Back to the Future (1985): Favourite Films Series

Back to the Future (1985): Favourite Films Series

 

The first time I saw Back to the Future was on TV on New Years Eve, around age seven. I tried my hardest to stay up to see it all (and make it to midnight) but I had to go to bed by the halfway point, so I made my parents promise to watch it again with me. I don’t remember how long it was until I saw it again, but about five years later I got the Back to the Future trilogy on DVD and watched all of them over and over, eventually tiring somewhat of the third, not so much the second, and never the first. The original is one of those movies that I have seen so many times I could probably close my eyes and watch it in my brain if I tried hard enough—but that’s too much work, so I still just put it on to watch again at least once every couple of years or more.

It wasn’t until I bought the trilogy on Blu-ray sometime in the early 2010s and downloaded the digital copies of all three to my iTunes that I saw it listed in the comedy genre for the first time. I found that a bit odd, because I always thought of Back to the Future primarily as science fiction, but as I got older, I came to realize it was far funnier than I initially realized. The basic plot summary (Marty McFly accidentally gets stuck thirty years in the past and has to get his parents to fall in love so he won’t cease to exist) is a combo-dramatic-comedic premise. It’s a storyline I just got from the get-go at such a young age I didn’t really grasp how funny it was. What I saw as the primary driving force behind the entire story is what gets things going before Marty even has to face his teenage mother falling for him: a friendship between a teenage boy and an eccentric old scientist that ends up spanning a far greater amount of time than Marty has even been alive.

Marty McFly and Doc Brown are one of those iconic film duos who are so ubiquitous with quintessential time travel characters that it’s easy to forget two things: one, they would not be as iconic had they not been played by two fantastic actors with the perfect chemistry, and two, a pairing like that would never happen today, because it would be seen as strange or inappropriate. I wonder if it seemed unusual even back in the mid-80’s, but the idea of a scientist who no one else seems to really believe in being friends with a kind teenager who is clearly interested in his crazy experiments makes sense to me, and is what helps Back to the Future appeal to audiences of all ages. When Doc Brown gets shot by terrorists, I was horrified the first time I saw it, and the idea that Marty had a chance to save him by going back and preventing that from happening fired up my imagination, but it was so frustrating when Doc didn’t immediately understand! When it seems Marty’s too late, it’s even more devastating, but then the reveal that he did protect himself, he did read that letter Marty wrote him, is the true resolution to the entire story, and one that makes it feel whole.

Even though I enjoy the evolution of Marty and 1955 Doc’s friendship and the culmination of it all with 1985 Doc being saved and getting to actually pursue his goal of seeing beyond his years, obviously the central conflict of needing to resolve the destinies of George McFly and Lorraine Bains is what the meat of the movie is really about, and the problem of Marty inadvertently taking George’s place in getting hit by Lorraine’s dad in the street is a great way to set the problem into motion, because we have already heard the story recounted by their future selves, so we instantly recognize what just happened, but it takes Marty a few more scenes to catch up. I adore that Marty gets himself into all these problematic situations but never comes off as a dumb kid making bad choices and being oblivious. He’s no scientific genius like Doc Brown, but still capable of navigating the bizarre situations he finds himself in. He has his own romantic mission while Doc figures out the technical stuff with the Delorean, and he accomplishes his goals with creative solutions, like donning the radiation suit to scare George into asking Lorraine out. I doubt anyone but Michael J. Fox could have pulled off the role so perfectly—likewise for Christopher Lloyd’s quirky take on Doc Brown.

Beyond Fox and Lloyd as Marty and Doc, the entire cast is perfect, able to make both their younger and older personas fully believable. Crispin Glover was always a unique actor, but George McFly has to be the best showcase of his ability to be unlike any other person you’ve ever seen (especially in a high school movie setting), yet he’s still likable and you want to see him get the girl. Thomas F. Wilson’s Biff Tannen starts as a primary antagonist for George and a secondary antagonist to Marty (having crashed the family car, ruining Marty’s weekend plans with his girlfriend Jennifer), but then he becomes one of the main problems for Marty when he’s displaced to the 50’s and Biff starts getting between George and Lorraine. It’s fun to imagine how it all went before Marty showed up, based on the story Lorraine recounts in act one—obviously Biff never got over Lorraine, based on how he acts in 1985, but the resolution to the character conflict is cheer-worthy, yet also funny. At no point do you really detest watching Biff because Wilson plays him in such a dimwitted yet oddly charming way.

One part that really freaked me out when I first saw it was the idea of Marty being erased from existence and actually seeing him lose the ability to play guitar before his arm starts to fade away. The very first thing we learn about Marty is that he loves playing guitar, as he hooks up to the giant amplifier, so it’s a darkly clever way of demonstrating his potential failure to preserve his own existence by him breaking down on stage unable to play. When I watch the scene now, I’m a little distracted by the way his fading arm looks—it’s as if it doesn’t quite line up with the position of his shoulder and the rest of his body—but this, along with maybe one or two other tiny details are all I can think of in terms of flaws. I’ve said many times before and I’ll say it again: there is no such thing as a perfect movie, but of all my favourite films, this one, along with only a few others, would be in the running were I to try to pick some that may be considered.

Something Back to the Future does so well is take the audience along to some low moments (like when Marty almost disappears and dies, essentially) then bring us back up to unbelievable heights. The movie culminates in the ultimate example of this: Marty is just about to drive down the road to prep for hitting the wire as the lightning strikes the clock tower, then after a bunch of dramatic buildup with everything going wrong, it all comes together in the last possible second, the Delorean travels back to the future, the music swells with the theme punching through the speakers, and then the Doc, stunned, is left in silence. You hold your breath. Did it work? Is it all ok? Doc lets us know when he cheers triumphantly, and when that music swells back up sounding even more whimsical and hopeful? It just moves me every time.

Back to the Future is a versatile movie-going experience, in that you can watch it on numerous levels. You can tune in and just go with the flow of the funny dialogue (underrated line from Doc about the Enchantment Under the Sea Dance: “Look. There's a rhythmic ceremonial ritual coming up”) and the quick-moving story, or, you can really pay attention and collect bits of the story and characters along the way through the rich visual storytelling happening in every scene. The uninterrupted opening shot of Doc’s lab is the first prime example, foreshadowing moments to be revealed throughout the runtime, but even to just take a moment and look in the background of the town square in the 50’s will reveal fun Easter eggs and references. Even all these viewings later, I still discover new hidden visuals. I don’t think director Robert Zemeckis ever put as much thought into the backgrounds of every shot in any of his other films.

Who doesn’t love the idea of time travel? Back to the Future is and always will be a paradigm for this kind of story told through the medium of film. Even though it is so 80’s in so many ways, it’s also timeless (no pun intended) and like most of my top tier favourite films, there aren’t enough words for me to fully express how much I love it and what it means to me. I’ll end with one of my favourite Back to the Future quotes, which is also one of the most optimistic and meaningful quotes from a film that I carry with me always. “If you put your mind to it, you can accomplish anything.” 

 

Related:

Top 10 Movie Theatre Experiences: https://cccmovies.blogspot.com/2022/09/top-10-movie-theater-experiences-ccc.html

Top 10 Underrated Sequels: https://cccmovies.blogspot.com/2014/07/ccc-issue-33-top-ten-underrated-sequels.html