Review: Back to the Future (1985) · 12:39am Oct 22nd, 2015
Since today is 'Back to the Future Day' (aka October 21st, 2015, the day Marty McFly arrives in the future in Back to the Future Part 2), I decided to watch the first entry in the franchise, and see if it holds up all these years later.
And, in a moment that will likely get me some heavy flack, I find that it, in fact, does not hold up in my opinion.
Now, I swear I did not get up this morning hell-bent on being a pretentious hipster who hates popular movies and only just watches obscure French New Wave. I'm very much a populist deep down, and I deeply enjoy a lot of movies that might be considered 'low brow'. For instance, I think the 1994 Street Fighter is awesome, and I enjoy the Marvel Cinematic Universe quite a bit as well. Point is, I didn't come into this film determined to hate it or anything. With this, I felt obliged to watch it given the date, and I figured I could do worse.
Anyways, let me try to explain why I felt this film isn't exactly up to the hype it gets in my very humble opinion.
Robert Zemeckis isn't an awful director, but to me, he isn't a great one either. If anything, he seems to be a very stable one, capable of making a film that is technically well accomplished. The opening shot of the film, which pans over dozens of clocks all ticking in unison, is very well done, and his integration and incorporation of the VFX work is quite solid as well. Yet, for me, the film lacked a real spark or vigor, and seemed surprisingly anonymous in how it was all executed. For instance, I felt Romancing the Stone had a nice sense of fun and whimsy in it, but I never really got that feeling here. If I wasn't told that this was a Robert Zemeckis film, I would have probably never guessed it, as he seems to be a director lacking in a true visual trademark.
Moving onto the story/screenplay, it is very much a product of it's time, which is obviously the mid-1980s. In many ways, it seems to owe a debt to the work of John Hughes, but that might just be because Hughes and Zemeckis seem to from the same school of writers. Anyways, what I mean to say is that it feels a bit dated, and to me, the story is a bit undercooked. Once you get pass the time travel premise, it becomes a rather standard teen date movie, except with the twist of the son trying to get his young parents together to insure his birth. It hits the same beats, and has the exact same character archetypes, and yes, it's obviously true that, back in 1985, we weren't exactly quite yet drowning in such films, but for me, the true testament of a screenplay's worth is how timeless it is. For instance, The Blues Brothers is a product of the 80s, there's no denying, but it's unique brand of zaniness still feels unique and fresh, even 35 years after release. Watching this, I felt like I was watching just another teen movie, albeit with the time travel cheat.
Dialogue wise, it does have a few quotable lines here and there, such as the very funny 'Darth Vader from the Planet Vulcan' sequence, which is probably my favorite scene in the whole movie. But other then that, it feels padded out, with the build up to the trip through time taking a good 45 minutes, and then once we get to the fifties, we're stuck watching Marty awkwardly try to avoid his teenage mother-to-be's lustful advances, and watch George McFly, aka Mary's father-to-be, be a complete and total looser and be mocked for another 45 minutes, before a finale that wraps everything up that takes a good 30 minutes. The best scenes of the movie, which are obviously Marty and Doc Brown's interactions, seem oddly short and brief when compared to the seemingly endless scenes of near-incest and high school hi-jinks in fighting Biff, a human being whose such a waste of humanity that I actively wanted him to die.
The acting is good though, with Michael J. Fox and Christopher Lloyd giving iconic performances, and having great chemistry. I'd much rather watch these two traipse around on their own adventures alone, then get stuck having to go back to McFly's parents, one of which is a lustful, horny teenage girl and the other a complete looser whose so pathetic for most of the film that it's hard to sympathize with him. They don't feel like really likable people to me, and I honestly just felt like I was wasting time watching these teen shenanigans. Then again, this just might be my general distaste for teen shenanigans showing through, especially the high school genre. Plus, Marty and Doc Brown's relationship, which seems to be the crux of the emotions of the film, feels oddly two-dimensional. Prior to Marty going back in time, we never really see him and Doc Brown interacting normally. Sure, we get a feel that they know each other, but I would have liked to see some more of the pair interacting in the 1980s, and understand better why Marty hangs out with a guy like Doc Brown. Does he genuinely like him? See him as a surrogate father? Or is it simply to further his grades at school? Never really explained.
Also, Marty has a girlfriend here, and she just kinda exists, hanging on the edge of the narrative like garish at a fancy dinner. It's bland yet distracting, and you always nudge it to the edge of your plate while you focus on the stuff you came for.
