1.21 Gigawatts
For this one we head back in time to the year 1985, so we can watch the team of Dr. Emmit Brown and Marty McFly our favorite time traveling duo travel even further back in time to 1955! Emmit Brown and Marty McFly played by the great Christopher Lloyd and Micheal J. Fox respectively, are here in one of the greatest classic's of all time. Back to the Future has stood the test of time and is still regarded as one of the best films in all of history, why review a movie that is held in such high regard you might ask? Maybe its my obsessive want to give out another perfect 5 outa 5... The only one so far being the Friday the 13th remake, BUT if anyone EVER tries to remake Back to the Future may they burn up on re-entry never to be heard of again. I have pretty high standards when it comes to my opinions on films, and I will take great pleasure in picking apart one of the all time greats, now while the ensuing sequels parts 2 and3 were somewhat flawed but still hailed as all time classic's as well, it is my belief that the original 1985 classic "Back to the Future" will ride high on that 5 outa 5 rating that I am hoping for, so lets set our time circuits to 1985, hit our flux capacitor with the power of plutonium, to get the desired 1.21 gigawatts of electricity we need and it'll be like we never left the 80's... So here...WE...GO!
The opening scene opens up slow, which is nice to give you a nice quiet pace to a film that is gonna rock and roll in more ways than one. In a bit of a foreshadowing we open on a massive amount of clocks in Dr. Emmit Brown's apartment, that have ironically been set 25 minutes slow for some kind of experiment. For those of you who miss the Easter egg... one of the clocks is a shot straight out of the finale of the film, showing a man hanging from the hour hand of a clock tower, that will be taking place later in the film. When Micheal J. Fox shows up as Marty McFly we hear his voice but see only his hands and feet as he hooks up to the amplifier turning everything to full blast and blows the enormous beast with one string of the guitar blowing him backwards and the amplifier at once, when Marty exclaims... "Rock and Roll" which will pretty much be one of the big theme's of the film. The opening of this film is spot on perfect for everything they are setting up for later, even when Doc makes sure to tell Marty to meet him at Twin Pine's Mall later that will set up the time travel experiment that will take our hero Marty McFly back to the 50's. The only thing I will say I find a bit peculiar, is that a Wackado scientist known only has "Doc" has only one friend, and it's a teenage boy. But we will over look this, because in the 80's it was probably not at all unusual. Oh how our world has changed since the 80's.
I love how we are introduced to Mr. Strickland the principal, who's advice to Marty after showing up tardy is to tell him that he will never amount to anything in life because he is a slacker just like his father. That's great advice from your school authority figures. "Give up on life you loser! You're never going to accomplish anything in life! Just like your dad! You losery loser face!" If that's how highschool was in the 80's I'm glad that I went in the 90's.... (not that it was all that much better).
More foreshadowing for the film, we get the historical line "Save the clock tower!" because it was struck by lightning back in the 50's. Save the Clock towers is a line that I frequently use any time I see a clock tower. From scene to scene we get unforgettable line after unforgettable line as we are introduced to Biff, George McFly's bully of a boss who has bullied him since highschool, who apparently didn't know that every car ever built has a "Blind Spot" and we are shot with the great line... "I spilled beer all over me, when that guy crashed into me, who's gonna pay my cleaning bill?" Oh yes, the man who made the phrase "Butt-Head" famous in the 80's and 90's Biff Tannen. Thomas F. Wilson who played Biff did such an amazing job at the character that he has forever been known as "Biff" by fans around the world. So much so that it has hindered his ability to get future parts because of recognizably as Biff... SINCE 1985! The acting in this film is absolutely phenomenal, Crispin Glover, who plays George Mcfly is a great actor who hasn't done many films since Back to the Future but by his own choice, the man is one of the best actors out there and since Back to the Future in 1985 he has only done 12 major motion pictures since, and only three in starring rolls.
