"Back to the Future" review

Everyone in Fresno or anywhere else has their favorite movies; those movies that you grow up with and can't help but cherish for the rest of your life. In the case of this reviewer, he has many such movies, but one of his absolute favorites is the original Back to the Future.

Its one of those movies that somehow never gets old no matter how many times you watch it. The script is rock solid, the execution is excellent, and it has everything you could want in a good movie: drama, comedy, action, suspense, romance, and let's not forget some unforgettable performances and one of the most famous cars in the history of film.

The film begins in the year 1985 in the small California town of Hill Valley, a town that has changed quite a bit over it's over 100-year history. One of the citizens of Hill Valley is Marty McFly (played by Michael J. Fox), a seventeen-year-old, super-cool, skateboarding kid who dreams of becoming a famous rock star. Like many at his age, Marty is prone to get into trouble, but his biggest problem is his family. He has an uncle in prison, his brother is an idiot stuck in a dead-end job, his sister is a social outcast who can't get a date, his mother, Loraine (played by Lea Thompson) is an overweight alcoholic, and his father, George (played by Crispin Glover) is a complete loser that cannot stand up to his old bully and now supervisor Biff Tannen (played by Thomas F. Wilson). But Marty's life is anything but boring, because one of his friends is Dr. Emmett Brown (played by Christopher Lloyd), the town's mysterious, crackpot scientist who one night invites Marty to see the test run of his greatest invention. That invention turns out to be a working time machine…built into a DeLorean. After proving that his machine work, "Doc" is about to use it to travel into the future, but the Libyan terrorists that the Doc had ripped off in order to get the plutonium he needed to power the time machine, track the Doc down and murder him. Marty witnesses this, but then finds himself on the run from the terrorists, fleeing from them in the DeLorean and accidentally traveling through time himself.

Marty finds himself in the year 1955, and, naturally, all he cares about is getting out of this strange time period and getting back home, knowing that the only one who can help him is the younger Doc Brown. But while Marty is there he makes an even bigger mistake-he encounters his parents now at the same age as him, and accidentally interferes with their first meeting. This means, as the Doc explains, that they will never fall in love, never get married, and never have kids, which means that unless Marty can get his parents back together soon he will be erased from existence. So now Marty has three problems: getting his parents together, getting back to his own time, and making sure the Doc doesn't get shot in thirty years!

There are many reasons why this film works as well as it does, but the number one reason is the script. There is not a single part of this movie that does not pay off by the ending. There is exposition all over the first act, but all of it is delivered so casually and wisely that you are left surprised at how it pays off after Marty goes back in time.

To give the readers an example of what he means, this examiner is going to tell a story that producer/writer Bob Gale told on the DVD release. The very first preview of Back to the Future was in San Jose for an audience that had no idea what movie they were going to see, not even knowing that it was about time travel (remember that this was before the Internet), all they knew what that Michael J. Fox and Christopher Lloyd were in it. So this audience was being bombarded with all this talk about how much of a loser Marty's father was as a kid, how a lightning bolt struck the town clock tower thirty years ago, how Marty's parents first met, and so on. They even saw a trio of young adult actors (Lea Thompson, Crispin Glover and Thomas F. Wilson) appear on screen in old age makeup, instead of just casting middle-aged actors for those roles. The obvious question that was going through everyone's mind was "I don't get it; where are they going with this movie?"

And then comes the classic scene where Doc does his test run of the time machine with his dog Einstein in the driver's seat, which disappears in a flash of light and fire trails left behind; the first audience to see this thought they had actually killed that dog. When the dog and the car came back there was some relaxation, and then the audience gets the explanation that the car is a time machine, but there was still this consistent thought on everyone's mind-"Now there's a time machine all of a sudden? I still don't get this movie."

But then, after Marty has traveled back to 1955, they get to the scene where Marty enters the 50s café, and who should he encounter but his own father, now the same age as him (hence who they first introduced these teen actors in old age makeup), being bullied by the now equally young Biff Tannen, in deliberately similar dialogue to their first scene no less. Once this scene was finished, all confusion was washed away and everyone in that audience instantly understood where this movie was going. And after that everything else that was set up slowly fell into place; it must have been like an epiphany!

