Back to the Future

[Redlum]

In light of the films recent inclusion in the BFI's 'Films Kid Must See' list, being voted the #1 family film of all time and a restrospective documentary (along the lines of Jaws's "The shark still works") entitled "LOOKING BACK AT THE FUTURE", I thought the BTTF trilogy should have its own thread on its 20th Anniversary.

Documentary Trailer
(stay tuned at the end for a classic line from the guy who played Lou at the diner)
http://www.bttf.com/lookingback/

[Just Withnail]

To give this thread a worthy boost, here's a PM conversation between me and Redlum from about a year ago. Completely un-re-read and unedited (except for one reply written on a remote control through a TV with an internet connection), so please excuse the inevitable hyperbole I was so fond of at that time (and still have a tough time shaking). First up, Redlum:

There are lot of films that had the great mis-fortune of being made in the 80's. In some ways the decade made them what they are but its rare to find them pop-up in peoples top 10's etc. Spielberg and Spielberg-esque movies, really. I think the next generation of filmmakers will hold these films close to their hearts, and it will show. Of course, maybe thats just nostalgia talking. My Top 10 would most definately include Back to the Future. Its also, one of the most polished screenplays I can think of.

Thread-wise, there's a fair bit of Spielberg hate that goes around Xixax, and with that, the cynical view that Zemeckis is just his clone. I think BTTF is generally well regarded though.

Yeah, the eighties seems to be commonly viewed as the bastard child of movie decades. Back to the Future seems one of the few eighties movies that can feel like it's made in the eighties and still end up on people's Top 10s. I give almost all credit to the script - brilliant! Not a single joke falls flat, and not a single one hasn't been properly built up. Back to the Future is the rare example of bucketloads of expositional dialouge, that you never really give a second thought, until the punchline or pay off hits you. Even more of a rarity in an eighties feelgood film. Maybe that's the appeal. The way it fuses it's well written script with pure feelgood nostalgia (for two decades non-the-less; eighties and fifties).

Exactly. People (cynical people) might say that that "pure feelgood nostalgia" is tainted by the product placement but as a kid it never even crossed my mind.

Nice one on citing George Vs Biff as a great fight scene. Immediately followed by another favourite 'moment' in the film - "Are you okay?" (as strings the fade in and George lifts Lorraine to her feet).

What are your feelings on the sequels. I love them, too, though not as much as Part 1. In some ways they suffered from being more tongue-in-cheek because the premise had already been setup, but that was inevitable. I think Zemeckis did an amazing job considering he never wanted to really do them in the first place, and the scripts didnt have the benefits of the constant polishing and re-drafting that the first was subject to.

Sorry for replying so late. I've been stuck in Oslo without an internet connection for a few days now. "Are you okay?" Is the only moment in film history that I can get chills from just by thinking about it. And the look on Elaine's face as she falls in love with him on the spot. I believe I mentioned it as a "most romantic scene" in one of the site's endless best/ most/ favorite threads. I love the sequels, though as you say, there not half of the first one. I always praise the second one for it's ability too take the concept to the next level, without just multiplying the number of effects shots. They don't ever get near the charm of number one, though. I think it's because it had a more down too earth approach, whilst the sequels were more science fiction, becoming perhaps what critics dismissed the first one as: brainless (though you could argue) sci-fi. Maybe part of the success is that it managed to utilize sience fiction elements in a (to a certainn degree) real enviroment, so as to take advantage of the opportunities this brings: larger than life terror (Marty fading at the dance), whilst still being able too keep the "normal" situations like Elaine being pushed away from George by the red haired bully kid suspenseful, and the effect intercutting between them creates.

Hey, man. Sorry for my slow reply.

