Still a fantastic example of comedy, horror and general fantastic family entertainment incorporating and promoting self-belief and courage.

Rating: 8/10 (2 April 2009)

The opening shots of Back to the Future set up the film's ideas and general tone. We are treated to several inventions and gadgets and gizmos, within someone's kitchen and living area, designed to seamlessly ease into one another as the beginnings to a day are kick started. Maybe a television will come on; a robotic arm will pour dog foot into an already over stuffed bowl and toast will pop up when ready, but very burnt. The idea here is that this stuff can work, but to what negative effect? It's quite clear this area hasn't been occupied for a while and the dog food will surely leave a foul smell for when the owner returns but what's that compared to the fire hazards in both the TV and the toast? This is what the film will eventually branch out into; a piece about technology and inventions working but with what, potentially quite terrible, results.
Back to the Future is one of those rare and special films that feel tilted more toward a younger audience and yet bear no harm in being revisited by others later on in years. The film can amuse and is able to sustain humour and interest, no matter how wacky the characters are or the predicament is. The film can frighten and additionally pay sly homage to history whilst it includes a fair few gags to how the protagonist's actions perhaps changed the course of history as we know, those being more directed toward the adult watching audience with Marty McFly's rendition of 'Johnny B. Goode' a great example. The film is a near masterpiece, bordering on greatness as it seamlessly entertains, humours, delivers a brilliant and inventive narrative whilst even feeling brave enough to touch on elements of a Freudian nature.
Of Marty McFly, he is played by Michael J. Fox in what is a big-screen career defining role. The piece of brilliant technology that is used to a certain degree of negative effect is the time machine a certain Doctor Emmett Brown (Lloyd) built out of a DeLorean automobile. The film revolves around Marty using this invention to travel back to 1955, following an escape from some hostiles out for Emmett, and a consequential accidental changing of history equating in the danger of Marty himself quite possibly being scrubbed out of history.
As a stand alone film, Back to the Future offers pretty perfect family entertainment. Its balance of fun and games mixed with a foreboding scenario, a scenario that lies at its very heart, is perfectly captured when McFly wanders down the Hill Valley street in 1955 following going back and witnessing how different his town was thirty years ago before the reality of the situation hits him in ominous fashion. Buried deep within Back to the Future might well be a statement on the condition of then contemporary America. Its two worlds of 1955 and 1985 exhibit the same facilities and general look, but offer very different outlooks on ways of living in the respective years. While porno theatres exist in the 80s, cinemas were playing the cream of Classical Hollywood back in the day; while shops and business' look shoddy, run down and some are even out of business in the modern age but they were clean and bristling with activity in the past.
The film even pokes fun at mayoral promises, promising a bright outlook in the 1950s but we, as does the film's lead, know the truth of what becomes of the town. Without obviously pointing fingers, the film shares a joke with us to do with how remarkable it is that Ronald Reagan is the 1985 president. It enjoys telling us that Marty's home estate-to-be will be one of the 'best places to live' come development, but the harsh reality of it is that it's anything but. This is something the second film touches on more when the quality of living deteriorates even more when a powerful political figure (that would be this film's antagonist Biff) has a say in how the town is run, echoing Marty and Emmett's brief but poignant conversation to do with how unbelievable Emmett finds it that Ronald Reagen is the president in 1985.
But while the film's political slant isn't its primary focus, you can't help but feel the film is a reference to how the author is very fond of the 1950s or the past in particular, something he sees to have been so much better than the present day. Marty's accidentally and ill advised attempts at changing history result in his teenage mother potentially falling in love with him, subject matter deemed too taboo for Disney and they rejected the film, but the ideas aren't played for sick laughs and the film doesn't linger on the actual notion as much as it does focus on Marty's reactions to all these realisations his would-be mother is having towards him. The 'park' scene in particular acts as an example as to how Marty feels about the situation with the overly dramatic facial expressions acting as an offbeat and drastic reaction to the predicament. It's additionally easy to forget that, by the end, his mother's attention turns more towards George, like history should be, highlighting what a vulnerable girl she is and how easily it is for this girl to fall for someone else at such a delicate time in her life.
This factor deflects the idea of the mother falling too deeply in love with her own would-be son somewhat, as we realise how naive she really is to fall again so quickly. But the film is full of ideas and energy, arguably being the best of its 'type' at the time of release. Producers didn't think people would take to it due to its lack of 'risqué' but years later, it stands head and shoulders above all the other 'more risqué' teen films that were released at that time.