Back to the Future (1985) Review

Lets begin another series with the first entry which features a teenage boy going to 1955 with a time machine built out of a DeLorean.

In 1985, Hill Valley, California, Marty McFly visits the home and lab of his friend, Emmett "Doc" Brown, an eccentric scientist. Though missing for several days, Doc calls the lab and asks Marty to pick up some equipment for a special experiment later that night. 
At school, Marty meets his girlfriend, Jennifer Parker, and after being berated by Principal Strickland for being late again and failing his audition for the Battle of the Bands, he confides in Jennifer about fears of becoming like his parents despite his ambitions. At home, Marty's cowardly father George is bullied by his supervisor, Biff Tannen, while his mother Lorraine is a depressed alcoholic. Lorraine recalls how she met George when her father hit him with his car and she subsequently nursed him back to health. Marty meets Doc at the Twin Pines Mall parking lot at 1:18 A.M. on October 26. Doc unveils a time machine built from a modified DeLorean and powered by plutonium stolen from Libyan terrorists. While showing Marty the controls, Doc sets the date to November 5, 1955 – the day he conceived a time travel device. The terrorists arrive unexpectedly and open fire on them, killing Doc. Marty escapes in the DeLorean and inadvertently activates the time machine in the process. Marty finds himself transported to November 5, 1955, without any plutonium to return. He encounters the teenage George and discovers that Biff has been bullying him since high school. After Marty saves George from Lorraine's father's car, he is knocked unconscious and awakens to find himself tended to by Lorraine, who becomes infatuated with him. Marty tracks down Doc's younger self for help. With no plutonium, Doc explains that the only power source capable of generating the required 1.21 GW of electricity for the time machine is a bolt of lightning. Marty shows Doc a fundraising flyer from the future that documents an upcoming lightning strike at the town's courthouse. Doc instructs Marty to avoid leaving his house and interacting with others, as he could inadvertently alter the future, but they realize he may already have. Saving George earlier prevented his parents from meeting. Doc warns that Marty may cease to exist if Lorraine doesn't fall in love with George. Now it's to Marty to make sure his parents meet and fall in love, while also trying to get back to the future.

Pros:
1. Marty McFly is a likeable and well developed protagonist.
2. Doc Brown is a very likeable secondary lead.
3. Loveable and memorable side and minor characters like George, Lorraine, Einstein, Goldie Wilson, Marvin Berry, and Strickland.
4. Biff is a great antagonist.
5. The sets, visuals, and vehicles are greatly crafted.
6. Amazing special effects.
7. A great blend of comedy, science fiction, adventure, and suspense.
8. Alan Silvestri delivers an amazing and memorable score, which are partnered with very well done songs like "Power of Love" and "Johnny B Goode".
9. The performances are brilliantly acted.
10. The storyline is cleverly and amazingly written, accompanied with very witty dialogue.
11. Tons of well done comedic moments.

Cons:
1. Actually, i can't think of any right now.

Overall:
This movie is absolutely amazing, and a must watch! Time to go back in time to make sure this movie gets my Seal of Approval or else it could heavilly impact the present.

Rating:
10/10 (Perfect)