We get an early look at the people that Marty's parents had become, and how huge of a change it will be when Marty goes back and changes the past. Loraine, (Marty's mother) does a little more foreshadowing as she says that "If your grandfather hadn't hit him none of you would have been born" Later on we see how much their world changes when their grandfather doesn't hit him with the car. They to a masterful job in this film of following the rules they set for time travel, and in 1985 that's huge, to this day in 2014 film makers still struggle with continuity in time travel films, and even in the sequels to Back to the Future (Part 2 specifically) struggle's with continuity. But in this the first installment one of if not the best time travel movie of all time, it's pretty much universally recognized as the best time travel film of all time. In a bit of movie fun, Doc Brown has somehow created a remote to control the full size Delorian into a giant remote controlled car. My one and only question is, why they settled on 88 miles per hour as the speed for time travel, it's never explained but it's now universally recognized that once "This baby hits 88 miles an hour you're going to see some serious shit"
Their theory for time travel is excellent especially for a film made in the 80's. The fact that you skip over whatever specified amount of time to instantly arrive at that moment in time, whether it be one minute or 10 years into the future. (There becomes problems with this theory in Part 2 but we are not discussing part 2) This review is of the first of the three films, and does not break it's continuity of how time travel works at all. The trail of flames left behind the time machine becomes iconic, all done with one film made in 1985. Unfortunately for Dr. Emmit Brown, the Libyan terrorists he ripped off to get his supply of plutonium not only find out that he ripped them off, but they find him personally... spelling only death for Dr. Brown... Sounds like a quick end for Christopher Lloyd doesnt it? Only Marty will have the chance to change the future... or infact change the present day. More on that later... The Libyan terrorists kill Doc and chase Marty, who inadvertently activates time circuits, while shifting, and in an effort to outrun the terrorists decides to hit 90... but as we all know 88 miles an hour can kick ya back a good 30 years. Before Marty knows it he is instantly back in 1955... but without the one thing he needs to get back... Plutonium. There is a single flaw I can find with this during the filming of this particular part. Using up the plutonium in the original test run, we never see another set of plutonium placed in the car, this would make the trip to 1955 impossible because as we will find out, without the plutonium the Time Machine doesnt work, this is only a minor flaw, on account I not once ever noticed it till just now, after seeing the film a good 30 or 40 times throughout the course of my life. Anyway, Marty's trip back to 1955 will sets in motion a series of events that will change Marty's life forever.
We are taken back in time to a time where Twin Pine's Mall was once farm land, our first look at time travel throughout the course of the three films. The 1985 film does a wonderful job of recreating 1955, so much so that I have often times found myself wishing that I could have grown up in the 50's, it seemed like such a simpler time. The travel back in time, shows just how much the fictional time of "Hill Valley" had expanded since 1955, as Marty finds himself two miles from Hill Valley when in 1985 he was well within city limits. This would be quite the shock to the system for a highschool young man to suddenly find himself a man out out of time, with no way back. I would certainly be in a panic if it were to happen to me. Ironically, he walks into a diner, where he just happens to run into his father, who just happens to be, in this period of time, the same age of Marty. I can not stress enough just how well Crispen Glover plays his rolls in this film. This is definitely one of if not the best roll of his career. Similar to Glover, Wilson who plays Biff walks in and goes all "Butt Head" on McFly... both of them. It's not long before Marty inadvertently changes the course of history as he saves his father from being hit by the car that was the catalyst that made his parents fall in love originally. This changes everything, as we find out that Marty must fix the course of events that he had just changed. His mother then falls in love with Marty, rather than George and this becomes quite the problem for Marty, and for his future.
Without going into all the fine details of the scene we quickly find out the extreme differences between the 80's and the 50's, and its extremely interesting to see. Doc Brown in this time lives on "Riverside Drive" where in the 80's is renamed "John F. Kennedy Drive" only to be asked the question who the hell is John F. Kennedy.... Marty finds his way to Doc Brown, only to find out that at this point is a crack pot scientist who has yet to create any invention that actually works. BUT... we are only moments after Doc Brown had hit his head on the edge of the sink, where he had had the vision of the first Flux Capacitor... which we all know... Is what makes time travel possible... we all know this by now. They arrive at the time machine where Doc Brown exclaims HE FINALLY INVENTED SOMETHING THAT WORKS! But once finding out that he needs 1.21 gigawatts of electricity he exclaims there is nothing he can do for Marty because there is no way to generate that kind of power... except for a bolt of lightning. BUT... as we talked about earlier when they wanted to SAVE THE CLOCK tower! The plan is in place, to send him BACK TO THE FUTURE! HOWEVER... He must fix what he has already changed in the past, before he and his whole family is erased from existence. Hence when his mom said if her dad hadn't hit with the car, none of them would have been born. He hit... Marty... with the car... BUM BUM BUM!
