Thoughts on Back to the Future

Courtesy UCLA.edu/Universal Pictures

"You know, Marty, I'm gonna be sad to see you go. You've really made a difference in my life. You've given me something to shoot for. Just knowing that I'm going to be around to see 1985. That I'm gonna succeed in this. That I'm gonna have a chance to travel through time! It's gonna be really hard waiting 30 years before I can talk to you about everything that's happened in the past few days."

Thirty-five years after its release, there's still something audacious about Back to the Future. It's a high-concept movie that works because of low-concept storytelling. Marty McFly (Michael J. Fox) accidentally travels from 1985 to 1955, screws up the space-time continuum and has to get things right again before he can go home. Exciting stuff, but there's much more than just thrills.

Re-watching a favorite movie is always a bit daunting. There's so many questions. How much weight does nostalgia carry? Can the story still hold my attention? Is there still something to be surprised by? To answer the last question, yes. On this last viewing, I got a kick out of how much exposition was given before Marty fled the Libyan terrorists by driving the plutonium-charged DeLorean.

Director-screenwriter Robert Zemeckis, co-screenwriter Bob Gale and executive producer Steven Spielberg probably didn't intend this, but Future has a close enough resemblance to another beloved movie about trying to get back from a strange, wonderful place. Why, Marty winds up with three close companions and the villain is defeated as a result of a selfless act of bravery. Figured it out?

That's right, I've decided Future shares some DNA with The Wizard of Oz. Doc Brown (Christopher Lloyd) receives knowledge. Lorraine Baines (Lea Thompson) receives true love. George McFly (Crispin Glover) receives courage. Like Dorothy and friends, there's no weak link. Marty realizes how much he loves his mom, dad and Doc and because of this, we can't help but love Marty.

"Lorraine. My density has brought me to you."

"What?"

"Oh. What I meant to say was ..."

"Wait a minute. Don't I know you from somewhere?"

"Yes. Yes. I'm George. George McFly. I'm your density. I mean, your destiny."

Okay, that's enough about emotions and feelings for a while. I'm proud to say that even after so many viewings, Back to the Future is still fun. The plot is ingenious, the comedic situations and other plot devices are inspired and the actors do first rate work. Even characters like Jennifer (Claudia Wells) and Biff Tannen (Thomas F. Wilson) have a life to them that you might not expect.

A movie like Future depends on audience goodwill. If we don't care that Marty is going to such great lengths in order to survive, if we aren't touched by his newfound understanding that his parents were kids once, too, then it's all meaningless. The performances make the difference, too. Glover and Thompson are first rate as George and Lorraine, closely following a never better Lloyd.

"Christopher Lloyd in particular was brilliant at spouting rapid-fire exposition that not slow down a scene, but also stick with viewer. You had pretty good understanding of time travel mechanics from few quick lines of dialogue."

-- Cookie_Monster, The Dissolve

And then there's Fox. It's cliche to say that someone is better in a movie that they have any right to be, but that's what I think of when I see him playing Marty. Nobody else could act, could exemplify that role as well as he could. It doesn't require a hero. It doesn't require a whiz kid. It just requires a plucky young man. "If you put your mind to it, you can accomplish anything," indeed! 

The truth is, I was always going to give Back to the Future a passing grade. In addition to its own merits, I've got sentimental reasons. You see, my dad looked enough like Glover when he was younger. Now, I'm an adult, my mom and dad are divorced, I love my stepmother, life's gone on ... but when George kisses Lorraine at the Enchantment Under the Sea dance, then gives that wave to Marty ... well, for a few moments, I forget.

"Oh, one other thing. If you guys ever have kids, and one of them, when he's eight years old, accidentally sets fire to the living room rug ... go easy on him."

Recommended.

Thoughts:

-- "SAVE THE CLOCK TOWER!"

-- Box Office: Grossing $210.6 million on a $19 million budget, this opened at No. 1, appears to have stayed in the top five for four straight months and came in at No. 1 for 1985.

-- Critic's Corner, the movie: "Welcome back to the art of storytelling!" Paul Attanasio raved. "Wildly pleasurable ... filled with enchantment and sweetness and zip as only a bona fide summer hit can be." People: "Jacked-up technology takes a backseat to charm here, and the film is better for it." David Denby: "It's probably the wittiest and most heartfelt dumb movie ever made." Richard Corliss ended his review by singling out the "your kids are gonna love it" moment. "You bet, Marty," he wrote. "You and your whole movie. Now and for 30 years to come." Jen Cheney, writing for The Dissolve in 2015, observed that "A film about a time machine now effective acts as a time machine itself."

-- Critic's Corner, the leads: Fox received raves (People: "Smashing."; The Hollywood Reporter: "Appealing") but also criticism. Denby: "... a practiced young performer, competent but impersonal." Future was Lloyd's breakthrough, Attanasio wrote, "the first time he has shown that his own brand of nutty intensity can carry a whole movie." Pauline Kael: "(He's) blissfully silly." Genevieve Koski, writing for The Dissolve, praised Fox and Lloyd's chemistry. "(They create)  a distinctive, unique relationship -- not quite father-son, but something more than just bros -- primarily through the quality of their banter and reactions to each other."

-- Critic's Corner, the supporting actors: While Thompson, Wilson and Wells also got across the board decent notices, critics devoted more ink to Glover. He ran away with the movie, as far as Variety was concerned. Denby: "... his performance is a weird burlesque, and like the greatest burlesque, it's almost unbearably sad." Koski felt Glover helped to at least slightly undercut the movie's endorsement of materialism. Cheney: "His oddball weirdness elevates that character so, so much. ... he's a fully dimensional human who is nerdy in a way that's specific to him and only him."

