Review of Back to the Future, directed by Robert Zemeckis

For those of you who have never set foot virtually into this space, welcome! This is my blog, which serves as an online diary and digital archive of everything I’ve watched, read, and experienced in the past few years. Recently, it has become a source of income for me, and a crux as I faced unexpected unemployment after an opportunity I was told I had fell through. Feel free to click around if you liked this post.

In addition to this become a vital income source while I’m unemployed, I’ve been actually catching up on my content game. There are so many movies, television shows, and books I’ve watched and read throughout the years but never had the chance to review, so while I’ve had the free time, I’m dedicating more time to catching up on these reviews.

Today’s review is dedicated to a classic movie that it took me a long time to see: Back to the Future. I know, it’s a classic, and as someone who watches a lot of theater too, it’s insane that I never got around to see the Broadway musical version of this movie either.

But it was time one day when I opened up my Netflix. I knew in late 2024 (much earlier than when this review will come out due to my backlog) that I wanted to diversify the kind of content I was consuming in my daily life, and I had a particular genre I always came to for movies. It was time to switch it up, so when I saw this on Netflix, I decided it was going to be my watch that day.

Let’s get into the review and summary then, shall we? I don’t want to bore you with the details and semantics of the introduction.

When Marty McFly gets stuck in the past with his youthful parents, he needs to figure out how to get back to the present day.

Our protagonist in this movie is Marty McFly. a teenager in 1985 trying to live his best life in California. Turns out his family life sucks though, as his mother is an alcoholic, his father is bullied by his own supervisor, and Marty’s siblings aren’t exactly prospering in their lives either. Marty is in a band, and when they go to an audition and fail to progress, he tells his girlfriend he doesn’t want to be like his parents.

That same night, Marty meets up with his friend Doc, a much older scientist. Doc rolls up in a car decked out with a time machine, and in order to power it, he stole from some Libyan terrorists. He sets the date on it to November 5, 1955, but then the terrorists, angry he stole plutonium from them, show up with guns. Despite trying to get away, he’s gunned down and Marty jumps into the car to escape.

As they come after him, he accidentally triggers the time machine and ends up in 1955. It’s then out of plutonium, so he can’t go back, and he has no idea how to survive in this period. He finds his dad as a young man in a diner, and realizes that the supervisor, Biff, was bullying his dad all the way back in high school.

His dad falls into an incoming car while peeping on Lorraine, Marty’s mother, changing, and Marty saves him. However, when Marty comes to, he finds Lorraine taking care of him. She gets a crush on him, and this is the event that was supposed to have his mom and dad falling in love.

Marty then goes and finds a younger Doc, who believes him and says that the only way to get enough power to send Marty back is a lightning bolt. Turns out there’s a big storm coming up, which is convenient, but when Marty engages with the people around him, he realizes the family photo he has with him shows his siblings fading from it.

In a classic movie move, his actions in the past are effectively screwing up his future. Marty then tries to get his parents together, but his mother only falls more in love with him and even asks him to the dance. He decides to make himself seem like someone with bad intentions so George can save her, but then Biff’s gang ends up locking Marty in a trunk and tries to rape Lorraine.

George shows up and Biff assaults him. George then unlocks a power he never knew he had and knocks Biff out, and Lorraine is so happy to be saved. They go into the dance, Marty is rescued by the dance’s band, but then he has to perform and watch his parents kiss.

After the dance, he rushes to the courthouse for the lightning strike. He tries to warn Doc of what’s about to happen, but he refuses to listen and shreds the note Marty gives him. Marty sets the time machine to ten minutes before Doc was gunned down, and he makes it back to the present day. The car breaks down, he runs back to the mall and sees Doc get shot again.

But this time, Doc sits up. He read the note, piecing it back together, and wore a bulletproof vest. He goes to 2015 with the time machine, and when Marty wakes up in the morning, his family is all successful and happy. Doc then randomly shows up and says they need to save their children, as something really bad is about to happen in 2015.

Overall Thoughts

Now having finally seen the movie, I can see why it was popular in the mid 1980s. It’s fun, it’s got a lot of personality, and there’s a bit of a redemption arc to it.

Does that mean the movie is high art? No. I wouldn’t say that I was particularly impressed with the plot, even though it is entertaining and fun. Sometimes all we need from a movie to make it good is to resonate in our souls and make us laugh when we need to. This is that kind of movie.

I honestly don’t have a ton else to say about this film! I enjoyed it. If you haven’t seen it yet and want to, go ahead and watch it when you get the chance. You probably won’t regret it.

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