BACK TO THE FUTURE (1985) Review
Dir. Robert Zemekis
I first saw Back to the Future through a TV airing in my teen years, and I’ve seen it a few times since, including—quite fittingly—at a drive-in. It even inspired a dream I had in January 2012 where I time traveled using a car to see The Dark Knight Rises! That film, alas, has not held up for me… unlike this one.
Back to the Future never caught my interest growing up, but aspects of it may be too mature for me to have been allowed to grow up with it anyways. But I revisited it this time because I referenced “I’m your density!” and realized that Marty McFly travels back to seventy years ago this month.
Such an original, character-driven story with virtually no spectacle makes this one of the biggest outliers in summer blockbuster history. But boy does it deserve to be! Hilarious and thrilling all at once, with pitch perfect casting, arguably the greatest example of a movie saying its own title, and a screenplay so layered in setup and payoff that I notice something new every time. I even now see myself in George McFly’s anxieties about publishing his writing!
The climactic “Come on, man. Let’s do something that really cooks” must have been what the creative trio of Zemekis, Bob Gale, and Spielberg were saying to each other behind the scenes. With the film running through my head for days since this viewing, not only can I call it the definitive sci-fi comedy, but I wouldn’t argue against it being called the platonic ideal of a crowdpleaser!
★★★★
Mature Teens+