"Back to the Future" (1985)—The Best Time-Travel Movie Of All Time!!
+Guest Posts: Movie Wisdom By Guest Writer Andrew Heard—Issue #5
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The Movie:
Back to the Future (1985) is a sci-fi fantasy co-written and directed by Robert Zemeckis about a teenaged slacker named Marty McFly (Michael J. Fox), who is ready to give up on his dreams until he goes 30 years into the past in a time-traveling DeLorean invented by his scientist friend, Dr. Emmett “Doc” Brown (Christopher Lloyd), and changes his future.
Life Lesson: Learn to persevere—if you put your mind to it, you can accomplish anything.
Biff Tannen (Thomas F. Wilson): Mr. McFly, Mr. McFly. This just arrived. Oh, hi Marty! I think it’s your new book.
Lorraine McFly (Lea Thompson): Oh, honey. Your first novel!
George McFly (Crispin Glover): Like I’ve always told you. You put your mind to it, you can accomplish anything. [Hands his son, Marty, the new book.]
Guest Writer:
Guest writer Andrew Heard examines ideas behind media in TV’s Moral Philosophy
What do you fail to recognize about yourself?
Individuals have all kinds of ideas about who they are. Sometimes these ideas are accurate, while other times they are simply things people wish were true about themselves. Some people may believe that they are something they're not because it gives them comfort, or helps them achieve something, or motivates them to better themselves. While other times they simply refuse to acknowledge parts of themselves they don't like.
Marty McFly (Michael J. Fox) from the Back to the Future franchise exemplifies this latter phenomenon. Through the course of the movie Marty becomes aware just how much like his father he is, despite his dislike for the way his wimpy, cowardly father who is “not good at confrontations” does things. For example, after Marty’s rock band, The Pinheads, fails the audition to play at his high school’s dance because the uptight judges deem his band “just too darn loud,” a demoralized, defeated Marty declares, “I just don’t think I’m cut out for music.”
His very supportive girlfriend advises him to keep trying because “one rejection isn’t the end of the world,” but Marty is unmoved. Here is part of that dialogue:
Jennifer (Claudia Wells): But you’re good Marty. You’re really good. And this audition tape of yours is great. You’ve got to send it in to the record company. It’s like Doc is always saying…
Marty: Yeah, I know, I know. If you put your mind to it, you can accomplish anything.
Jennifer: That’s good advice Marty.
Marty: All right, ok Jennifer. What if I send in the tape and they don’t like it? I mean what if they say I’m no good? What if they say, “get out of here kid, you’ve got no future.” I mean, I just don’t think I can take that kind of rejection. —Jesus, I’m starting to sound like my old man.
This last line perhaps most strongly puts forward Marty’s paradox. On the one hand, one rejection has him so discouraged that he says he is not cut out for music, on the other, his profound lack of confidence, which reminds him of his father, also has him giving up on his music career by rejecting the idea of sending his audition tape to a record company.
Marty eventually learns that he has the same insecurities as his father when he goes back in time and meets him in his high school’s cafeteria. Like Marty, George (Crispin Glover) has certain ideas about himself and who he wants to be:
Marty: What are you writing?
George: Uh, stories. Science fiction stories about visitors coming down to Earth from other planets.
Marty: Get out of town! I didn’t know you did anything creative. Let me read some.
George: Oh, no, no, no, no. I never let anyone read my stories.
Marty: Why not?
George: Well, what if they didn’t like them? What if they told me I was not good? I guess that would be pretty hard for somebody to understand.
Marty: Uh, no. No, not hard at all.
Marty believed he was different from his father. He wanted to be different. But he is forced to confront his own crippling lack of confidence by seeing it perfectly reflected in his father, who uses almost the exact same language of fear and doubt that Marty used earlier. Before this, Marty was able to be in denial about his true self, versus how he saw himself.
Eventually both characters conquer their insecurities. Marty finally gets the chance to play in front of a crowd and achieve the affirmation and recognition for his talent that he craved. With George, it's when he fights back against the bully Biff (Thomas F. Wilson), delivering perhaps the most satisfying punch in cinematic history. These actions transform them from people who so lacked in confidence that they were willing to give up on their passions, to people who overcame obstacles to be complete.
moviewise Review:
Ah, the precision. Few things are more satisfying than watching something run like clockwork. Back to the Future (1985) is a fan favorite* for countless reasons, but chief among them is the great way in which this movie is organized. Everything is laid out perfectly in a precise, logical manner, and every scene seamlessly and delightfully moves the story along like shiny gears in a well-oiled machine. And what an exciting time-traveling adventure it is! It’s absolutely thrilling! And the stirring, heroic, fun music with a touch of twinkling magical sounds scattered throughout elevates it even more. It’s all so good! This is a really special movie.
Back to the Future opens with a clock scene. It’s a history of time. Clocks from different periods are intertwined together as the camera pans from the grandfather pendulum clock, to the electric clock radio, to the cuckoo novelty clocks and the antique analog alarm clocks. While the clocks are ticking, a television screen flickers on showing a news broadcast, which we later learn is “fake news.” The anchorwoman announces that “officials at the Pacific Nuclear Research facility have denied the rumor that the case of missing plutonium was in fact stolen from their vault two weeks ago. A Libyan terrorist group had claimed responsibility for the alleged theft. However, officials now attribute the discrepancy to a simple clerical error.”
