Post-millenium Hollywood, in its overtly commercial extravagance, has churned through many high budget, CGI packed flicks often very poorly written, and several of which became box office hits only because of the repertoire of computer generated tricks that the filmmakers had to resort to for lack of a strong storyline. If only directors could turn back time to about a decade and a half ago and take a leaf from the book of director Robert Zemeckis and producer Bob Gale who wrote stories from the heart and then built movies around them. Starting with the Oscar winning Romancing the Stone where the two first collaborated, both Zemeckis and Gale knew exactly how to make Hollywoods wheels spin with an all-encompassing production and directorial effort. In 1985, the two got back together again to create Back To The Future which ended up becoming one of the greatest movies to ever emerge out of the 80s.
The Beginning...
Back to the Future began when Bob Gale was rummaging through his parents high school memoirs. A wild thought struck him. He wondered what it would be like if he traveled back in time to when his parents were as old as he was. When he told Robert Zemeckis, the wild idea metamorphosized into something a lot bigger, it sowed the seeds for a movie production. So the two along with Hollywoods sci-fi guru Steven Speilberg and maverick music composer/director Alan Silvestri began their project. They assembled a cast of fairly low profile actors (at the time) and began work on their ambitious adventure-comedy production..
The Cast
Michael J Fox - who plays Marty McFly, a happy go lucky college kid who is unwittingly drawn into a time travel adventure.
Christopher Lloyd - who plays the eccentric Dr. Emmett Brown, the scientist who invents the time machine and is also the unlikely friend of Martys.
Crispin Glover - who plays George McFly - Martys submissive pushover father who ends up being the bait of all jokes.
Lea Thompson - the oh so beautiful actress who plays Lorraine McFly - Martys mother..
Tom Wilson - who plays Biff Tannen , the bully who takes great pleasure in harrassing the hapless George...
Claudia Wells - who plays Jennifer Parker, Martys very cute girlfriend (who for some reason gets replaced in parts 2 and 3 of the movie by Elizabeth Shue..groan)
Lights, Camera and....Action!
Back to the Future starts with Marty, a laid back typical high school kid who wants to make a name for himself in Hill Valley as a rock n roll guitar player. But his hopes are dashed when he gets summarily dismissed at the school audition, and while mulling over his dismissal with his girlfriend, a lady on the street hands him a flyer that talks about how lightning struck the towns clock tower in 1955. Around midnight the same night Dr Brown, his scientist friend calls him and tells him to meet at the Twin Pines mall to show him his latest invention. When Marty gets there, the Doc (the moniker that Marty uses to refer to Dr Brown) unveils his magnum opus - a time traveling vehicle that when programmed to go back or forth in time, gets instantaneously transported to its destination the second the speedometer hits 88 mph. As the Doc proceeds to demonstrate the machines incredible capabilities, a group of Libyan terrorists - from whom the Doc ripped off plutonium needed to activate the cars time circuits - arrive at the scene and shoot the scientist dead. Marty scrambles away in the car and in trying to escape the terrorists hits the 88 mph mark and instantaneously travels back in time from 1985 to Nov 5, 1955. Totally confused and frazzled, Marty tries in vain to get the car to get back to 1985 but he realizes hes out of plutonium.. so our pal is stuck.. in 1955!!
And thens when the story really begins. Marty’s now back in time.. a time when his parents are no older than he is. In a comical turn of events..Marty meets his father, who at the time is a dorky kid in high school who is constantly bullied by Biff, the high school bully and his cronies. Much to Marty’s surprise, he catches George playing voyeur from a tree top that is right outside the bedroom window of a popular high school girl, Lorraine Banes. In this particular instance, George slips, falls down the tree to the middle of the road, Marty dives to save him from an oncoming vehicle, gets hit and the driver (who happens to actually be his mom’s dad but doesnt know it yet) takes him in. Well the funny part is in a very Florence Nightingale kind of way, Lorraine gets attracted to Marty.. but she’s actually his mom! I’m kind of surprised that he didnt develop an Oedipus complex seeing his mom in her teens - cause I’d have to say Lea Thompson was simply beautiful.
Well after some embarassing moments Marty gets away from this libidinous girl and her family to look for the Doc .. who’s help he needs to get back to 1985. He finds Doc’s 1955 counterpart, who has no clue what he’s talking about - but Marty finally convinces him that he’s from the future in a time machine that he had purportedly invented. The two soon realize that since Marty’s out of plutonium they need an energy source that would produce a nuclear reaction to power the time circuits. While the Doc is pondering what to do..Marty whips out the flyer that the old lady handed him in 1985.. and tells the Doc about the bolt of lightning that struck the clock tower in 1955... which, at this time, was to occur in a week. Yep that was the power source needed to send Marty back to 1985.
In the meanwhile, a mess of things happen. Martys mom has the hots for him. Martys dad has no chance in hell of winning over Lorraine. Whats worse is Mr Bully Biff has the hots for Lorraine. So all in all, between trying to get his mom and dad to hook up and fighting off interference from Biff and working out his exit plan...Marty is in a very unenviable position. There are some very comical and awkward situations that have been portrayed with the finesse that can only be attributed to the subtle touches of a genius director. Anyway at the end it all comes together. Marty manages to get his parents together after George gets his act together and becomes a man - and rescues Lorraine from drunk Biff who tries to take advantage of her at the high school prom.. and Marty - in a very Hollywood-like nail biting climax - manages to catch that lightning bolt at the nick of time to get back to 1985.
And then...?
I own the 3 disc DVD special edition of Back to the Future that contains all 3 parts of Back to the Future (1, 2 and 3). Each DVD contains several features besides the movies themselves.. from the making of each movie to deleted scenes, trivia and outtakes. The lengths that the filmmakers went to in order to achieve the astounding realism of the 1950s is absolutely amazing. Music director Alan Silvestri adds the finishing touch to give this movie a touch of class with a very elaborate symphonic musical background score. The soundtrack features some classic 80s hits .. notable among which is the song ’Power of Love’ by Huey Lewis.. who also plays a cameo in the movie. Back to the Future epitomizes Hollywoods best of the best. Its spectacular box office ratings shot relatively unknown actors to almost icon status and it went down in history as one of the greatest adventure comedies ever made. So far reaching was the impact of the movie on the American audience that the then President of the United States, Ronald Raegan quoted one of the lines from the movie in a defining speech directed towards America’s youth :
’Where we’re going there are no roads...’
Truly spoken of what the world calls the ’American dream’.
If you haven’t seen this movie yet and you’re in the mood for some good entertainment, rent this movie and I’m willing to wager that you’ll get hooked.