Trivia:
1. Writer and producer Bob Gale conceived Back to the Future after visiting his parents in St. Louis, Missouri, after the release of Used Cars. Searching their basement, Gale found his father's high school yearbook and discovered he was president of his graduating class. Gale had not known the president of his own graduating class, and wondered whether he would have been friends with his father if they had gone to high school together. When he returned to California, Gale told director Robert Zemeckis about the idea. Zemeckis thought of a mother claiming she never kissed a boy at school when, in fact, she had been promiscuous. The two took the project to Columbia Pictures, and made a development deal for a script in September 1980.
2. Zemeckis and Gale set the story in 1955 because an 18-year-old traveling to meet his parents at the same age arithmetically required the script to travel to that decade. The era also marked the rise of teenagers as an important cultural element, the birth of rock 'n' roll, and suburban expansion, which flavored the story. In an early script, the time machine was a refrigerator, and Marty would need the power of an atomic explosion at the Nevada Test Site to return home. Zemeckis was concerned that children would accidentally lock themselves in refrigerators and felt it was more useful if the time machine were mobile. The DeLorean was chosen because its design made the gag about the family of farmers mistaking it for a flying saucer believable. Zemeckis and Gale found it difficult to create a believable friendship between Marty and Brown before they created the giant guitar amplifier, and only resolved Marty's Oedipal relationship with his mother when they wrote the line "It's like I'm kissing my brother." Biff Tannen was named after studio executive Ned Tanen, who behaved aggressively toward Zemeckis and Gale during a script meeting for I Wanna Hold Your Hand. Gale also later claimed that Biff's character was based on Donald Trump.
3. The first draft of Back to the Future was finished in February 1981 and presented to Columbia, who put the film in turnaround. "They thought it was a really nice, cute, warm film, but not sexual enough," Gale said. "They suggested that we take it to Disney, but we decided to see if any other of the major studios wanted a piece of us." Every major film studio rejected the script for the next four years, while it went through two more drafts. During the early 1980s, popular teen comedies (such as Fast Times at Ridgemont High and Porky's) were risqué and adult-aimed, so the script was rejected for being too light. Gale and Zemeckis finally pitched Back to the Future to Disney, but they felt the story of a mother falling in love with her son was not appropriate for a family film under the Disney name.
4. The two were tempted to ally themselves with Steven Spielberg, who had produced Used Cars and I Wanna Hold Your Hand, which were both box office bombs. They had initially shown the screenplay to Spielberg, who had "loved" it. Spielberg, however, was absent from the project during development because Zemeckis felt if he produced another flop under him, he would never be able to make another film. Gale said "We were afraid that we would get the reputation that we were two guys who could only get a job because we were pals with Steven Spielberg." Zemeckis chose to direct Romancing the Stone instead, which was a box office success. Now a high-profile director, Zemeckis reapproached Spielberg with the concept. Agreeing to produce Back to the Future, Spielberg set the project up at his production company, Amblin Entertainment, with Kathleen Kennedy and Frank Marshall joining Spielberg as executive producers on the film.
5. The script remained with Columbia until legal problems forced them to withdraw. The studio was set to begin shooting a comedic send-up of Double Indemnity entitled Big Trouble. Columbia's legal department determined that the film's plot was too similar to Double Indemnity and they needed the permission of Universal Pictures, owners of the earlier film, if the film was ever to begin shooting. With Big Trouble set to go, desperate Columbia executives phoned Universal's Frank Price to get the necessary paperwork. Price was a former Columbia executive who had been fond of the script for Back to the Future during his tenure there. As a result, Universal agreed to trade the Double Indemnity license in exchange for the rights to Back to the Future.