So... now we need to get George and Larine together, except this is going to prove more difficult than you would think. Now, as always we get a great deal of comic relief from our good friend Biff as we get another one of his classic lines. "Make like a tree... and Get outa here..." so much that the line has been transformed from the ridiculous stupid line that Biff made it to a classic pun that has stood the test of time. Back to the main storyline... Despite George's efforts he never seems to be able to get the attention of Lorain, and Marty just can't seem to stop getting in altercations with Biff which just makes Lorain fall in love with him more, Marty just can't help but be awesome, and George at this point in his life has never reached his full potential, and is always standing in Marty's shadow.
Here is where we find out the plan to send Marty home, which is rather scientifically stable... for the ficitional story... Robert Zemeckis is quite the story teller. During the simulation once the electricity strikes the car, it erupts into a ball of flames, which may make the plan seem a tad dangerous... but lets not forget the trail of flames that the car leaves every time the car crosses over the timeline. Not to break down the film scene for scene but following this Marty goes over the plan with George, which is important to mention, because the plan doesn't go exactly as planned but because it doesnt, it actually makes things that much better... As the film progresses we find Biff's gang who grabs Marty and throws him in the trunk of a car, when Biff takes Marty's place George ends up confronting Biff for real, but right when it looks like George is about to have his arm broken by big bully Biff, George reaches back and clocks Biff knocking him out cold and changing the course of history forever. Giving George a sense of new found confidence, he takes Lorain into the dance. BUT... to make things ever more complicated, the trunk of the car that Marty was stuffed in just happens to be the band playing at the dance, with the keys in the trunk of the car with Marty they gimmy the lock open with a screwdriver slicing the hand of their guitarist, which would end the dance prematurely if they can't find a new guitarist... Remember Marty's band? Guess who fills in...
But as the dance progresses, the longer it takes George and Lorain to kiss the more bit by bit Marty starts to disappear from existence as time is running out for Marty in more than one way. But just as it looks like Marty is about to disappear from existence George makes his final defining moment as he pushes the a punk out of the way who had cut into his dance with Lorain as he kisses her Marty springs back up to his feet and he, his brother, and his sister return to his photograph. But... as always, Marty can't help but go all Marty and goes Rock and Roll with "Johnny Be Good" which is great when Marvin... Marvin Barry calls his cousin... Chuck Barry to listen to the "New Sound he is looking for" so essentially everyone in the world has Marty McFly to thank for Chuck Barry and "Johnny Be Good"! The ONLY problem here, is that Marty is wasting the time he needs to get back to the time machine, I should do a count of how many times we use the word "Time" in this film, much like Dark Knight Rises it's a theme that is played out over and over again throughout the film. The question remains... Will Marty... get back... In Time?
He arrives tardy to the party but just in time to make the whole plan work. Only there will be problems, problems all sorts of problems. This being the greatest and most widely viewed the short lived Delorian Motor Company, but it wasn't all good publicity as the car is shown malfunctioning on more than one occasion. The only problem with this plan, is that Doc has planned the whole thing down to the second where Marty needs to hit the cable the instant the lightning strikes the CLOCK TOWER! Only when the alarm goes off the Car decides not to start, Marty ends up leaving a good ten to fifteen seconds late on the alarm, now this is great for suspense, but doesn't really make sense with the elements of the plan. Marty should have arrived ten seconds too late to strike the lightning, but he doesn't all goes as planned, and he is shot back to his present day. But because he tried to go back ten minutes early he has the opportunity to watch himself go back in time... oh what fun this is turning out to be. Back in 1955 Marty had written a letter to Doc to warn him about his impending death from the terrorists, only to have Doc rip up the letter because of consequences that it could cause.