-- Critic's Corner, Zemeckis: "(His) gift for off-center comic characterizations injects a welcome note of human comedy into the customary high-tech surroundings," according to Kirk Ellis, The Hollywood Reporter. "(He has) the kind of inventiveness that indicates he will be spinning funny, whimsical tall tales for a long time to come," Janet Maslin wrote.

-- Denby, who invoked "a whole new world" in his Little Mermaid review, once again proved possibly prescient. "Somewhere, sometime, there will be a parody in which Marty fathers himself." Do you think the Futurama writers read New York?
-- Awards Watch, all-purpose: An Oscar winner for Best Sound Effects Editing, this was also nominated for its screenplay, its sound and "The Power of Love." This went zero for four at the Golden Globes and zero for five at the BAFTAs, despite big ticket nominations including Best Motion Picture -- Musical or Comedy (GGs)/Best Film (BAFTAs), Best Actor in a Musical or Comedy (Fox, GGs), Best (Original) Screenplay (both) and Best Song ("Power of Love," GGs), plus nods for the editing, production design and visual effects (BAFTAs). The screenplay was also recognized by the Writers Guild of America, losing the Best Original Screenplay honor to Witness. Finally, Future received Favorite Motion Picture at the People's Choice Awards.

-- Awards Watch, genre: Future scored the most nominations at that year's Saturn Awards, winning for Best Science Fiction Film, Best Actor and Best Special Effects. The nominees included Glover, Lloyd, Thompson, Zemeckis, composer Alan Silvestri and costume designer Deborah Scott. Future also won the Hugo Award (beating out Ladyhawke, Cocoon, Enemy Mine and Brazil).

-- Awards Watch, music: The score was Grammy nominated, losing to Beverly Hills Cop. "The Power of Love," in addition to its Oscar and Golden Globe nominations, was Grammy nominated for both Record of the Year and Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals, losing both to "We Are the World." "Love" did better with the American Music Awards, winning both Favorite Pop/Rock Song and Favorite Pop/Rock Video. The video was nominated for Best Stage Performance at the MTV Video Music Awards.

via YouTube

-- Memorable Music: The score is 28-20, still favoring songs written for movies. Back to the Future had a walloping nine songs worth mentioning. Four were originals, five were oldies. The first, of course, is "The Power of Love," which topped the Billboard charts from Aug. 24-31, 1985, before being replaced by, amusingly enough, "St. Elmo's Fire (Man in Motion)." Continuing through Future, we have "Mr. Sandman," "The Wallflower (Roll with Me, Henry)," "Night Train," "Earth Angel," "Johnny B. Goode," the main theme, "Heaven is One Step Away" and "Back in Time."

-- This is the first of two movies choreographer Brad Jeffries worked on in 1985. The other is A Chorus Line. Jeffries is perhaps better known for working with Madonna (the Virgin Tour, the "Open Your Heart" video). He stayed in the Zemeckis fold by choreographing Back to the Future Part II, Back to the Future Part III and Death Becomes Her.

-- Today in Confessions: I voted for Thompson when she competed on Dancing with the Stars. Yes, at one point she did a routine to "The Power of Love." I'm remembering one for "Earth Angel," but she might have just worn a variant of the Enchantment Under the Sea dress.

-- Fanservice Junction: Fox and Thompson both have underwear scenes, but I still say the movie's smokeshow was Billy Zane.
-- "Mayor!"

-- Today in Saturday Night Live: "Back in Time" was featured in one of my all-time favorite silly sketches. Dana Carvey and Kevin Nealon played guys in an elevator who'd end up annoying a famous person (previously, Sting) with music associated with them. "Gotta go back in tiimme!" That was the second "host sketch" during Fox's 1991 episode. The first involved Doc (Nealon) and future Michael (Carvey) taking him back to stop past Michael (David Spade) from doing the show.

-- Hey, It's 1985-86!: A few months after Future dominated the box office, SNL host Pee-wee Herman said his next movie would involve time traveling to keep Fox's folks apart. A few months later, Ron Reagan had to reunite Ronald (Randy Quaid) and Nancy (Terry Sweeney). There were okay gags, like the movie being "A Take Your Oscar And Shove It Production" (Spielberg had just been snubbed for directing The Color Purple) and Nancy calling Ron "Nicky" after seeing his shoes. The sketch also sorta foretold the 1985A sequence in Part II, ending with welfare mother Danitra Vance and her kids chasing Ron out of his former home.
-- "Bleak for the Future," MAD's parody, was slightly better. Doc Clown's amassed a fortune in debt, but his plan is to send the bills back in time to before he got his credit cards. McShy says lots of father and son relationships are little more than distant acquaintances. Marquee hates to think what Deranged would call him if he was wearing Fruit of the Loom. Doc thinks the idea of time travel is utter nonsense. "But since utter nonsense if my life's work, I'll accept what you say!" It ends with Clown seeing Marquee off, then noticing McShy and Deranged buying birth control.

-- "Lou, gimme a milk. ... Chocolate."

-- Hey, It's ...!: Deborah Harmon, Huey Lewis, Marc McClure, Wendie Jo Sperber, Frances Lee McCain, Jason Hervey, Maia Brewton, Courtney Gains and Sachi Parker.

-- I realized this when watching Part II last year, but Marty must have slept very well on Sunday, Oct. 27, 1985. He got a full night's sleep after coming home from 1955 (which he spent a week in), but then you figure that on Saturday, he put in visits to 2015 (a few hours), 1985A (a few hours), 1955 (roughly 24 hours) and 1885 (half a week).

-- "That's Strickland. Jesus, didn't that guy ever have hair?"

-- Next: Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome, Silverado. On deck: The Man with One Red Shoe, The Legend of Billie Jean.