Tell me, doctor, where are we going this time?

Rating: 10/10 (18 March 2004)

Good time travel films have always held a certain amount of fascination for me despite the improbability and implausible concept involved. Traveling through time is one of those "what if" fantasies one can continually dwell. I never grow tired of considering the endless possibilities involved if such thing were possible. I especially enjoy when a film gives us a new and entertaining twist on the subject. With Back To The Future, director and writer Robert Zemeckis along with writer Bob Gale has given us not only one of the best of the genre, but began one of the truly great film trilogies.
If you don't know the story by now, Marty McFly(Michael J. Fox) is a teenager with more than his share of problems. His father, George(Crispin Glover) gives new definition to the meaning of the word dork, his mother Lorraine(Lea Thompson) is a worn out closet alcoholic, his brother Dave (Marc McClure) works at a fast food joint, and his sister Linda(Wendie Jo Sperber) is on the verge of becoming an old maid. Outside of the home, a teacher named Strickland(James Tolkan) has it in for Marty constantly referring to him a slacker and his father's co-worker, Biff Tannen (Thomas F. Wilson) is constantly intimidating George even to the point of having George doing his work assignments for him. Marty's best friend is an old scientist named Doc Brown (Christopher Lloyd), and his girlfriend is Jennifer Parker (Claudia Wells). It is his relationships with Jennifer and Doc Brown that enable Marty to think he might somehow escape the trials and tribulations of his Daily life. Well, Marty does escape, but not a manner that he could not have imagined in his worst nightmare. It seems that Doc Brown has invented a time machine out of a Delorean and through a series of misadventures Marty gets transported back to his home town in the year 1955. Not only does Marty meet his parents and his Dad's arch enemy Biff as teenagers, he somehow manages to interfere with Lorraine and George's romance, thus jeopardizing his own existence. It is left up to the Doc Brown of the past to help Marty set things right, and somehow find a way to return Marty "Back To The Future."
This scenario sets up endless possibilities and Zemeckis and Gale make full use of the concept. Not only do they have Marty interfering with his parents relationship, but his mother develops a crush on him in one of the most hilarious romantic encounters one could imagine. The more Marty tries to set things right, the more Lorraine becomes infatuated with him. Don't worry, Zemeckis and Gale never let the idea sink into sleaziness, but instead develop it into one hilarious moment after another. What is amazing also is watching how the life of the teenage Lorraine is as different from the adult Mrs. Mcfly as night and day. It's a revelation to Marty and to us. As for George, it seems he has always been somewhat of a cowardly type, but as Marty discovers, he had hopes and dreams as a teenager much as many of us did.
Michael J. Fox was the perfect choice to play Marty McFly. Initially, because of his TV series commitment, he had to take a pass. When Eric Stoltz was not working out as Marty, Fox was thankfully able to work things out to be able to do the film. For that we shall forever be grateful. It's not that I think Eric Stoltz is not a good actor, but his laid back and darker personality would never have fit into what Marty was. Christopher Lloyd brings a characterization to Doc Brown that makes him the glue that holds the idea of time travel together. He's crazy enough to come up with the idea of a DeLorean Time Machine and has us believe he could make good on the concept. His friendship with Marty is believable enough that their on screen moments together seem genuine and sincere. There is no other way to put it except to say that if there is one character in this movie stranger than Doc, it's Crispin Glover's George. His portrayal gives new meaning to the words wimpy coward. Lea Thompson as Lorraine sets the pace for everyone. Her future Lorraine is different in so many aspects from the teenage Lorraine, yet Ms. Thompson is able to pull it off without a hitch and still have us believe they are one and the same person. There is nothing lovable about Thomas Wilson's biff. He is the consummate high school bully that many of us dealt with on more than one occasion. We have to admit a great satisfaction in how his character is dealt with.
Of course, as I have mentioned in other films about time travel, all this good stuff could have been wasted if the film makers had copped out at the end. It's the kind of thing that has ruined many other films of the genre. Zemeckis and Gale not only do not hesitate in their assumptions of the possibilities of what happens when you interfere with the past, they take the ball and run with it making the film just that much more satisfying.
If you were to look at a list of my favorite films, you would see Back To The Future on there, occupying a place of prominence. It is in the top 250 films on the IMDB, and one of the films that earned its place justifiably so. And if you are on my personal list, and that list also, you get my grade and in this case it equals an A+.