Robert Zemeckis and Bob Gale's 1985 time travel comedy manages to be a science fiction adventure, a coming-of-age story, a comedy of manners, and a meditation on parents and children all at once, succeeding in every register it attempts. It has been studied by screenwriters for decades as a model of narrative economy and efficiency, and that study reveals a structural sophistication concealed beneath the apparent simplicity.
At a Glance
Director: Robert Zemeckis
Runtime: 116 minutes
Starring: Michael J. Fox, Christopher Lloyd, Lea Thompson, Crispin Glover, Thomas F. Wilson
Release: 1985
Critics Rating: ★★★★★ (5/5 stars, a landmark of popular cinema)
Audience Rating: ★★★★★ (5/5 stars, timeless)
Review Breakdown
Plot
Marty McFly, a teenager in 1985 Hill Valley, California, is accidentally sent back to 1955 in a time machine built by his eccentric scientist friend Doc Brown. Stranded in the past without the plutonium needed to power the DeLorean, Marty must find the 1955 Doc Brown, ensure that his parents meet and fall in love, and find a way to generate the 1.21 gigawatts of power needed to return home. The plot is a marvel of construction, establishing its rules, its stakes, and its characters with a clarity and an economy that makes every subsequent development feel both surprising and inevitable. The screenplay's defining quality is its use of setup and payoff, a technique deployed with such consistency and such precision that the climax resolves not merely its central problem but every significant element introduced in the first act. This is screenwriting of the highest order, a demonstration of how thoroughly a picture can satisfy its audience when every element has been placed with purpose, and few screenplays in Hollywood history have been as widely studied or as consistently cited as a model of structural craft.
Characters
Michael J. Fox's Marty McFly is the indispensable element, a protagonist of such immediate likability and emotional accessibility that the more fantastical elements feel grounded in his reactions to them. Fox brings physical comedy and an openness to the role that makes Marty feel convincingly real. Christopher Lloyd's Doc Brown is one of cinema's great comic creations, a man of such complete eccentricity that his friendship with Marty feels plausible, and Lloyd plays him with a physical commitment and a warmth that makes the character's more theatrical moments feel natural. The bond between Marty and Doc is the emotional centre, a friendship between a teenager and an old man that the screenplay treats with a seriousness and a respect that gives the story its heart. Lea Thompson's Lorraine and Crispin Glover's George McFly are the most carefully drawn supporting creations, characters whose 1955 versions are at once recognisable as the parents Marty knows and convincingly distinct as the young people they once were. Thomas F. Wilson's Biff Tannen is the franchise's most thoroughly enjoyable villain, a bully of such complete unpleasantness that his eventual humiliation is one of the picture's great pleasurable moments. Fox and Lloyd are the twin pillars, and their chemistry is the primary reason the picture works as well as it does. Glover is exceptional as the young George McFly, finding unexpected depth beneath the awkwardness and the fear, and his transformation across the film is the trilogy's most rewarding character arc.
Tone
Zemeckis pitches the picture as a comedy of extraordinary precision and a science fiction adventure of considerable excitement, and the approach is an unqualified success. Back to the Future moves between its registers with a fluency and a confidence that makes the tonal transitions feel natural, and the comic sequences are as carefully constructed as the dramatic ones. The 1955 passages are handled with a warmth and a specificity that makes the period feel inhabited rather than merely decorative, and the contrast between 1985 and 1955 Hill Valley is used with a wit and an intelligence that gives the comedic elements a satirical dimension of real weight.
Meaning / Themes
The central concern is the difficulty of seeing the people who raised you as the young people they once were. Marty's experience of his parents as teenagers, and his gradual understanding of the circumstances that shaped them, gives the picture an emotional depth that its more spectacular elements depend on. The suggestion that the past is not fixed, that character and circumstance can be changed by the choices individuals make, gives the time travel mechanics a thematic purpose that extends well beyond the genre's usual interest in paradox and consequence.
Direction
Zemeckis's direction is the most assured of his career to this point, staging the comedy and the science fiction sequences with equal confidence and giving the picture a visual energy that matches its screenplay's momentum. His handling of the climactic clock tower sequence is the trilogy's most precisely timed set-piece, a passage of sustained tension and comic invention that demonstrates a command of the relationship between narrative mechanics and cinematic excitement. Alan Silvestri's score is one of the decade's most immediately recognisable, giving the picture a musical identity of grandeur and wit that suits the tonal complexity with impressive precision.
Cultural Reception
Back to the Future received outstanding reviews on its release and was the highest-grossing film of 1985, grossing over $381 million worldwide. It is now regarded as one of the most perfectly constructed popular films ever made and one of the defining works of 1980s cinema. Its screenplay has been consistently cited as a model of structural craft, and its cultural footprint, from its iconic imagery to its influence on subsequent time travel fiction, is among the most significant of any popular film of its era.
Final Verdict: A landmark of popular cinema whose structural precision, comic invention, and central performances have lost none of their force. Fox and Lloyd are one of cinema's great screen partnerships, Zemeckis's direction gives the material a visual energy that matches its screenplay's momentum, and Silvestri's score gives the picture a musical identity as distinctive as its imagery. It is a film that makes the considerable difficulty of its achievement look effortless.