Back to the Future may not be Citizen Kane, but it’s debatably the Citizen Kane of time travel films, setting the standard for subsequent cinematic stories in which characters travel back to the past through technological or supernatural means. Now celebrating its 40th anniversary, its greatest strength is that it’s unfailingly entertaining, pure and simple, with a story that’s intriguing, exciting, funny, and satisfying from the first clock tick. The storycraft and world-building are exemplary. This is a carefully composed tale with cleverly nested layers of setups and subsequent payoffs that compel us to pay closer attention.
To listen to a recording of our CineVerse group discussion of Back to the Future, conducted earlier this month, click here (if you get an error message, try refreshing the page). To listen to the latest Cineversary podcast episode celebrating the film’s 40th birthday, click here.
As is true of so many all-time classics, Back to the Future boasts exemplary casting, with Michael J. Fox and Christopher Lloyd delivering the finest and most memorable performances of their careers in roles they seem born to play. The movie also benefited from great timing. Its release in 1985 parlayed the popularity or name brand cache of Fox, one of the era’s most popular TV characters; Huey Lewis, whose career was at its zenith; Robert DeLorean and his futuristic-looking car; and Ronald Reagan, the actor/president at the time who is humorously referenced in the film. 1985 was also ideal as a counterpoint to the mid-1950s, that postwar period considered by many who lived in that decade to be a halcyon era of prosperity and simpler living. Setting the throwback year at 1955 was perfect, as it rounded off the time gap to a nice round number (30), Marty’s parents would have been his exact age, and this was the time when rock ‘n’ roll was in its infancy, which became a plot point. (Ironically, the gap between 1985 and now is much longer than the span in the story between 1955 and 1985.)
Back to the Future is widely considered the best movie made by one of Steven Spielberg’s closest collaborators or imitators, and not created by Spielberg himself. Debatably, it’s director Robert Zemeckis’ finest work, and indisputably was the picture that elevated him to the directorial A-list. Zemeckis would go on to helm several classics, including Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988), Back to the Future II and III (1989-1990), Forest Gump (1994), Contact (1997), and Cast Away (2000).
A thoroughly charmed Roger Ebert
said Zemeckis “shows not only a fine comic touch but also some of the lighthearted humanism of a Frank Capra. The movie, in fact, resembles Capra’s “It's a Wonderful Life” more than other, conventional time-travel movies. It’s about a character who begins with one view of his life and reality, and is allowed, through magical intervention, to discover another.”
Equally enamored of the director’s filmmaking savvy, Vox critic Emily St. James
wrote: “He shoots even normally prosaic sequences — like a school dance — as if they were car chases. When it comes time for the bells of Back to the Future’s ticking clocks to start ringing, his editing leaps to a breathless level of intensity…Zemeckis displays an admirable level of expertise in turning the movie into a kind of living pinball machine, steadily ramping up the pace of his action sequences to train you for the all-out assault of the final half-hour.”
Rotten Tomatoes gives it a 93% approval rating, with an average critical score of 8.8 out of 10. It also topped the site’s ranking of favorite '80s films and placed 87th among the best action-adventure movies. Over on Metacritic, the film boasts an impressive score of 87 out of 100 based on 15 reviews.
This is a prime example of a critical darling and box office juggernaut, one that raked in $381.1 million worldwide to top the global box office charts in 1985. When adjusted for inflation, its total gross translates to nearly $215 million, placing it at number 71 among the highest-earning films in history.
The film also earned four Academy Award nominations: Best Original Screenplay for Bob Gale and Zemeckis, Best Sound for Bill Varney, B. Tennyson Sebastian II, Robert Thirlwell, and William B. Kaplan, Best Original Song for Huey Lewis and the News' The Power of Love, and Best Sound Effects Editing for Charles L. Campbell and Robert Rutledge – with the latter category bringing home the film’s lone Oscar.
Over the years, Back to the Future has only grown in stature, now regularly cited by critics and audiences alike as one of the finest science fiction films – and one of the greatest movies, period. In 2004, The New York Times included it in its roundup of the 1,000 greatest movies ever made. The following year, the Writers Guild of America ranked its screenplay 56th on their list of the best scripts from the past 75 years. Throughout the 2000s, it featured on numerous notable lists: number 10 in Film4’s 50 Films to See Before You Die, number 23 on Empire’s 500 Greatest Movies of All Time, and number 10 on the American Film Institute’s poll of the top science fiction films. In 2006, Marty McFly secured the 39th spot in Empire’s ranking of the 100 greatest movie characters, with Doc Brown following at number 76. Total Film named it one of the 100 best movies ever in 2010, while BBC radio listeners slotted it as their fourth favorite film. In 2014, The Hollywood Reporter polled over 2,000 industry insiders who named it the 12th greatest film ever. In 2015, the Writers Guild listed its screenplay as the 67th funniest ever written. Popular Mechanics and Rolling Stone declared it the number one and number four greatest time-travel films, respectively. Entertainment Weekly ranked it the 40th essential pre-teen film and the 28th best high-school movie. In the UK, Empire readers placed the film at number 11 on their 2017 list of the 100 greatest movies.
