher Lloyd. The former has us love Marty so much because because while impulsive, his loyalty is off the charts to Doc and is adventurous in his age nonetheless. Even though he doesn’t intend to make the mistakes that occur, he doesn’t hesitate fixing them as soon as he could. You definitely feel the awkwardness that his mom was attracted to him, but at least he avoided it from getting worse. It’s hard to not feel all the relief he had when his parents shared their first kiss because we all wish to be there when we saw our own folks fall in love. Ironically, George & Lorraine were an opposites attract because Crispin Glover showed the former to be most insecure while Lea Thompson showed the latter to be most outgoing. Originally, they got together because Lorraine felt sorry for George but with the amount of change Marty made, she fell for a guy that built the confidence he needed to be happy which was the ideal man she sook. Had Thomas F Wilson not been such a cruel bully out of Biff that ran in his family, there’s no telling what else it would take for George to seek much needed maturity. What matters now is that he found it on his terms thanks to his son. Going back to Doc, Lloyd makes him his own icon because while eccentric, he uses his brain for the right reasons. He doesn’t come up with time travel got his own glory, but for the sake of science just to prove it can be done. Because he is aware of how complex time travel can be when thinking hard enough, he does the right thing in warning Marty to be careful. He goes back on his warnings to avoid knowing his future because seeing his invention in action for the first time inspired him, realizing the paradox wouldn’t be severe. And with Marty saving his future, he returns the favor saving his in the sequels. I don’t kid when I call this movie timeless, but then are a few things that confuse me upon rewatching. It is one cool experiment for Doc to have multiple watches in his home be precisely 25 minutes late, but I don’t see the reason for Marty to forget the time when it’s not likely his own watch was effected by it. Also, how exactly did the terrorists know exactly where to find Doc at night? He didn’t tell them where he was going, so it’s not like they went asking around the area for a few hours. The only continuity error I can say here would be how Marty drove through the Peabody barn with the door open, so it shouldn’t be facing backwards when the family investigates. That bothered me more than the Pepsi box going missing between takes since one was used for the amplifier. And it’s a bit of a stretch for the school band to do another song when Marty was messing up half of ‘Earth Angel’. I know it’s not Marty’s fault on this case, but they don’t know that and he can’t explain why. It then doesn’t really add up for Marty to run to the mall in time when it was apparently 2 miles away. Lastly, I don’t mind the sequels that came later, but I feel like Doc could’ve saved some trouble if he gave Marty a letter like he did to him. If that happened, the various consequences that would come later likely wouldn’t happen, whether or not it would new ones. Ignore this, then you’ll still love this movie very much. In conclusion, Back to the Future is one of the best movies ever made for showing the definition on how exhilarating a cinematic experience can be. If sci fi adventures like time travel are your jam, see this now.