Back to the Future (1985)

*** ½ out of ****

When asked about my favorite movies, I used to rhyme off a list of about 5 of them, and “Back to the Future” was always one. People would tell me it seemed out of place among “The Godfather”, “The Shawshank Redemption”, “It's a Wonderful Life” et al, but I honestly believe that “Back to the Future” is easily as enjoyable as any of them, even if it wasn't a cinematic event on the level of the others.

Go back in time to 1985.... I was 15 years old and in the tenth grade. I was deeply into action movies like “Rambo” and “Terminator”, but a friend of mine recommended I go see “Back to the Future” - he said that given how much time I spent reading about cultural history and listening to oldies that it would be right up my alley. So I went to see it. The next night I went to see it again. Then twice the next week. And once the week after that. It's one of only two films I went to see five times in the theatre....

Marty McFly (Michael J. Fox) is a high school senior, and the only member of his family that isn't a real underachiever. His father is a corporate doormat, his mother a drunk, his brother a dropout working at McDonalds and his sister a “lonely hearts” type. Marty is more popular, is in a band, has a girlfriend and is buddies with local mad scientist Doc Brown (Christopher Lloyd) so he has access to lots of fun gizmos. Brown asks Marty to meet him in the middle of the night at a local mall for an experiment, and Marty complies. Little does he know....

Doc Brown has invented a time machine and installed it in a car. When the car hits 88 MPH the machine activates and using a massive electric pulse sends the car to whatever date it has been programmed with. Through a bunch of missteps, Marty ends up in the car trying to make a getaway, and instead finds himself transported to the year 1955. He accidentally interferes with the initial meeting of his parents, and has jeopardized his existence because of it. Unless he can find a way to get them together, he will disappear into oblivion.... 

Director Robert Zemeckis is well known for his “whimsical” movies, and he clearly had a lot of fun with the whimsy here. The 1950s were an exciting era anyway, with the onset of rock 'n roll, the best looking cars in history, the popularization of television and recognition that teens were more than just older children. “Back to the Future” plays on all of these things, casting the 1950s Marty as a cross between James Dean and Elvis. His lack of understanding of the era makes for lots of laughs, and does as his “friendships” with his parents as he tries to unite them. Throw in a “buddy movie” dynamic with a little Oedipus Rex and you get the picture.

Michael J. Fox was outstanding in the lead role – I've always thought that if he were a bit taller he would have been a big leading man in 80s and 90s cinema. His comic timing is impeccable, as is Christopher Lloyd's as the mad scientist, a role much more designed for laughs. Crispin Glover and Lea Thompson are also great as his parents (there are no slackers in this cast) and Thomas F. Wilson provides countless great moments as the big bully Biff Tannen. Dealing with all this, as well as plotting to get back to 1985, make for an incredibly watchable film.

There are some that don't like it because of the massive issues it has with time travel incongruities, and though I understand the arguments I dismiss them.  It's a movie about a time machine for God's sake.  It isn't meant to be time/space accurate.....

Wonderful movie moments go on throughout, culminating in Marty's musical performance at the high school dance that is as fun as any sequence you'll ever see in the movies. Cultural references are also abundant, and especially these days when young people seem to believe nothing existed before the internet, are going to be great fun for those of use who still know who Chuck Berry, Jackie Gleason and Jerry Lewis are. It's just tremendous from start to finish – a movie for the whole family that you never get tired of.