However... Doc, in his thirty years to think about it, decided... what the hell... and tapped the whole thing back together, and went through with the night as it went down, knowing that he will be shot and that Marty will go back in time, and that changing any of the events could have disastrous results. So knowing full well the future of what would happen that night, everything went as planned Doc having remembered his encounter with the "Future Boy" back in 1955, he knew all of it had to happen. We end up back in a somewhat alternate 1985, where his father is a published author with a great deal of confidence, his mother no longer the alcoholic that she was previously and everyone in his family in a better place then when he left them, all because of the changes that Marty made in the past. Even Biff... who is now working in the car detailing business is no longer the bully he once was, which they owe to George putting Biff in his place back in 1955. Now you would think everyone would live happily ever after, just as Doc Brown returns from the FUTURE to tell Marty that something has to be done about Marty and Jennifer's children in the future... leading us directly into Back to the Future part 2...
Now, Back to the Future Part 2, has plenty of flaws, but it's a wildly entertaining film, and we will tackle that another TIME.
We are taken back in time to a time where Twin Pine's Mall was once farm land, our first look at time travel throughout the course of the three films. The 1985 film does a wonderful job of recreating 1955, so much so that I have often times found myself wishing that I could have grown up in the 50's, it seemed like such a simpler time. The travel back in time, shows just how much the fictional time of "Hill Valley" had expanded since 1955, as Marty finds himself two miles from Hill Valley when in 1985 he was well within city limits. This would be quite the shock to the system for a highschool young man to suddenly find himself a man out out of time, with no way back. I would certainly be in a panic if it were to happen to me. Ironically, he walks into a diner, where he just happens to run into his father, who just happens to be, in this period of time, the same age of Marty. I can not stress enough just how well Crispen Glover plays his rolls in this film. This is definitely one of if not the best roll of his career. Similar to Glover, Wilson who plays Biff walks in and goes all "Butt Head" on McFly... both of them. It's not long before Marty inadvertently changes the course of history as he saves his father from being hit by the car that was the catalyst that made his parents fall in love originally. This changes everything, as we find out that Marty must fix the course of events that he had just changed. His mother then falls in love with Marty, rather than George and this becomes quite the problem for Marty, and for his future.
Without going into all the fine details of the scene we quickly find out the extreme differences between the 80's and the 50's, and its extremely interesting to see. Doc Brown in this time lives on "Riverside Drive" where in the 80's is renamed "John F. Kennedy Drive" only to be asked the question who the hell is John F. Kennedy.... Marty finds his way to Doc Brown, only to find out that at this point is a crack pot scientist who has yet to create any invention that actually works. BUT... we are only moments after Doc Brown had hit his head on the edge of the sink, where he had had the vision of the first Flux Capacitor... which we all know... Is what makes time travel possible... we all know this by now. They arrive at the time machine where Doc Brown exclaims HE FINALLY INVENTED SOMETHING THAT WORKS! But once finding out that he needs 1.21 gigawatts of electricity he exclaims there is nothing he can do for Marty because there is no way to generate that kind of power... except for a bolt of lightning. BUT... as we talked about earlier when they wanted to SAVE THE CLOCK tower! The plan is in place, to send him BACK TO THE FUTURE! HOWEVER... He must fix what he has already changed in the past, before he and his whole family is erased from existence. Hence when his mom said if her dad hadn't hit with the car, none of them would have been born. He hit... Marty... with the car... BUM BUM BUM!
So... now we need to get George and Larine together, except this is going to prove more difficult than you would think. Now, as always we get a great deal of comic relief from our good friend Biff as we get another one of his classic lines. "Make like a tree... and Get outa here..." so much that the line has been transformed from the ridiculous stupid line that Biff made it to a classic pun that has stood the test of time. Back to the main storyline... Despite George's efforts he never seems to be able to get the attention of Lorain, and Marty just can't seem to stop getting in altercations with Biff which just makes Lorain fall in love with him more, Marty just can't help but be awesome, and George at this point in his life has never reached his full potential, and is always standing in Marty's shadow.