It’s hard to ignore Back to the Future’s pervasive reach as a pop-culture touchstone. Among the works it likely inspired are Peggy Sue Got Married (1986); Flight of the Navigator (1986); Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure (1989); Timecop (1994); Sliding Doors (1998); The Butterfly Effect (2004); Hot Tub Time Machine (2010); and Project Almanac (2015); and TV shows such as Quantum Leap (1989-1993), Rick and Morty (2013-), and Stranger Things (2016-).
Additionally, the trilogy triggered several pop-culture offshoots and trends, among them a theme park simulator ride, numerous video games, a cartoon TV show, a live musical, a renewed interest in skateboarding, and even an official Back to the Future Day (October 21), celebrated annually by millions around the globe and officially recognized by the Obama White House in 2015.
Earlier inspirations included science fiction and fantasy stories like H.G. Wells’ The Time Machine (1960), Mark Twain’s A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court (1889), and Ray Bradbury’s The Sound of Thunder (1952); Twilight Zone episodes such as Back There (1961) and No Time Like the Past (1963); and films including Somewhere in Time (1980), Time Bandits (1981), The Atomic Café (1982), and The Terminator (1984). Back to the Future also contains easter egg nods to classics like Safety Last (1923), The Wizard of Oz (1939), Earth vs. the Flying Saucers (1956), Dr. Strangelove (1964), Star Wars (1977), Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977), and Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981).
Plenty of critics and scholars credit this picture with solidifying more modern tropes and rules regarding time travel in movies. Many previous time-travel films were built around the idea that the past couldn’t be changed, but this work aimed to explore what might happen if it could – and how those alterations would reshape the future.
According to critic Richard Scheib, before this film, “the time machine had existed as little more than another planet for astronauts – an exotic locale (usually a post-holocaust setting) for two-fisted adventurers – and time-travel scenarios had not developed much sophistication beyond there-and-back adventures or of culture clash stories about visitors from one era arriving in another. After Back to the Future and The Terminator, time-travel lost its linearity, time became fluid with the past, the present and future a malleable whole that could be endlessly rearranged and fought for the better.” Scheib adds that the trilogy depicts “a past, present and future being innocently colonized and won over by contemporary junk culture – from the media-saturated landscape to skateboarding and rock’n’roll.”
Despite being a fun flick built for summertime escapism, Back to the Future examines several key themes, first and foremost free will versus fate. Are our lives predetermined by destiny and powers outside of our control, or can we actively change our futures and shape the direction of our lives? These are the questions the picture poses, with answers that clearly point to the latter and the power of self-determination over kismet.
“If you put your mind to it, you can accomplish anything” is the most remembered quote from the film, spoken by Marty, George, and Doc Brown, and serves as a motivational message about personal agency for each of them and the audience. It reminds us that believing in yourself, staying focused and determined, and not giving up can yield unexpectedly positive results. And it rejects Mr. Strickland’s caustic assessment that “No McFly ever amounted to anything.”
Back to the Future also deftly explores the generation gap: the differences – and similarities – between children and their parents, asking the timeless question, What were my mom and dad like at my age? Ultimately, the film espouses a positive message, that it’s possible for multiple generations within families to harmonize as well as understand and appreciate one another.
We are continually shown timepieces throughout the film – clocks, wristwatches, and digital timing devices, which remind us of the fleeting nature of time, and how the characters are perpetually concerned with temporal matters – from being late for school to beating the clock before being erased from existence. The film intimates that, even if we could live in the time of our choosing, we can never stop time: It’s always ticking away.
Zemeckis suggested that Marty is akin to an extraterrestrial alien in this science-fiction tale, which makes this a classic “fish out of water” narrative. Marty is stranded in an unknown world and shares his knowledge and skills with the surrounding natives, much like the main characters in E.T. (1982), Starman (1984), and Robert Heinlein’s story Stranger in a Strange Land (1961).
As lighthearted and family-friendly as Back to the Future would appear, it delves into perversity territory courtesy of the incestuous subplot involving young Lorraine and her son being sexually attracted to one another. This Oedipus complex sidestory is the major reason why Disney rejected the screenplay. (Interestingly, this film is only two years removed from the Return of the Jedi’s reveal that Luke and Leia are siblings, who, if you remember, romantically kissed in Episodes 4 and 5).
The movie lightly touches on social problems like racism, alcoholism, and bullying, but glosses over an even more serious subject: sexual assault, which occurs when Biff molests Lorraine in the car, much of which happens offscreen. Today, it’s laughable to think that a contemporary Lorraine would not be traumatized enough to immediately contact authorities and leave the dance, but there she is, right back at the gymnasium, ready to fall in love with George.
Some may also consider this film insulting to the influence and legacy of Chuck Berry and other pioneering black musicians by presenting Marty, a wholesome white kid, as the inventor of rock and roll.