Misinformation? Terrorists? Research??! Is this 1985 or 2015, or 2045? Amazingly enough, this movie about time travel is timeless. And not just because everything in it would make sense in today’s world and would not be out of place thirty years from now, but because Back to the Future speaks to universal themes that will never feel dated. How many of us have dealt with setbacks, lack of confidence, bullying, disappointment, rejection, and the fear that we’re just like our parents! What a nightmare!
But it gets even better. How many movies take you through an action-packed, adrenaline pumping ride that’s infused with comedy and teaches one of the most impactful life lessons there is:
learn to persevere—if you put your mind to it, you can accomplish anything.
Multiple characters learn this lesson and show steely determination in doing so. There’s the lowly soda jerk who goes from sweeping the floors of a cafe while attending night school to becoming mayor Goldie Wilson (Donald Fullilove). There’s George McFly (Crispin Glover), Marty’s father, who finally fights back against a truly menacing bully (he cleans Biff’s clock) and pursues a successful writing career after overcoming his fear of rejection. Then there’s Doc (Christopher Lloyd), who finally invents something that works, a time machine made out of a DeLorean because “the way I see it, if you’re going to build a time machine into a car, why not do it with some style!” Additionally, the heroic effort he takes to help Marty in a lightning storm—while being high up on a clock tower with electrical cables pulling apart, a bell ringing, and the ledge he is standing on crumbling beneath him—is a visceral, beautiful representation of the movie’s message: you can do it, as long as you don’t give up.
And of course there is Marty (Michael J. Fox), who struggles with all the issues of the above characters plus some more: the low expectations of others, like his high school principal, Mr. Strickland (James Tolkan) who calls him out as a slacker: “No McFly ever amounted to anything in the history of Hill Valley”; the violent bunch of bullies who attack him at every opportunity; the lack of confidence that has him giving up on his musical ambitions before he’s even started; the repeated failures—from blowing up a giant speaker by overloading it, to being passed over at an audition; to dealing with mechanical car problems; and the disorientation from being sent thirty years into the past after being chased by terrorists wielding a rocket-propelled grenade. And yet, Marty overcomes. Marty perseveres. Marty accomplishes everything he set out to do. And while on this journey, Marty learns to play through the pain.
Wish we could all be so lucky!
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* Back to the Future (1985) was selected in 2007 by the Library of Congress for inclusion in the U.S. National Film Registry for being “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant.” President Ronald Reagan referenced the movie in his 1986 State of the Union Address, saying "Never has there been a more exciting time to be alive, a time of rousing wonder and heroic achievement. As they said in the film Back to the Future, 'Where we're going, we don't need roads'."
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I carefully composed a reply on Google keep notes but found out substatic doesn't let me copy it into this reply so I'll get back to you in the morning when I'm at my computer
I only finally opened your links so I could exit your comment, without feeling guilty. Then you hijacked 90% of my writing time today. I only have myself to blame for indulging myself by writing more than you will ever find time to read.
I am intrigued by your offer. “Life’s Lessons” are what I am all about.
As a person recovering from addiction and a retired Addiction Counselor, one of the favorites I gathered along the way was “When you lose, don’t lose the lesson!”
However, I am at a tipping point, both in my writing life and in my efforts to shepherd family and friends through their escape from the Drug World’s *Fatal Attraction*. Right now, they are doing well, but their trendlines are not only *not* straight up, but also not a straight incline, with the possibility of a sudden precipitous decline always one impulse away. Sometimes caused by a sudden uptick that makes them forget where they came from and where they want to be going and “Yes, I’ll have one…” sidetracks them
I think I am hearing you say that there are many approaches to your own method of Mediating Lessons for additional emotional impact.
I have a dream myself. Getting, say, Steven Spielberg, to create a story or documentary that would use Jurassic Park style reptilian creatures to drive home the message that allowing our own reptilian brain to hijack our more evolved brains and employ those for behaviors dedicated to immediate feelings of pure pleasure, “self-will run riot” will ultimately lead only to pure misery for all.
Those behaviors are not limited to abusing substances. Right now, the world is faced with individuals so selfish that they would invade another country or destroy democracy in pursuit of their own pleasures, none of which can ever be “enough.” The suffering of little children should be enough to deter any “human” with a functional mammalian brain from pursuing goals that will only lead to “lose-lose” outcomes for *everyone*!
Our Founding Framers knew better and tried to build guardrails against those who are incapable of caring about others.
I see the bottom of my lunch bowl drawing nigh and feel the fading of my brain which is telling me that I now must “Rest and digest” my food and my morning’s thoughts and experiences, in hopes of making sense of them for myself and others.
In my 80th year on the planet, I never know how much physical or mental energy I will have to dedicate to a given project, but if you have any suggestions for putting that energy to use on a project that I feel qualified to participate in, let me know.
Update
A sudden faceplant into that bowl made me remember my vow not send replies until my brain has a chance to regenerate.