I agree, the George/Elaine kiss is magical, but what totally lifts it is the Silvestri score when it merges with Earth Angel. Marty launches to his feet (I wonder if thats actualy him sitting down, played in reverse) to that final chorus. I dont think I've seen any film capture that 'high school dance' so well. I thought the scene in Carrie was pretty great but Back to the Future rose to the greater challenge of actually having the highschool victim get the girl. George McFly gets the girl, and it doesn't feel contrived or just for the sake of a cute laugh. The George and Elaine characters are really well developed, for roles which in any other production would be pretty predictable. I mean, I love the fact that the girl that George ends up having this magical, 50's movie, moment with at the finale, was someone who at the start of the movie, he was watching undress with a pair of binoculars, up a tree.

I'd rally be interested to hear of any directors that list BTTF in some kind Sight and Sound (I think thats the one) poll. I mean Tarantino unashamedly lists some personal favourites as opposed to 2001, citizen kane etc.

Redlum

I agree, the George/Elaine kiss is magical, but what totally lifts it is the Silvestri score when it merges with Earth Angel. Marty launches to his feet (I wonder if thats actualy him sitting down, played in reverse) to that final chorus.

Yup, that scene is edited so damn perfect. Combined with the larger than life terror of Marty fading, and the sudden appearance of a horrorfilm-like score, the kiss just shoots the atmosphere to the polar end of the spectrum.

I think the development of George as a character, may be one of my favorites in film history as well. Going from unsympathetic (he's rude to Marty, peeps, runs of after Marty saves him, and tries to avoid him afterwards), slightly neurotic peeping tom, to a guy that's desperately (but innocently) in love, to a fucking hero you can't help cheer for as he's been pushed around the whole film. Our sympathies kinda develop in parallell with him falling in love.

I'd rally be interested to hear of any directors that list BTTF in some kind Sight and Sound

I'd kill to see that. If I ever make it big, you can be sure as hell that I'll go on and on about the brilliance of the film if asked about my inspirations.

[ddmarfield]

Nothing but agreement about BTTF. Rises above other eighties comedies by leaps and bounds. Probably the prime example of how dating a film doesn't necessarily have to be a bad thing.

BTTF 2 doesn't get the respect it deserves. Though the future segment is a bit too tongue in cheek, its still fun. But how ballsy is the stuff later on, such as the alternate 1985, "other selfs," and two movies literally overlapping?

I used to dislike BTTF 3, as I would say its just the first movie but with horses. But I watched it again and realized how fun it is, even if the ending is still too cheesy for my tastes.

[SiliasRuby]

I love the trilogy. Especially BTTF 2. So much fun.

[McfLy]

Back To The Future is definately one of my all time favourites. It's one of those movies I can watch mutiple times in one sitting and each gag gets a laugh out of me every time. It also fits into that 80s nostalgic category, being one of many films I watched when growing up; those films tend to stay with you the rest of your life.

[last days of gerry the elephant]

Back To The Future is definately one of my all time favourites. It's one of those movies I can watch mutiple times in one sitting and each gag gets a laugh out of me every time. It also fits into that 80s nostalgic category, being one of many films I watched when growing up; those films tend to stay with you the rest of your life.

As long as we forget about the 3rd part, I would have to agree with you good sir!

[killafilm]

Since others have been linked to here gos

http://youtube.com/watch?v=8uwuLxrv8jY

[modage]

i like that one but i linked to it in the brokeback thread weeks/month ago!

[killafilm]

 

[SiliasRuby]

The second one is the best. No contest!

[Gamblour.]

You are incorrect.

[Tictacbk]

The second one could not exist and loses all its charm without....the first one.

[Just Withnail]

I don't agree (with Silias).

Back to the Future 2 is undoubtedly the one that milks the concept best, but what the first one accomplishes so well, is that it introduces the concept with extreme efficiency (without making it feel hasty – this film is a prime example of economic scripting), then lets it rest, allowing the drama (and comedy!) afforded by it to play out. It's barely a sci-fi/ fantasy film at all, just a comedy with sci-fi bookends. And in the one scene where it appears outside the bookends, it's a great excuse to have the usual drama-at-the-dance be just as dramatic as it prefers – which is what these dances usually do in films, though Back to the Future has a "proper" reason.

