Pure indulgence in your film choice from me this week – even 20 years on Back to the Future loses none of its edge or its fun, and the effects have stood the test of time too, probably on account of them facilitating the plot rather than replacing it. This was the film that made a star of Michael J Fox and spawned two equally well-made sequels, but at the time that was all in the future rather than back to it.
What makes this a stand-out movie is the excellent script, which handles the science and the paradoxes at the heart of the story with great skill and aplomb and still manages to weave a tale with lovable characters and bucketloads of sharp one-liners; and the pacy direction by Robert Zemeckis that provides a rollercoaster ride of tension and release that builds expertly towards the final, literal, race against time.
Marty McFly (Fox) is a high school failure in 1985. Even his band was dumped from playing at the school dance. This doesn’t really surprise him, as throughout history no McFly has ever succeeded at anything. Marty’s friend Doctor Emmett Brown (Christopher Lloyd) has invented a time machine and built it into a DeLorean (since the machine needs to be travelling at 88mph to activate). Demonstrating the controls, Doc Brown sets the destination year to 1955, the year he conceived the flux capacitor which is the heart of the device.
During the demonstration, a group of Libyans turn up. They gave Doc the plutonium he needed for his machine in exchange for making them a bomb, which he hasn’t done. In the ensuing argument, Doc is shot and killed, and Marty drives off in a panic, activating the time machine and plunging back to 1955.
He seeks out Doc and manages to convince him he’s from the future, and together the two conceive a plan to get him back there. But things are not quite that simple. While in 1955 Marty has inadvertently prevented the original meeting of his Mum and Dad as high school students. If he doesn’t repair the damage to their budding relationship, Marty may cease to exist!
Back to the Future: ITV1, Saturday 19 April, 3.30pm (showing around the news)
Worth a look:
The Shawshank Redemption: C4, Saturday 19 April, 9.05pm
Mrs Brown: BBC Four, Saturday 19 April, 8.35pm
Fantastic Voyage: Film4, Tuesday 22 April, 7.05pm
Don’t Look Now: ITV4, Wednesday 23 April, 0.45am
Alien: Film4, Friday 25 April, 10.45pm
