Back to the Future (1985)

 ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆

Back to the Future (1985) – R. Zemeckis

I suspect that I haven’t seen this movie since the 1980s, so it was a real head trip this time to reconcile the nearly 40-year difference between “now” (2023) and the “now” of the film (1985 – when I was turning 18 but Michael J. Fox playing a 17 year-old was actually 24) which is actually longer than the difference between the film’s “now” and the year Marty McFly (Fox) travels back to (1955 – 30 years).  In fact, at the end of the film Doc Brown (Christopher Lloyd) says he plans to travel 30 years into the future, which would have been 2015 (8 years ago).  To add to this, I watched the movie with my 10-year-old son (born in 2012). He was unfazed but my attention was attracted to the telephones, cars, hair, clothes and music (e.g., Huey Lewis) of the 1980s – these seemed more authentic than those featured in the recreation of the 1950s (although how would I know, except from watching movies).  The film itself seemed briefer than I remembered. After some stage-setting scenes with his parents (Crispin Glover and Lea Thompson) and Biff (his dad’s tormentor; Tom Wilson), Marty meets up with Doc at 1:30 AM where he learns about the time machine (DeLorean car) and the Libyan terrorists who want their plutonium back. They kill Doc as Marty flees into the past – to 5 November 1955.  There he meets his parents but accidentally messes up the future by getting hit by his grandfather’s car instead of his dad getting hit; this causes his mother to fall in love with him instead of his father.  In order to set things straight (and protect his own future existence), Marty needs to get his mom together with his dad. I had hesitated watching this with Amon due to the sexual underpinnings of the plot (not to mention the scenes of sexual violence that are pivotal to it) but we skated right through that. The final half-hour of the film is like a master-class in creating tension, as Marty’s ability to return to the present (and also warn Doc about the Libyan terrorists) is nearly thwarted at every turn.  This was, of course, a huge hit for director Robert Zemeckis who has prided himself on special effects throughout his career. There’s a classical charm to the proceedings that makes the film work for both kids and adults, although the datedness of the ‘80s is something that I still find hard to digest.