6. Executive Sidney Sheinberg suggested changes to the script, such as changing Marty's mother's name from Meg to Lorraine (the name of his wife, actress Lorraine Gary), changing Brown's name from Professor Brown to Doc Brown, and replacing Doc's pet chimpanzee with a dog. Sheinberg also wanted the title changed to Space Man from Pluto, convinced no successful film ever had "future" in the title. He suggested that the scene with Marty dressed as an alien should have Marty identify himself as "a space man from the Planet Pluto"  instead of "Darth Vader from Vulcan", and that the farmer's son's comic book be titled Spaceman from Pluto rather than Space Zombies from Pluto. Appalled, Zemeckis asked Spielberg for help. Spielberg dictated a memo to Sheinberg convincing him they thought his title was a joke, thus embarrassing him into dropping the idea. The original climax in which Marty went back to 1985 by driving through a nuclear explosion during a weapons test in Nevada was deemed too expensive by Universal executives and was simplified by keeping the plot within Hill Valley and incorporating the clocktower sequence. Spielberg used the omitted refrigerator and Nevada nuclear site elements in Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.
7. Michael J. Fox was the first choice to play Marty McFly, but he was committed to the show Family Ties. Family Ties producer Gary David Goldberg felt that Fox was essential to the show's success. With co-star Meredith Baxter on maternity leave, he refused to allow Fox time off to work on a film. Back to the Future was originally scheduled for a May 1985 release, and it was late 1984 when it was learned that Fox would be unable to star in the film. Zemeckis's next two choices were C. Thomas Howell and Eric Stoltz. Stoltz impressed the producers enough with his earlier portrayal of Roy L. Dennis in Mask (which had yet to be released) that they selected him to play Marty McFly. Because of the difficult casting process, the start date was pushed back twice. John Cusack was also considered for the role. Johnny Depp also auditioned for the role of Marty McFly.
8. Principal photography began in November 1984, but a few weeks into filming, Zemeckis determined Stoltz had been miscast. Although he and Spielberg realized that re-shooting the film would add $3 million to the $14 million budget, they decided to recast. Zemeckis believed Stoltz was not comedic enough and that he gave a "terrifically dramatic performance". Gale further explained they felt Stoltz was simply acting out the role, whereas Fox himself had a personality like Marty McFly. He felt Stoltz was uncomfortable riding a skateboard, whereas Fox was not. Stoltz confessed to director Peter Bogdanovich during a phone call, two weeks into the shoot, that he was unsure of Zemeckis's and Gale's direction, and concurred that he was wrong for the role.
9. Fox's schedule was opened up in January 1985 when Baxter returned to Family Ties following her pregnancy. The Back to the Future crew met with Goldberg again, who made a deal that Fox's main priority would be Family Ties, and if a scheduling conflict arose, "we win". Fox loved the script and was impressed by Zemeckis's and Gale's sensitivity in releasing Stoltz because they nevertheless "spoke very highly of him". Per Welinder and Bob Schmelzer assisted on the skateboarding scenes. Fox found his portrayal of Marty McFly to be very personal. "All I did in high school was skateboard, chase girls and play in bands. I even dreamed of becoming a rock star."
10. Jeff Goldblum originally auditioned for the role of Doc Brown, but lost it to Christopher Lloyd. Christopher Lloyd was cast as Doc Brown after the first choice, John Lithgow, became unavailable. Having worked with Lloyd on The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai, producer Neil Canton suggested him for the part. Lloyd originally turned down the role, but changed his mind after reading the script and at the insistence of his wife. He improvised some of his scenes, taking inspiration from Albert Einstein and conductor Leopold Stokowski. Lloyd pronounced gigawatts as "jigawatts," which was the way a physicist would say the word, when he met with Zemeckis and Gale as they researched the script (rather than with an initial hard "g", although both pronunciations are acceptable). Doc Brown's hunched posture came about because at 6 feet 1 inch Lloyd was considerably taller than Fox at 5 feet 5 inches, and they needed to look closer in height.
11. Crispin Glover played George McFly. Zemeckis said Glover improvised many of George's nerdy mannerisms, such as his shaky hands. The director joked he was "endlessly throwing a net over Crispin because he was completely off about fifty percent of the time in his interpretation of the character." Due to a contract disagreement, Glover was replaced by Jeffrey Weissman in Part II and Part III.
12. Lea Thompson was cast as Lorraine McFly because she had acted opposite Stoltz in The Wild Life; the producers noticed her as they had watched the film while casting Stoltz. Her prosthetic makeup for scenes at the beginning of the film, set in 1985, took three and a half hours to apply.
13. Thomas F. Wilson was cast as Biff Tannen because the producers felt that the original choice, J. J. Cohen, wasn't physically imposing enough to bully Stoltz. Cohen was recast as Skinhead, one of Biff's cohorts. Had Fox been cast from the beginning, Cohen probably would have won the part because he was sufficiently taller than Fox.
