Being born in the 1980's, 1983 to be exact, Marty McFly (Michael J. Fox) has always been one of my favourite childhood heroes. He rode a skateboard, been in the past and drove a DeLorean. The simple thought of time travel always inspired weird ideas of returning to Prehistoric Ages or Medieval Times. However, this Robert Zemeckis pictures targets the 1950's a time of "peace and security" for the middle class American. This era has been romanticized and brought back in fashion in the 1980's. It was then a nice opportunity to take the Marty McFly of 1985 and make him travel to the time where his parents met: the 1955. Well, in a strictly commercial point of view this family adventure targeted many generations and portrayed an era that represented the parents of the time and the teenagers.
It is in the same vein that John Hugues managed with much success to make many teenager films, by understanding their preoccupations and revitalizing the social values of the 1950's. His comedies, Christmas Vacation (written by Hugues and directed by Jeremiah Chechiak), for example, display a father figure that wants to revive the real Christmas family of his childhood, from what decade? The 1950's, yeah right!
The story of the family depicted in Back to the Future represents the perfect recipe to a success, the love story, the action, the stereotypes of the crazy scientist, the terrorists, etc. It was intended to be a classic at the time it was made. Nowadays, it is a cult classic for my generation and a personal nostalgic pleasure. I remember watching this movie with my father on Saturday nights everytime it was aired on TV. Sometimes we would rent the three films together and watch them in a triple bill evening with popcorn, cheese sticks and cola. As a part of the 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die Blog Club I was thrilled to revisit this classic of my childhood. A must see.
I was fortunate enough to see all three of these in theaters. I was 8 years old when the first one came out. After seeing it, I thought it was the best movie ever made. Even now, when it's on, I have to watch at least a few minutes of it.
ReplyDeleteWow! I would love to see these films in theaters. But at the time I was actually too young...
DeleteA truly entertaing film. Like John, I saw all three in the theater. I remember having to explain the ending to my much older sister. She wanted to know "which was real?"
ReplyDeleteGood anecdote Chip!
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