Back to the Future
Dir: Robert Zemeckis
1985
*****
Back to the Future was developed after writer/producer Bob Gale was going through his Dad's old year book and wondered to himself whether he and his father would have been friends had they gone to school together. His friend and partner Robert Zemeckis liked the idea and then mused whether his mother, who claimed she never kissed a boy in high school, was secretly promiscuous. I think of the two, I'd rather be stuck in a lift with Gale but hats off to the pair of them, they made one of the most icon films of all time. Early versions of the film's story weren't all great. The original concept for the time machine was a fridge. In order to get back from 1955 in the original 'refrigerator' draft, Marty would have had to get inside said fridge in the middle of the Nevada nuclear test site. A fairly silly idea, although Mr. Spielberg clearly didn't think so (see 2008's Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull). It was indeed Steven Spielberg who came to Gale and Zemeckis rescue as the pair had failed to sell the script to any of the main studios for five years. Gale and Zemeckis had two flops under their belts, Used Cars and I Wanna Hold Your Hand, both great films but 1978-1980's audiences didn't think so (but their kids loved it). They were at the end of their tether and reluctantly asked their bearded friend for advice. After a few rewrites and a shift in teen comedy trends people became interested, then Zemeckis made Romancing the Stone which became a big hit and suddenly the offers came flooding in. Ford were interested in the script and saw an opportunity for a bit of product placement but as tempted as they were, both Gale and Zemeckis knew that the Doc Brown they had written would never have driven a Mustang, it had to be something special, like a DeLorean. The casting was perfect, although it could have been very different. It's well known that Michael J. Fox was first choice for Marty but at first his contract with the TV show Family Ties forbade it. Eric Stoltz filmed almost half of the film until everyone realised that it just wasn't working out. After negotiations, the rest of the cast had their contracts extended to re-film the scenes and Michael J. Fox worked in the evenings and at night to finish the film around his TV duties. What a lot of people don't realise is that John Lithgow was originally cast as Doc Brown but became unavailable at the last minute. Christopher Lloyd was approached but passed on the offer. It was Lloyd's wife's insistence that he took the part that finally made him reconsider. I think Stoltz and Lithgow are both brilliant actors but it's hard to imagine them both in the two iconic roles. Fox and Lloyd make an unlikely but brilliant pairing. That said, the film wouldn't have been as successful without the other brilliant lead performances from Crispin Glover, Lea Thompson, and Thomas F. Wilson. The set, props, visuals and overall direction are perfect. It's a great comparison between the 80's and 50's pop culture, attitude and lifestyles. It's very clever, full of action, is pretty funny and has some of the best continuity a film of its genre could possibly have. So much of the film has been immortalized in modern culture, from the clothes, to the set pieces but most memorably the lines. There are countless lines of dialogue from the film which are now common place in people's vocabulary, the ultimate test that determines the success of a film. It's the perfect sci-fi adventure fantasy film.