In the second one this is pretty much inverse; the concept has taken centre stage. To great effect, I think, but the first one is much better written (the sequel has the disadvantage of more time-traveling), and uses the humor of the concept better. While the humor of the first one plays on Marty's various interactions with the fifties ("what would a modern kid do in the fifties?"), the humor of the second one mostly results to sight-gags ("what would the future look like?"). Though I think the fifties segment of the sequel is almost as great the first one. The second to last scene, in the rain, is incredibly good. By the time this scene comes around the concept is so firmly established, that it succeeds in making me feel that Doc – believed dead for half a minute of screen-time, until we learn he's in the old west – has actually been gone the hundred years between the old west and now. To me it's the best example of time-traveling in the trilogy. That, right there, is me time-traveling; a couple of minutes made to feel like a century.

Two things:

I love the fact that the first one plays on the eighties as The Future; a walkman becoming a sci-fi element. This idea is built upon the entire first act of number two, when they humorously approximate an "eighties future". The joke then double-back's to comment on itself when we enter the Café Eighties, and witness, well, not quite the eighties.

And: During recent viewings, I've always re-felt that same "terror" I felt as a kid, when the punk snatches Elaine away from George at the dance, though I have a feeling this is in light of South Park's "Ginger" episode.

[Redlum]

That, right there, is me time-traveling; a couple of minutes made to feel like a century.

Excellent point. The power of that idea is exemplified by how vividly I imagine the circumstances of Doc first arriving in 1888 aswell as the letter sitting in the Western Union offices for 70 years. This idea is capatislised on and actually visualised with great eeriness in part III, when they discover the hidden Delorean.  A great homage to 'Journey to the Centre of the Earth' which generates the same emotions upon the discovery of the initials of Arne Saknussemm as peering in on the cloaked time machine. Most of the time the Delorean is taken for granted or as part of a joke but in that moment it becomes magical and myseterious, making its destruction at the end more powerful than it would have been.

[Just Withnail]

I regrettably haven't read "Journey" yet, though I guess I’ll have to 

The portrait of time we get in the Western Union scene is a turning-point, really. Until that point, the time-traveling has either been sensationalistic (both of Marty’s times in the first), or just taken for granted (Doc leaving in the first, and most of number two). The Western Union sequence is the first step towards the mythical and magical aspect in takes on in the third.

The view on time-travel adapts to the point in time. In number one, and from the POV of the eighties and fifties, the time-travel is sci-fi. In number two, from the POV of a sci-fi future and an alternate reality, the visual portrayal of time-travel is almost secondary to the fantastic and hellish new locations – both due to other sorts of eye candy, and because with the sheer amount of travel, you needn’t see it happen every time. The image of the Delorean is almost neutered – which ties in with the notion of capitalizing on time-travel, and reducing it to mere finance. But then, at the end, with the instant arrival of the letter, time-travel suddenly has a highly mysterious quality. Perhaps because throughout number two, the dangers (“the pitfalls and the perils”, I believe Doc says, right?) of time-travel has been the focus. How not to use the time-machine. Should it be used at all? etc. Now suddenly, the odd displacement of people in time is utilized to bring out the inherent magic and beautiful simplicity of a letter. Dear Marty…It’s a great scene. Of course, a letter as a saving grace and carrier of good news also plays a prominent part in number one, which is a nice association to have at this point).

And then, finally, in number three, completely removed from modern technology, the Delorean, and time-travel, is portrayed almost as magical (and ultimately, with the old locomotive/ time-machine cross over, it becomes mythical). As you mention, this begins in the scene where they rediscover the Delorean at the beginning of number three, where it regains its potency, as we see it for the first time since number two. You’re completely right about the Delorean having gained a more poignant meaning by the end; it’s the death of a character, really.