Review of Back to the Future (1985) by Ben W — 05 Sep 2016

Dude. Back to the Future is cool. Like really cool. It is one of the few movies I have seen that is effortlessly fun and fascinating. It's not afraid to be weird or ridiculous. It embraces its wacky, eccentric spirit and its time-traveling, Plutonium stealing premise and complements both with a lot of style. It is bursting with young, hip energy. It's a very fast, ultra-cool adventure that is anchored by its dynamite leading duo, the charming slacker, Marty McFly, and the crazed inventor, Dr. Brown. Their odd friendship is engaging and they lead a crew of amusing, energetic characters. Dr. Brown is an especially funny character with his odd idiosyncrasies, theatrical expressions and ridiculous lines ("Great Scott!", "It's the Lybian Nationalists").

It is breathtaking to watch as a stylistic and aesthetic experience. Marty spends most of the film running around with his puffy red vest and flashy Nike shoes, jumping in and out of the sleek DeLorean sports car that just happens to leave flaming tire tracks when it travels through time. It's colorful and creative and meticulously detailed. It's filled with vibrant vintage costumes, classic cars, dated slang, pop-culture references and amusing period detail that constantly disorients Marty as he tries to get back to the present. Back to the Future alternates between the ultra-hip 80's and the classic, wholesome 50's. It was really fun for me to see how the town, fashion and cars change over 30 years and the sets are designed to contrast those two distinct time periods in a brilliant manner.

That doesn't even scratch the surface though. Part of the film's brilliance is its infinitely intriguing story and idea. First off, the film is obsessed with time. It continually focuses on clocks and watches, the societal changes between the two generations and Marty always forgets what time it is. Time is also crucial to the time-traveling experiment and the only way Marty can save himself is to run the DeLorean past a clock-tower at a specific point in time. The story itself is fascinating. Marty accidentally travels back in time to avoid death, only to meet his mother and father the very week his parents are supposed to meet. His mom gets a crush on him and his father is a total dweeb. He has to fix the past he meddled with so that he can return to the present, all while running out of time to do it. It's also fascinating to think about seeing your parents as teenagers and changing them for the be better in the future. They did an excellent job developing Marty's parents and the villain, Brick through time.

Back to the Future's awesome appeal lies in its fun spirit, stylistic excellence and amazing story. It is different and daring and that's what makes it special.