The 80’s was a really great time for films, particularly in the family adventure genre. You had the Indiana Jones trilogy, the Star Wars sequels, E.T., and many more. These films went on to become iconic staples of the time and extremely influential films in their own right. But one of the best films to come out of this era was Robert Zemeckis’ Back to the Future.
Marty McFly (Michael J. Fox) is a teenage boy who is friends with a scientist named Doc Brown (Christopher Lloyd) who claims to have invented time travel. He shows Marty this new invention which is built into a DMC DeLorean and much to Marty’s (and Doc’s) surprise it works! It is powered by plutonium which Doc has stolen off a group of Libyan terrorists who promptly show up and shoot Doc dead. Marty manages to escape in the DeLorean, but when he reaches 88MPH he is transported to the date set on the time machine, November 5th 1955. When Marty arrives, he sets about finding a younger Doc to help him figure out how to send him back to 1985 but along the way interferes with his parents meeting for the first time. This seemingly insignificant event causes a chain reaction that begins to wipe Marty out of existence, so he must try to make his parents fall in love at their high school dance or risk fading out of existence!
Back to the Future has an incredible plot. It’s extremely straightforward to explain and understand, but contains so much depth, attention to detail, and character building that it feels so much meatier than it really is. Those are always the best kinds of plots, something that can be sold in an elevator pitch. Boy travels back in time, needs to figure out how to get back to the future, whilst also ensuring that his parents fall in love. Simple, straight forward, but contains so much potential to be built upon.
It’s the characters that make Back to the Future really shine. Marty is such a cool character, in fact he’s the kind of kid I wanted to be growing up. He has a steady girlfriend, he’s in a band with his friends, he doesn’t seem to be unpopular, but he certainly has a bit of a reputation with the school for being a slacker. His father, George McFly (Crispin Glover) is a total dweeb who still gets picked on by his high school bully, Biff Tanen (Thomas F. Wilson), and gets walked all over by his family. His mother, Lorraine (Lea Thompson) is an alcoholic who appears to regret marrying George despite still loving him. Doc Brown is eccentric, larger than life, and a complete nutcase. Christopher Lloyd does an incredible job of displaying what Doc is thinking and feeling without saying an awful lot most of the time, and it only adds to the eccentricity of this character. That’s the core cast and we spend an awful lot of time with them, both in 1985, and in 1955. The dynamics they share with each other are also phenomenal, particularly between Marty & his mother during the 1955 timeline of the film.
The dialogue is sharp and extremely witty, it has countless moments that leave me in stitches, and I feel that the film would really suffer if it hadn’t got such incredible characters and dialogue.
Marty McFly (Michael J. Fox) is a teenage boy who is friends with a scientist named Doc Brown (Christopher Lloyd) who claims to have invented time travel. He shows Marty this new invention which is built into a DMC DeLorean and much to Marty’s (and Doc’s) surprise it works! It is powered by plutonium which Doc has stolen off a group of Libyan terrorists who promptly show up and shoot Doc dead. Marty manages to escape in the DeLorean, but when he reaches 88MPH he is transported to the date set on the time machine, November 5th 1955. When Marty arrives, he sets about finding a younger Doc to help him figure out how to send him back to 1985 but along the way interferes with his parents meeting for the first time. This seemingly insignificant event causes a chain reaction that begins to wipe Marty out of existence, so he must try to make his parents fall in love at their high school dance or risk fading out of existence!
Back to the Future has an incredible plot. It’s extremely straightforward to explain and understand, but contains so much depth, attention to detail, and character building that it feels so much meatier than it really is. Those are always the best kinds of plots, something that can be sold in an elevator pitch. Boy travels back in time, needs to figure out how to get back to the future, whilst also ensuring that his parents fall in love. Simple, straight forward, but contains so much potential to be built upon.
It’s the characters that make Back to the Future really shine. Marty is such a cool character, in fact he’s the kind of kid I wanted to be growing up. He has a steady girlfriend, he’s in a band with his friends, he doesn’t seem to be unpopular, but he certainly has a bit of a reputation with the school for being a slacker. His father, George McFly (Crispin Glover) is a total dweeb who still gets picked on by his high school bully, Biff Tanen (Thomas F. Wilson), and gets walked all over by his family. His mother, Lorraine (Lea Thompson) is an alcoholic who appears to regret marrying George despite still loving him. Doc Brown is eccentric, larger than life, and a complete nutcase. Christopher Lloyd does an incredible job of displaying what Doc is thinking and feeling without saying an awful lot most of the time, and it only adds to the eccentricity of this character. That’s the core cast and we spend an awful lot of time with them, both in 1985, and in 1955. The dynamics they share with each other are also phenomenal, particularly between Marty & his mother during the 1955 timeline of the film.
The dialogue is sharp and extremely witty, it has countless moments that leave me in stitches, and I feel that the film would really suffer if it hadn’t got such incredible characters and dialogue.
Technically the film is great too. The editing is damn near perfect, the camera always lingers for just the right amount of time on things, so you don’t ever feel rushed or like the film is too slow. It moves at the perfect pace it needs to; this also helps with the framing of shots. There is usually a lot to digest in a frame as Zemeckis relies a lot on visual storytelling for BttF. There are usually subtle cues in the fame to events later on in the film, as well as a lot of information about the characters themselves that aren’t explicitly said but can be gathered by catching glimpses of things in the background, or the expression on their faces.
The music is pretty great too, obviously the theme tune is iconic but the music for chase sequences in particular is pretty great. It has good use of licensed music that plays into the story pretty well which makes a nice change rather than it just being there for the sake of it.
If you haven’t seen Back to the Future yet then you really need to. It’s a great family film that captures this sense of adventure and craftsmanship that a lot of modern films simply don’t have anymore. I hate to sound like a broken record, but they really don’t make films like they used to. It’s clear that films like Back to the Future were made with a great amount of love and care. Yes, a films primary purpose for existing is to make money, but they are also art, and films like Back to the Future really show just how much caring about the film being made can translate into financial success.
The music is pretty great too, obviously the theme tune is iconic but the music for chase sequences in particular is pretty great. It has good use of licensed music that plays into the story pretty well which makes a nice change rather than it just being there for the sake of it.
If you haven’t seen Back to the Future yet then you really need to. It’s a great family film that captures this sense of adventure and craftsmanship that a lot of modern films simply don’t have anymore. I hate to sound like a broken record, but they really don’t make films like they used to. It’s clear that films like Back to the Future were made with a great amount of love and care. Yes, a films primary purpose for existing is to make money, but they are also art, and films like Back to the Future really show just how much caring about the film being made can translate into financial success.