Marty McFly (Michael J. Fox) is a carefree high school student who doesn't think any further than his next date with his girlfriend Jennifer (Claudia Wells), when his best friend, mad scientist Doc Brown (Christopher Lloyd) gives him a private demonstration of his latest invention, a time machine (built into a DeLorean sports car) - but unfortunately, to power the time machine, he had to trick a bunch of Libyan terrorists out of their plutonium, and they just happen to pop by to have their revenge on Doc ... and they shoot him dead. When they also come after Marty, he does the first thing his instinct dictates him, hops into the DeLorean sports car and speeds away - accelerating all the way to time travel speed, and eventually he lands in the year 1955, when his car runs out of plutonium. Back then, he does the only thing he can think of doing, he hooks up with a younger version of Doc (who looks exactly the same) and somehow gets him to use his scientific genius to come up with a way to power his DeLorean enough to send Marty back - and fortunately, Marty knows when exactly lightning will strike the local clocktower, which is a mere week away.

But in the week Marty has to spend in 1955, he saves his father's (Crispin Glover) life but somehow makes his mother (Lea Thompson) fall in love with him instead of his father, and since he won't be born if his parents don't get together, he has to help out a bit - but problem is, dad's a total wimp, and the prime target of local bully Biff (Thomas F. Wilson). Marty devises a plan to, at the night of a school dance, pretend to ravage his mom (who isn't aware that she is his mom of course) in the car, for dad to step in and be the hero of the day, but first his mom is a bit too eager to be ravaged, and then Biff steps in, has his boys take care of Marty, tries to rape mom ... and suddenly dad shows up to save the day.

And of course, Marty makes it just in time for the lightning to strike and power his time machine - and back in time he learns that Doc hasn't died after all but worn a bullet proof vest thanks to a warning he at first ignored. And back in the here and now, everything is much better, and Marty can look forward to a much better life - until Doc hitches him and Jennifer away into the future ...

Back to the Future is one of the few mainstream Hollywood genre comedies and time travel movies that gets it right: It's told in an entirely light-footed way, features a likeable lead, and even if many of the other characters are just caricatures, one can at least care for them. And while the film's entirely family friendly, it never feels forced to be so. Also, without relying on too much (unfounded) explanations, the film gets the time travel concept right enough to not stand in the way of the plot and also stand the test of a superficial examination.

Good entertainment, really, and while everything looks decidedly 1980s, the film still seems somehow fresh today.

review © by Mike Haberfelner

 

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