14. Melora Hardin was originally cast in the role of Marty's girlfriend, Jennifer, but was let go after Stoltz was dismissed, with the explanation that the actress was now too tall to be playing against Fox. Hardin was dismissed before she had a chance to shoot a single scene and was replaced with Claudia Wells. Actress Jill Schoelen had also been considered to play Marty's girlfriend.
15. Following Stoltz's departure, Fox's schedule during weekdays consisted of filming Family Ties during the day, and Back to the Future from 6:30 pm to 2:30 am. He averaged five hours of sleep each night. During Fridays, he shot from 10 pm to 6 or 7 am, and then moved on to film exterior scenes throughout the weekend, as only then was he available during daytime hours. Fox found it exhausting, but "it was my dream to be in the film and television business, although I didn't know I'd be in them simultaneously. It was just this weird ride and I got on." Zemeckis concurred, dubbing Back to the Future "the film that would not wrap". He recalled that because they shot night after night, he was always "half asleep" and the "fattest, most out-of-shape and sick I ever was".
16. The Hill Valley town square scenes were shot at Courthouse Square, located in the Universal Studios backlot. Gale explained it would have been impossible to shoot on location "because no city is going to let a film crew remodel their town to look like it's in the 1950s." The filmmakers "decided to shoot all the 50s stuff first, and make the town look real beautiful and wonderful. Then we would just totally trash it down and make it all bleak and ugly for the 1980s scenes." The interiors for Doc Brown's house were shot at the Robert R. Blacker House, while exteriors took place at Gamble House. The exterior shots of the Twin Pines Mall, and later the Lone Pine Mall (from 1985) were shot at the Puente Hills Mall in City of Industry, California. The exterior shots and some interior scenes at Hill Valley High School were filmed at Whittier High School in Whittier, California. The Battle of the Bands tryout scene was filmed at the McCambridge Park Recreation Center in Burbank, and the "Enchantment Under the Sea" dance was filmed in the gymnasium at Hollywood United Methodist Church. The scenes outside of the Baines's house in 1955 were shot at Bushnell Avenue, South Pasadena, California.
17. Filming wrapped after 100 days on April 20, 1985, and the film was delayed from May to August. But after a highly positive test screening ("I'd never seen a preview like that," said Frank Marshall, "the audience went up to the ceiling"), Sheinberg chose to move the release date to July 3. To make sure the film met this new date, two editors, Arthur Schmidt and Harry Keramidas, were assigned to the picture, while many sound editors worked 24-hour shifts. Eight minutes were cut, including Marty watching his mom cheat during an exam, George getting stuck in a telephone booth before rescuing Lorraine, as well as much of Marty pretending to be Darth Vader. Zemeckis almost cut out the "Johnny B. Goode" sequence as he felt it did not advance the story, but the preview audience loved it, so it was kept. Industrial Light & Magic created the film's 32 effects shots, which did not satisfy Zemeckis and Gale until a week before the film's completion date. The compositing involved for the film's time travel sequences, as well as for the lightning effects in the climactic clock tower scene, were handled by animation supervisor Wes Takahashi, who would also work on the subsequent two Back to the Future films with the rest of the ILM crew.
18. Alan Silvestri collaborated with Zemeckis on Romancing the Stone, but Spielberg disliked that film's score. Zemeckis advised Silvestri to make his compositions grand and epic, despite the film's small scale, to impress Spielberg. Silvestri began recording the score two weeks before the first preview. He also suggested that Huey Lewis and the News create the theme song. Their first attempt was rejected by Universal, before they recorded "The Power of Love". The studio loved the final song but were disappointed it did not mention the film's title, so they had to send memos to radio stations to always mention its association with Back to the Future. In the end, the track "Back in Time" appeared in the film, playing during the scene when Marty wakes up after his return to 1985, and during the end credits.
19. When the film was released on VHS in 1986, Universal added a "To be continued..." graphic at the end to increase awareness of production on Part II. This caption is omitted on the film's DVD release in 2002 and on subsequent Blu-ray and DVD releases.
20. In October 2010, in commemoration for the film's 25th anniversary, Back to the Future was digitally restored and remastered for a theatrical re-release in the US, the UK and Italy. The release also coincided with the Blu-ray edition of the trilogy, which was released on October 26.