Another aspect that bugged me was the film's version of the 1950s. Now, I'm by no means an expert on the 1950s, so I can't exactly go on a list of historical inaccuracies or anything like that. But I do feel that the real 1950s weren't as cartoonish as they feel here. Everyone in the 50s seems to be a simplistic archetype, and heck, this problem extends to the 80s sequences as well. Everything feels a bit too broad and two-dimensional, and for me, a lover of the retro, I don't feel as immersed as I believe the film is trying to make me feel. Where's the smoking? Exactly one person smokes one cigarette in a time where chain smoking was the norm. I mean, obviously not every single person smoked in the 1950s, but heck, it's rather glaring at how smoke free this film is. Maybe I watch too much Mad Men, I don't know.
And futhermore, where's the music? We get maybe three 50s songs over the course of the movie, but outside of "Mr. Sandman" and "Earth Angel" (and of course "Johnny B. Goode"), they all kinda fade into the background, barely being noticed. Maybe I'm just too used to the way filmmakers like Tarantino and Scorsese immerse the film in music, and so this more 'conventional' use of music feels weird to me. Plus, this two-dimensional aura means that we skip over the more interesting facets of America in the 1950s. I mean, obviously it's none of this film's business to talk about the complexities of the time, or try to paint some vivid portrait of ages past, but heck, I at least hope for some depth to it. It feels strangely arbitrary in it's time period, and I feel it was a missed oppertunity. Then again, it's also equally likely that I'm asking too much from the film.
Another thing is that this film has some awkwardly unnecessary content in it. Do we really need to see Marty's mom in her bra while George McFly spies on her? And then there's the near rape that Biff tries to pull on Marty's mom. Also, Marty's mom is so freakishly horny through the whole damn film, practically drooling over Marty like he's a piece of meat. Might I remind you that she's his MOTHER. That's right, the fact that she has an unknowingly incestuous crush on her future son is kinda skimmed over, or used as fuel for laughs that I found far more awkward and uncomfortable (and borderline annoying), then funny.
The best aspect of this film, for me at least, is Alan Silvestri's fantastical score, which feels oddly underused, while simultaneously being omnipresent. But it's still awesome, especially the main theme, which, whenever it plays, is sure to make one feel inspired. The iconic 'Power of Love' by Huey Lewis and the News is also a great song, and one of my favorite 80s songs.
The VFX work holds up quite well too, and that Deloren Time Machine is still AWESOME. I want one.
But in the end, for me at least, Back to the Future didn't really take me in the way I hoped it would. It's not a horrible film, but it's no massively unique or hilarious film either. To me, it felt like an oddly generic 80s film with the addition of time travel to excuse a thin 50s-set high school movie. In the end, it just kinda went in one ear, and out the other, leaving little in emotional impact or memories beyond those that have already seeped into my mind via the broader pop culture fabric.
I'm probably gonna get some hate for this, but I'm gonna give it two and a half out of five stars.
Let me ask you a question: Have you ever listened to the Soundtrack of Back to the future ?
I ask you this because there's your music right there.
Word of God says that (in the OTL at least) Marty sought out Doc Brown after hearing he was a dangerous lunatic, and the two bonded when Marty felt that Doc's inventions were pretty cool (landing him a part-time job as his assistant). Throw time travel into the mix, and Doc probably sought out Marty at some point or another
3487933 Yes I have.
Most of it, with the exception of the songs I mentioned in the above review, is only heard for about 5-10 seconds before getting drowned out.
3487955 Well, it would have been cool to, ya know, see that
Is a review of the next two films ever going to happen?
Depending on how forgiving you are, the beginning is either a slog or a brilliant use of foreshadowing. So many details are revealed that don't seem all that important in the beginning suddenly pop up later on. If the audience is paying attention, there's several moments of "Oh! That was what that meant!" A first time viewer may not catch everything, but repeat viewings have really endeared me to the attention to detail in the dialogue and in the background. I think it was my 10th time watching (oh yeah, I'm serious) that I caught the Lone Pines Mall sign at the end.
Never had a problem with the high school romance part. As far as I can remember, I've always liked the characters and never grew tired watching them deal with the problems they faced. And Biff is a badass Badass!
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Oh, and just to be clear, I do not condone Biff's actions in this movie or any others. I just mean that his actions are so over-the-top to watch and you cheer whenever he gets his comeuppance.