A Childhood Classic

Rating: 10/10 (5 September 2009)

Back to the Future is a film that for people of my generation would have growth up with, along with other important films like the original Indiana Jones films, Stars Wars trilogy, the first two Alien films, the Rocky Series and Mad Max 1 and 2 (just to name a few). Here is a fun family film that has stood the test of time.
Marty McFly (Michael J. Fox), is a 17-year-old teenager living in Hill Valley, California. He has a loving family, a good girlfriend and helps a mad scientist, Dr. Emmett Brown (Christopher Lloyd). But he lives in a geeky family, his dad George (Crispin Glover) is bullied by his supervisor and avoids confrontation, his mum Lorraine (Lea Thompson) has conservative values and doesn't like Marty's relationship with Jennifer (Claudia Wells), and Marty's brother and sister are generally geeky. One Dr. Brown, aka 'Doc', asks for Marty's assistance and records the experiments with his next invention, a time machine (in the design of a DeLorean DMC-12). The test seems successful until Libyan terrorists kill 'Doc' and whilst on the run Marty ends up travelling back in to 1955. Whilst in 1955 Marty meets both his mum and dad as teenagers, and interferes with how they met. By doing this he messes up the time-space continuum and risks his own existences. The younger version of Lorraine falls for Marty, not know he is her future son; adding both to comedy and general creepiness. It's a race against time, both to get back to 1985 and to insure destiny is fulfilled by his setting up his parents.
Back to the Future is a family sci-fi comedy which is a symbol of its time. It works as a fish out of water comedy, teen comedy and a general look at time travel. They is a simple plot and theme about Marty finding out who his parents are and looks at the similarities and differences of live in the 50s and 80s. The aim of the filmmakers was to make a fun film, and Robert Zemeckis does this. He is a protégé of Steven Spielberg and he keeps the story simple and entertaining. He also shows his skills as a special effects director which in this film were very good. The special effects help the story, but don't overshadow it. They is a very good script to this film, mixing drama and comedy, and hasn't dated badly. The film is humorous and light-hearted. The humour is not crude, like it it in some family films. There is a strong story and with good messages for kids about standing up to bullies and respecting your parents. Michael J. Fox was perfectly casted for the lead role and there are many excellent supporting cast members. Lea Thompson was perfectly pretty as Lorraine and Crispin Glover was fine as a needy kid. Christopher Lloyd and Thomas F. Wilson were really excellent as the mentor and the villain.
Back to the Future is an influential family film. It is a mark of pop-culture with this movie being parodied in Family Guy and Futurama. It is Robert Zemeckis' best film (though Who Framed Roger Rabbit is a close second).