Here is where we find out the plan to send Marty home, which is rather scientifically stable... for the ficitional story... Robert Zemeckis is quite the story teller. During the simulation once the electricity strikes the car, it erupts into a ball of flames, which may make the plan seem a tad dangerous... but lets not forget the trail of flames that the car leaves every time the car crosses over the timeline. Not to break down the film scene for scene but following this Marty goes over the plan with George, which is important to mention, because the plan doesn't go exactly as planned but because it doesnt, it actually makes things that much better... As the film progresses we find Biff's gang who grabs Marty and throws him in the trunk of a car, when Biff takes Marty's place George ends up confronting Biff for real, but right when it looks like George is about to have his arm broken by big bully Biff, George reaches back and clocks Biff knocking him out cold and changing the course of history forever. Giving George a sense of new found confidence, he takes Lorain into the dance. BUT... to make things ever more complicated, the trunk of the car that Marty was stuffed in just happens to be the band playing at the dance, with the keys in the trunk of the car with Marty they gimmy the lock open with a screwdriver slicing the hand of their guitarist, which would end the dance prematurely if they can't find a new guitarist... Remember Marty's band? Guess who fills in...
But as the dance progresses, the longer it takes George and Lorain to kiss the more bit by bit Marty starts to disappear from existence as time is running out for Marty in more than one way. But just as it looks like Marty is about to disappear from existence George makes his final defining moment as he pushes the a punk out of the way who had cut into his dance with Lorain as he kisses her Marty springs back up to his feet and he, his brother, and his sister return to his photograph. But... as always, Marty can't help but go all Marty and goes Rock and Roll with "Johnny Be Good" which is great when Marvin... Marvin Barry calls his cousin... Chuck Barry to listen to the "New Sound he is looking for" so essentially everyone in the world has Marty McFly to thank for Chuck Barry and "Johnny Be Good"! The ONLY problem here, is that Marty is wasting the time he needs to get back to the time machine, I should do a count of how many times we use the word "Time" in this film, much like Dark Knight Rises it's a theme that is played out over and over again throughout the film. The question remains... Will Marty... get back... In Time?
He arrives tardy to the party but just in time to make the whole plan work. Only there will be problems, problems all sorts of problems. This being the greatest and most widely viewed the short lived Delorian Motor Company, but it wasn't all good publicity as the car is shown malfunctioning on more than one occasion. The only problem with this plan, is that Doc has planned the whole thing down to the second where Marty needs to hit the cable the instant the lightning strikes the CLOCK TOWER! Only when the alarm goes off the Car decides not to start, Marty ends up leaving a good ten to fifteen seconds late on the alarm, now this is great for suspense, but doesn't really make sense with the elements of the plan. Marty should have arrived ten seconds too late to strike the lightning, but he doesn't all goes as planned, and he is shot back to his present day. But because he tried to go back ten minutes early he has the opportunity to watch himself go back in time... oh what fun this is turning out to be. Back in 1955 Marty had written a letter to Doc to warn him about his impending death from the terrorists, only to have Doc rip up the letter because of consequences that it could cause.
However... Doc, in his thirty years to think about it, decided... what the hell... and tapped the whole thing back together, and went through with the night as it went down, knowing that he will be shot and that Marty will go back in time, and that changing any of the events could have disastrous results. So knowing full well the future of what would happen that night, everything went as planned Doc having remembered his encounter with the "Future Boy" back in 1955, he knew all of it had to happen. We end up back in a somewhat alternate 1985, where his father is a published author with a great deal of confidence, his mother no longer the alcoholic that she was previously and everyone in his family in a better place then when he left them, all because of the changes that Marty made in the past. Even Biff... who is now working in the car detailing business is no longer the bully he once was, which they owe to George putting Biff in his place back in 1955. Now you would think everyone would live happily ever after, just as Doc Brown returns from the FUTURE to tell Marty that something has to be done about Marty and Jennifer's children in the future... leading us directly into Back to the Future part 2...
Now, Back to the Future Part 2, has plenty of flaws, but it's a wildly entertaining film, and we will tackle that another TIME.
Time Count: 55
NINETEEN 55 if you will...
What are the odds of that?
Final Thoughts:
The original Back to the Future is probably one of the greatest and most iconic films of all time, paving the way of more time travel films down the road. The acting was superb on all levels they did a magnificent job of recreating 1955 and the story telling couldn't have been better aside from a few minor and I mean MINOR flaws here and there it was a perfect story with flawless execution. Now while the sequels are entertaining and just much fun, none of them live up to the original. This is a classic film that should never EVER be remade, there is absolutely no way the story could ever have been told better, and it doesn't take me a movie brand new movie reviewer to tell you that this film is one of the best ever made and an all time classic.
Final Score:
*Perfect* 5 outa 5
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