Back to the Furure (1985)

The great popularity of Back to the Future (and its sequels) reflects the nostalgic yearnings of 1980s America for a better time, and that time was the 1950s, an era when the American Dream seemed within reach of all good Americans. At the film's opening, Marty McFly (Michael J. Fox) is a decent teenager who plays an electric guitar, sails about on a skateboard, and courts a pretty girl, Jennifer Parker (Claudia Wells). But all is not well in Marty's little world. His father George McFly (Crispin Glover) is a milquetoast, his mother Lorraine Baines (Lea Thompson) is an alcoholic, and his brother, Dave (Marc McClure), and sister, Linda (Wendie Jo Sperber), are decidedly downwardly mobile.

Marty's friend, a positively manic inventor, Dr. Emmett Brown (Christopher Lloyd), has been working on a time machine. Using a DeLorean automobile, Emmett believes he has succeeded in conquering time, and he has. His invention sends Marty catapulting back to 1955. Once there Marty tracks down the 30-years-younger Emmett and convinces him he is from 1985. But he soon finds he is trapped, because the car needs plutonium to get him back to 1985. Encounters parents The then-and-now jokes begin to fly hot and heavy from this point on. Marty notices that the local theater that was playing Orgy American Style in 1985 is playing Cattle Queen of Montana in 1955, starring Barbara Stanwyck and Ronald Reagan. The teenager states that Reagan is President, and the retort is, "And I suppose Jane Wyman is the First Lady?"

The fun really begins when Marty meets his own mother, Lorraine, at 17, a sexy young thing who is smitten with her own son, calling him her "dreamboat." Marty later laments the fact that "my mom has the hots for me!" His father is a nerd who is bullied and pushed around by a thug, Biff Tannen (Thomas F. Wilson), and his goons. His arrival having changed the past, Marty now must work desperately to get Lorraine and George together or he'll never be born. Background Production notes Fox, Thompson, and Glover are first rate, as are all the credits, particularly the adroit direction by Robert Zemeckis, which wastes no time getting to the action. Steven Spielberg (executive producer of the film) had originally cast Eric Stoltz in the lead role, but Stoltz's performance was thought to be too intense, so he was replaced by Fox when the film was five weeks into production and more than $4 million had already been spent. Zemeckis originally had the time machine as a refrigerator, which you had to get into and close before it would start, but the director worried that kids would start locking themselves into refrigerators. That idea was abandoned, and the gull-winged DeLorean became the replacement time machine.

The transformation of the town square from 1985 to 1955 and back again is more than a little sad, showing the malt shop changed in the future to an aerobics gym, the Studebaker dealership changed to a Toyota outlet, a florist to a pornographic bookstore, and a travel agency to a pawn shop. This contrast serves as a metaphor for the decline of the country (and with it the American Dream) which is one of the film's central themes.

CAST:

PERFORMER, CHARACTER

Michael J. Fox, Marty McFly

Christopher Lloyd, Dr. Emmett Brown

Lea Thompson, Lorraine Baines

Crispin Glover, George McFly

Thomas F. Wilson, "Biff" Tannen

Claudia Wells, Jennifer Parker

Marc McClure, Dave McFly

Wendie Jo Sperber, Linda McFly

PRODUCTION:

Producers, Bob Gale and Neil Canton

Director, Robert Zemeckis

Screenwriter, Robert Zemeckis and Bob Gale

Editors, Arthur Schmidt and Harry Keramidas

Cinematographer, Dean Cundey

Music Director. Bones Howe

Composer, Alan Silvestri