I had also made a vow to reply to five other folks that I met through the Writers’ Hour that have given me ideas that I have been trying to flesh out, working them in around my IRL concerns. S.E. Reid’s “Nostalgia” discussion, The Footloose Muse’s “Freedom” column and the “Sober Girl’s” columns that I haven’t gotten around to in spite of knowing that this was a person in early recovery, which is where I met my clients.
One of my visions is to Crowd Source some ideas that I have come to realize that I will never have time to achieve on my own. Not only information, but also ideas, “want to be free,” so I’m going to start a subsection of my Substack for those ideas.
One of them would be a Musicwise publication. Or…if you were interested, on *your* Substack.
I haven’t had time to read your examples and still don’t, but I can feel my rabbit-chasing gene kicking in, so…
And…then I idly clicked a link on my Substack dashboard and went haring after a publishing/theme rabbit.
Proving once again that those internet Rabbit Holes are really Black Holes of Time, full of exciting references that lead to other BHT or Dead Ends that I still read because reading is what I do.
Substack’s constant updates/new features make the old-fashioned “pencil sharpening” prep time pale. *Catch-22* has a scene wherein one of the characters goes through the process of making a list, underlying important items with flair etc. then leans back, satisfied that he has accomplished something.
Alas, I don’t do that. I just comment parenthetically until even my own eyes cross and my brain refuses to feed my mind more data and I click on YouTube to learn the latest outrage from Ukraine or Agent Orange’s latest attempt to destroy the democracy that made it possible for him to lie his way to the most powerful position in the most powerful nation in all history.
(Leans back, satisfied that he has accomplished something…)
(Snaps to attention. Remembering he had a *plan*!)
Yes! Read your example.
I thought of BTF when I saw the “Best time traveling movie…” URL, then thought, but no, it is probably some obscure movie I never heard of. I actually did see that during the “honeymoon” phase of a rekindled flame with the woman who finally became my wife. She was a movie freak, but after that flame flickered under the relentless assaults of her drug use associated problems, I was back to reading and she was back to watching *The World According to Garp* alone for the hundredth time.
I could call upon her “Knowledge Base,” but meth’s relentless assault on her life’s flame caused her to pass ten-years ago.
(Snaps to attention…)
So, I did read the example. While I could only recall the scene where McFly slides across the stage on his knees and the teens stopped dancing and stand still, appalled by this sudden trip to music’s future did complete a connection between my limited KB and music.
Having been there for rock and roll’s borning cry, “A wop-bop-a-luma-a-wop-bom-boom,” seeing Elvis in concert in Omaha in 1956, on his first tour out of his home region, suffering through the Mafia’s takeover of *our* music (Payola and Mafia nephews), reading the actual newspaper account of *The Day the Music Died* on a cold Wednesday morning and being doubly disappointed, because Buddy was due at my hometown venue on Thursday night. Motown, Dylan, the British Invasion, movies like Monterrey Pop, Woodstock, Joplin in concert, many more in my extended adolescence, including the three-day Woodstock of the Midwest at the 1974 Ozark Mountain Festival at the state fairgrounds in Sedalia MO …
I was going somewhere with that when that burst of nostalgia carried me into my musical past.
Oh, yeah. So, when Marty was sliding and the teens were staring, I was thinking, “That would never have happened at the Val Air Ballroom in West Des Moines. We were already hip to music at that age…”
But…were we? If you haven’t been brought along that trip in stages, would your musical ear “hear” music or noise?
Then…I recalled my first exposure to Led Zeppelin in 1969. Drunk, eating steak and eggs after the bars closed, during my honkytonk era as I became a sheetrocker, hanging with rednecks, listening to jukeboxes featuring songs by Merle and then having my musical “ear” assailed by “I’m gonna give you every inch of my love,” funny to my still juvenile sense of humor, but, my God!
Loud and annoying, as I came down from the speed that had propelled me through my day, drinking a half-gallon of milk, then, finally hungry for something solid (as in solid, blood-clogging fats) and seeing teens at another table, obviously digging it, I was starting to appreciate my father’s lack of appreciation for Elvis.
A few years later, accompanying my youngest brother and his friends, I was happy to attend a Led Zep concert in St. Paul. And, recently, I discovered A Tribute to Led Zeppelin, featuring Heart at the Kennedy Center, a performance of *Stairway to Heaven* that made the hair on the back of my neck stand up and brought tears to my eyes.
BTW, that song and *Hotel California* are anti-drug songs. “There’s a lady who’s sure that all that glitters is gold…” and “you can check out anytime you like, but you can never leave…”
And…of course, I had to read the obituary of Nurse Ratchet…
One more thing: I don’t care for “Musicals” where they interrupt the action and everyone breaks into song, with tunes that seldom grab my attention. But…music that blends seamlessly with the storyline was exemplified for me in 1957, in *The Girl Can’t Help It*, when they broke away from Jayne’s Mansfield’s enormous breasts to Little Richard screaming the title song, still one of my favorite tunes from him. He later described her as “amazing.” Sophia Loren, who I consider a more attractive female, must also have been “amazed,” based on a photo of her sitting next to Jayne at some event.