But its not just the ingenious way it pays off all its story elements (which by the way has been cited by film professors as a prime example of how to do so), but the script for Back to the Future manages to balance a unique tone that so many films fail to do. There is plenty of comedy in this story, but there is also romance, drama, and even a few engaging action sequences; it has everything viewers could want, and yet none of it ever overshadows anything else. The film is funny right when it's supposed to be funny and serious right when it wants to be serious.

Despite being very much a 80s film (namely at the ending), Back to the Future also feels timeless, certainly compared to other teen films that were made during that decade. There are some sexy moments, but not at all sleazy like in Fast Times at Ridgemont High or Animal House. In fact, the humor here is very clean…except for a famous subplot involving Marty and his mother, but even that part has a justification and innocence to it.

The second biggest thing that makes this movie works are the performances. Michael J. Fox was born to play Marty McFly, plain and simple…which is ironic since he only got the part after four weeks of shooting with Eric Stoltz in the role (but that's a whole other story). Fox has a natural comedic timing and wit that just bring this character to life in a way that nobody else could have done. Similar praise can be given to Christopher Lloyd as Doc Brown, whose own eccentric mannerisms, comedic timing and larger-than-life presence makes viewers pay attention to everything he does. Lloyd's character is routinely given tons of exposition in all three Back to the Future films, but Lloyd's delivery is what makes all of it fun to listen to. Lea Thompson is wonderful as Lorraine Banes-McFly, bringing an understanding and teenage innocence to a character arch that would otherwise be very disturbing to viewers. Crispin Glover, an actor famous for his bizarre behavior and unusual acting choices, brings all those traits to the part of George McFly, creating a character that is the epitome of social awkwardness and cowardice, but his almost dazed delivery makes it funny when you watch him, and you can't help but feel proud of him when finally stands up for himself. Thomas F. Wilson matches his own towering stature with an almost excessive mix of rudeness, attitude, and raw teenage libido to turn the character of Biff Tannen into one of the single greatest jerks in the history of film. These are actors where all you have to do is look at them and hear them say their first lines and you instantly understand all you need to about their characters; that's the best casting you can have!

The production design is also brilliant. The use of the Universal back lot to create a classic, 50s town that made everyone working on the film, as well as the older generation that sees it, think "this reminds me of where I grew up." Everything is beautiful and the detail is amazing, right down to the vintage advertising use. In fact, the filmmakers where very careful to only make product placement deals with companies that where in operation during the 50s, and only if those companies had changes their logos. Compare the logo on the Texaco gas station in 1955 to what it was in 1985, same with the Pepsi bottles. In speaking of 1985, the irony of it all is that when we compare the setting of where Marty has gone to the time he has come from, the dramatic change thirty years has taken on the town is pretty sad. The 80s are very urbanized, ugly and sad, and yet Marty says "everything looks great."

There are not as many visual effects shot in Back to the Future as some may think, but for the time they represented ILM at the top of their game, and even today they hold up well…mostly. There are two shots-one of fire trails speeding past Doc and Marty, and once of Marty seeing through his own fading hand-that don't hold up, but these are to only two this examiner can think of off the top of his head. This is very much a low-budget production that only uses as many special effects as it needs to, which gives the film the feel of being an independent film as well as a Hollywood blockbuster.

There is also the famous score by Alan Silvestri. The memo that director Robert Zemeckis gave him was to make the music as big as possible, in order to hide the smaller scale of the production itself, and that is exactly what it does. There are also two original songs by Huey Lewis and the News, "The Power of Love" and "Back in Time". These songs, like the film itself, have a clear 80s feel, but still hold up today as one of the more timeless recordings from that era, which is perfect for this story.

Overall, Back to the Future is not a perfect film, but it is pretty close for this examiner. It is easily one of the best films to come out of the 80s and one that does not get old the more times you watch it. It is well-written and makes you laugh, think and get excited all in less than two hours. This examiner highly recommends Back to the Future to anyone…as well as the sequels.