In the Dark Reviews

Is 1985’s “Back to the Future” one of the greatest movies ever made?

Opinions vary, but science says “yes,” and the city of Shelton agrees, because it’s running the sci-fi classic as the final installment of this summer’s free-admission “Movies in the Park” series, starting between 8:30-8:45 p.m. on Friday, in Kneeland Park.

The 1970s and the 1980s produced scores of excellent films, but what the recent passing of William Friedkin, who directed 1971’s “The French Connection” and 1973’s “The Exorcist,” reminded me was that ’70s films breathed deeply from the atmosphere of their scenes, whereas ’80s films were ruthlessly disciplined plot delivery engines.

In honor of Friedkin’s death, I watched one of his more obscure films, 1977’s “Sorcerer,” and soon felt immersed by its deceptively simple premise and lush on-location setting, whereas with 1988’s “Die Hard,” I felt immediately engaged by its relentlessly brisk pacing and meticulously engineered sequence of events.

When director Bob Zemeckis co-wrote the screenplay for “Back to the Future” with co-producer Bob Gale, they set the pace for later films like “Die Hard” to follow, because this time-travel epic is itself a storytelling machine.

Just as any proper performance of Tchaikovsky’s “1812 Overture” requires a climactic volley of cannon fire, so too does “Back to the Future” feel like a symphony of Chekhov’s guns going off. Virtually every line of dialogue, extended shot and running gag turns out to be a setup that yields a rewarding payoff.

Consider the introductory segment of “Back to the Future,” with its uninterrupted camera pan across Doc Brown’s cluttered lab, surveying his array of diverse clocks, framed newspaper clippings and scientists’ portraits, and off-kilter Rube Goldberg-style automations, encapsulating the essentials of that character and his life, with almost no spoken dialogue, in less than three minutes, before we even meet him onscreen.

And yet, as well-honed as this film became by its final edit, it wouldn’t have worked without Michael J. Fox as our go-getting adolescent protagonist, Marty McFly. Zemeckis himself realized that when he was forced to reshoot several scenes after recasting former lead actor Eric Stoltz, whose award-winning dramatic skills, as seen in 1985’s “Mask,” failed to translate into the especially subversive flavor of screwball comedy that this film required.

Fox filmed “Back to the Future” while taping episodes of his sitcom “Family Ties,” and as a result of working almost round-the-clock, he went deeply into sleep-debt while playing Marty, which added to the appeal of Fox’s earnest performance. From the moment Doc Brown’s clocks all chime at once, to when Marty wakes up in his strangely changed home, our teen hero is defined by the trauma and exhaustion of continually being caught tardy in his constant race against time.

Worse yet, when Marty travels back to 1955, he’s subjected to what many parents and their kids would consider a nightmare when he discovers his dad was even more uncool as a teen than George McFly’s dorky middle-aged self had already led his son to believe. And Marty’s future mom reveals herself to be nowhere near the “good girl” she goes on to preach about being to her own children.

Your age as a viewer will likely determine on whose behalf you will cringe, Marty or his parents, but as I’ve gotten older, I’ve become struck by how much empathy “Back to the Future” expresses for the older generations, by gently getting the younger generations to see that their seemingly out-of-touch parents used to be starry-eyed kids with big, impractical dreams, too, and maybe those kids could spare some sympathy and encouragement for their folks.

One of the most quietly touching moments, amid an otherwise manic film, comes from Marty learning his father was once an aspiring science fiction author. Marty, in a rare flash of feeling for his dad, asks whether he can read some of George’s writing.

When the neurotic George — Crispin Glover was irreplaceable in this role, in spite of the sequels’ attempts to do just that — hastily covers his notes and repeats, virtually word-for-word, Marty’s own earlier stated reasons for not submitting his audition tape to the record company, a cloud passes over Fox’s face, as Marty finally gets how much he and his dad have in common.

Re-watching “Back to the Future” as an adult (I was 10 when it premiered), I’d probably bump its age rating up a notch, because when your film features your hero taking his mom to the prom, that’s got to be a PG-13, especially when she’s played by Lea Thompson.

And yet, in spite of some intense scenes involving fistfights and weapons fire, “Back to the Future” manages to be a film for the whole family, with jokes targeted toward multiple ages, plus a surrogate father-son relationship between Marty and the pricelessly deranged Christopher Lloyd as Dr. Emmett L. “Doc” Brown that still chokes me up.

We all laugh at Lloyd’s brushstrokes of absurd behavior as the eccentric Doc, but after the DeLorean makes its first trip through time, and white smoke plumes out of its twin exhaust vents, pay attention to Lloyd’s facial reactions, after his initial goggle-eyed shock. Doc immediately narrows his eyes and purses his lips, because he’s a true scientist at heart, and he feels compelled to examine what just happened.

Likewise, when Doc expresses his gratitude to Marty over feeling like he’s finally on a path toward a future worth looking forward to, it’s heartbreaking to watch Marty struggle to respect Doc’s voiced wishes, by not warning his mentor about the fate that awaits him, because while Marty may be short-sighted and impulsive, he never stops being a good kid, who wants to do the right thing and help out others.

“Movies in the Park” is ending for the summer, but families still have a shot at some inexpensive big-screen entertainment before the close of this month. The Shelton Cinemas conclude its “Summer Movie Mondays” series, with Adam Sandler’s animated “Hotel Transylvania 3” playing Aug. 28.

Doors open at noon for the 12:30 p.m. screening. Admission is by donation only. Hot dogs, bags of popcorn and sodas are $1 each, or you can pick up all three for $2.50.

Author Bio

Kirk Boxleitner, Reporter

Shelton-Mason County Journal & Belfair Herald
[email protected]