Back to the Future (1985)
I guess you guys aren’t ready for that yet. But your kids are gonna love it.
THE SUMMARY: A teenager accidentally drives back in time while fleeing terrorists, and must find a way to return without erasing his own existence by having his mom fall in love with him. That weird theme aside, it’s easy to see why this one is so popular and influential. It’s unique, quirky, and fun to watch.
NO MOVIE-PICKER COMMENTARY: Back to the Future is a random selection from IMDb’s top-250 list (it currently ranks number 30), after the nominations were rejected by vote.
JAMIE AND JEANNE’S AI FACESWAP ART:
Unfortunately, I never got this good at guitar.
This hat seems fitting for north Idaho.
I look like a distinguished Founding Father.
THE BEST:
It’s just fun: Some movies are and some movies aren’t, and Back to the Future is: enjoyably watchable. All the likable characters are likable, all the hateable characters are hateable, and there are plenty of unique elements to make it memorable: Doc’s hair and personality, the DeLoreon (both in its visual style and its driving performance), the Chuck Berry cover at the dance, and much more. Is it the most compelling story, or the most clever writing, or the most stunning effects? Not really. But through a combination of excellent performances and good aesthetic choices, Back to the Future has a niche few others replicate.
The Libyan terrorists: Having never seen Back to the Future before this week, I was still generally familiar with the idea both because it’s such a classic movie and the title tells you what to expect: he goes back in time, and has to figure out how to get back. So I knew the general trajectory, but I had no foreknowledge that Libyan terrorists driving a VW bus with an AK was such a key plot point. It was a welcome surprise, because the ‘murder’ is so unexpected that it sets a shocking tone, but also because it’s now a bygone presentation. Few movies these days mock militant Islam for fun, but we should. It’s entertaining and necessary.
It’s self-aware: As I’ll get to, there’s plenty about the time travel rules and the butterfly effect on the future that doesn’t make sense, but at least the movie acknowledges that point in surrendering some complicated attempt to reconcile it. When Marty first arrives in 1955, Doc urges him not to leave the house because any change he makes could drastically alter the future. Then Marty roams around town changing all sorts of events, many totally irrelevant to his main task of keeping his parents together. Later of course, Doc changes his mind about altering events to save his own life by wearing a bulletproof vest, and when questioned, says ‘I figured, what the hell?’ A critic could call it an easy way of erasing some of the movie’s conceptual inconsistency, but I’ll take it as the movie’s way of saying ‘don’t think about it too hard - just enjoy it.’ Fair enough.
If you could know the future, would you?: That prior point is actually some of the only deeper philosophical intrigue in the movie. If you could know exactly what your future holds, would you want to? To me, the answer is an obvious no. It’s not that being future-oriented is bad, of course. You should live today with planning and anticipation for tomorrow. But that’s not the same thing as living in fear of tomorrow, and absolute knowledge of the future would force that. Living with fear of tomorrow prevents enjoyment today, and should be avoided lest you miss the time you have.
And actually, I reject the premise of the hypothetical. It’s not possible to know tomorrow absolutely, because tomorrow is not yet written. To grant the premise that it is is to deny our own capacity to change it. We absolutely have the power to change tomorrow, and should work every day to make it better.
Your kids are gonna love it: I always enjoy meme origin stories, and here we have one. Marty plays an aggressive guitar solo to end his school dance performance, and everyone looks shocked. He responds awkwardly, ‘I guess you guys aren’t ready for that yet, but your kids are gonna love it.’ Decades later, thus the meme is born.
Back to when you could make fun of Muslims.
Your kids are gonna love it.
THE WORST:
Calm down, mom: I get the comedy premise - isn’t it weird that Marty’s mom is so attracted to him? Har har har. But man, is that premise taken pretty far, all the way to the dressed-down car makeout. To me, the premise comes off as more weird than funny, and there are all sorts of ways to retain the plot of Marty having to keep his parents together, without incest being a driving point. It’s not that I’m pearl-clutching about the morality of it - I just don’t think it’s that funny. In a movie full of cleverness and good lines, this bit gets tired pretty quickly.
I’m sorry to overthink about the time travel rules, but: I know I wrote above that I appreciate the movie acknowledging that its own rules are broken, and I do, so I’m trying to keep these points minimal. But two points are particularly and egregiously nonsensical:
Why don’t his parents remember him?: In this revised history of 1955, Marty has worked hard to keep his parents together - he became their matchmaker, now deeply involved in their origin story. So much so that his parents presumably named their son Marty, after their now-matchmaker Marty.
How then, do they not remember their teenage son in the future as the exact same guy? I suppose memory fades over a decade and a half, and they just don’t quite remember what he looked like and sounded like? But I don’t buy that. I’m 36, and I can still remember all my friends from high school, even ones I knew for only a short period of time. I know exactly what they looked like and sounded like, and if they returned to my life, I’d recognize them. That point seems particularly true if I’m supposed to believe that Marty’s mom had such a big crush on him.
The same plot could have been pursued with Marty matching his parents up more slyly and secretly rather than so directly, and it would be more believable. But hey, what do I know? I’ve never written anything even a fraction as successful.
How are there multiple Martys and multiple DeLoreans?: It makes absolutely no sense that there’s a different Marty and a different DeLorean in 1985 when Marty returns. If the whole idea is that past actions affect future events, how does Marty’s change of past action have no effect on this event? In fact there’s a completely different Marty living the same timeline, completely independent of him?
Is time travel revision, or duplication? This scene implies the latter. And if we follow that logic, there’s no need to get Marty’s parents back together. In 1985, there would instead be two different sets of Marty’s parents, one where they are together, and one where they aren’t.
The better way to handle this scene would be to have Doc shot in the parking lot by the Libyans regardless, with Marty absent. If Marty isn’t there, Doc would still be in the lot waiting for Marty. The Libyans would still show up to shoot him. And after completing their murderquest, they’d just leave instead of chasing Marty into time travel, because Marty isn’t there - he went back to 1955 and returned, and is now watching from far.
What the hell happens with this second Marty, anyway? Does he go back to 1955 and relive the whole plot again? And then return to 1985 again? And then are there three Martys who watch Doc get shot? And then four? And five and on to infinity, until the whole lot is just so full of Martys body-to-body that the Libyans can’t even drive in there anyway?
It’s very kind to hire your wife’s attempted rapist: In the revised future where Marty’s dad is much more accomplished and Biff is reduced to a car detailing job, it sure is nice of the McFlys to hire the guy who tried to rape Lorraine in high school (or at minimum, sexually assaulted her). In the original version, it makes sense that George would have to suffer the indignity of working for Biff if that’s the best job that was available to him. In this revised future, though, the McFlys have all the power and hire Biff… why? Just to dominate him, or something? Is it really domination if they pay him?
If a guy did this to my wife at any time, whether they were ‘just kids’ at the time or not, he’s not welcome around my wife… ever. Nor would my wife want him to be. We wouldn’t even hire him to clean our toilets. It’s a completely confusing premise.
Calm down, mom.
I assume he apologized for trying to rape George’s wife.
THE RATING: 4/5 Wickies. There are some weird themes and not a lot of deep thought, but it seems awfully hard to hate this movie. It’s a fully entertaining watch, and gives me nostalgia for the ‘80s and the ‘50s without even living them. Back to the Future is classic Americana, and deserves the requisite respect.
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NEXT WEEK: Hot Fuzz (2007)
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