Reaganism rules in Back to the Future, a motion picture often viewed as reflecting Reagan-era ideals, such as celebrating the pursuit of the American Dream, romanticizing a safer, simpler past through a nostalgic lens, and embracing a vision of the future where material success (like a new Toyota 4x4 and richer parents) is the reward for personal ambition and hard work. Doc Brown has been interpreted as a symbolic figure representing Reagan himself: a forward-looking advocate of technological progress who confronts threats like Libyan terrorists and helps uplift a struggling family. Others theorize that Back to the Future emphasizes the authority and redemptive power of paternal figures like George McFly and Doc Brown. Reagan’s capitalistic ethos is exemplified, as well, in the rampant embedded marketing found throughout the film, as evidenced by the recurrent mentions and consumption of products by Pepsi, Toyota, and Miller.
However, the entire notion of the 1950s as a golden age and the peak of Americanism flies in the face of many who lived through it, especially minorities and females who were subjugated and disempowered at that time. “It wasn’t so long ago that a black person’s primary concern in many American towns was something considerably worse than never being elected mayor,”
posited Slant Magazine critic Eric Henderson. “And yet, what to make of the finale, in which everything shallow and consumer-minded about the 1980s is presented as the ultimate happy ending?”
Zemeckis reflected in 2015 that, while the film’s ending suited the values of its era, he would approach it differently today. Actor Crispin Glover, however, openly criticized the message from the start, arguing that Marty’s true reward should have been loving, supportive parents, not wealth and material possessions.
Keith Phipps, essayist for The Dissolve,
defended several of these issues: “A more generous reading would see the prosperity (experienced by the McFly family at the conclusion) as a byproduct of George’s less fearful approach to life, and not the source of the McFlys’ happiness…Goldie Wilson overcomes prejudice to become Hill Valley’s mayor not because Marty encourages him, but because he was always going to become mayor. Marvin Berry clues his cousin Chuck into Marty’s performance of “Johnny B. Goode,” but Marty couldn’t have known the song if he didn’t come from a timeline when Chuck Berry wrote it in the first place.”
Indeed, an alternate reading of the film postulates that trying to “make America great again” by idealizing and returning to a supposedly idyllic past can be a letdown. Don’t forget that, as charming and innocent as Hill Valley seemed in 1955, the town also had its share of tyrants and sex offenders (Biff), bigots and delinquents (Biff’s gang), authoritarians (Strickland), and Cold War paranoiacs (the shotgun-wielding farmer).
Despite its flaws, Back to the Future continues to bestow generous gifts on its audience 40 birthdays later. The best package to unwrap at this party is the stellar script, the plot of which boasts marvelous intricacy, memorable characters, and impressive story threads that are introduced early and which pay dividends down the line – all of which help this narrative stand as one of the greatest ever written for the screen. Efficient and effective examples, both large and small, include:
Setup: In 1985, a woman hands Marty a flyer about the clock tower being struck by lightning at 10:04 p.m. on November 12, 1955, during a small-town fundraiser encounter. Payoff: That exact event and the flyer’s details become the crucial key to sending Marty back to the future.
Setup: Doc explains early on that the DeLorean must reach 88 miles per hour to activate the flux capacitor and time travel. Payoff: Marty must repeatedly hit exactly 88 mph at critical moments to escape danger and return to 1985.
Setup: Early in the film, it’s revealed that George secretly writes science fiction stories. Payoff: Marty uses this to pose as an alien to scare George into asking Lorraine to the dance – and in 1985, George has become a published author.
Setup: Marty carries a photo of himself and his siblings from 1985. Payoff: As Marty inadvertently interferes with his parents’ meeting in 1955, his siblings start fading from the photo, visually raising the stakes about his own existence.
Setup: Marty is shown early on as a talented, frustrated guitarist trying to land an audition. Payoff: He delivers an electrifying performance of Johnny B. Goode at the Enchantment Under the Sea dance, securing his parents' first kiss and unintentionally inventing rock 'n' roll.
Setup: In 1955, Marty meets young busboy Goldie Wilson at Lou’s Cafe and suggests he could be mayor someday. Payoff: In 1985, Goldie Wilson is indeed the Mayor of Hill Valley, as hinted by a TV re-election ad at the film’s start.
Setup: The mall is named Twin Pines Mall in 1985. Payoff: After Marty runs over one of Old Man Peabody’s two prized pines in 1955, the mall is renamed Lone Pine Mall in the altered 1985 timeline.
St. James, who called Back to the Future “the most perfect blockbuster ever made,” wrote that the film’s structure “is an elaborately constructed concoction that winds itself as tight as it possibly can in its first half, then unleashes all of that pent-up energy in a second half that never once pauses for breath yet still manages to cram in a full musical sequence…(It) sets up all the pieces on its board, then knocks them over one by one — and with great flair.”
She’s right. Back to the Future is a delayed gratification machine that perfectly lines up innumerable pins and then, much later, bowls one perfect strike after another, scoring a perfect game for one of the all-time great popcorn movies.
Read more...
Posts
