This post contains spoilers. This is not a review but more like an analysis. I assume you’ve seen the movie (probably many times). This is just my interpretation. I will write 3 blog posts covering all three films in the series. I mainly want to focus on nostalgia and the change in population centers over time. The first film shows thriving urban centers in 1955, with urban decay and suburban white flight in 1985. The second film, showing 2015, predicts the downtown revival and gentrification we see in urban centers today. It is remarkable how accurate the film was about something largely overlooked by the audience for the second movie, which was released in 1989. You can view the trailer at the end of this post.
Back to the Future is directed by Robert Zemeckis and stars Michael J. Fox, Christopher Lloyd, Lea Thompson and Crispin Glover. This is a time travel film, where the main character travels to 1955, 30 years earlier, where he must avoid doing anything that will cause his parents not to marry, which would negate his own existence.
The film begins in a room with a collection of clocks, all synchronized to 7:53 am. Newspaper clippings on the wall tell of a fire that destroyed the Brown mansion and how he was forced to sell 435 acres of prime land to developers after going bankrupt. There are photos of famous inventors. A complex Rube Goldberg machine is set up to brew coffee, make toast and empty a can of dog food to a dish. The dish is overfilled, the toast is long burnt and the coffee pot is missing, which leaves one to believe the dog (named Einstein) and his owner have not been home in some time. Apparently this is a self-resetting Rube Goldberg machine; impressive. The camera pans down to a door opening to reveal the lower legs of Marty McFly (Michael J. Fox), holding a skateboard, having retrieved a spare key from under a welcome mat. He kicks the skateboard across the room where it rolls under a bed, stopping at a box labeled “plutonium,” ending the first camera shot in the film. This is a classic opening sequence which belongs up there with the opening sequences of Goodfellas and Boogie Nights, although not quite of the same length. So much is set up in this opening shot. It is later revealed that the home belongs to Doc Brown (Christopher Lloyd). We know from the opening that Doc has an obsession with time and invention, a past that may have robbed him of inherited land and a secret stash of radioactive plutonium. That he also has giant guitar amplifier seems just an added touch. I have to add, that as a musician, it makes no sense that he plugs the guitar cord into the amp first then the guitar while the amp is turned up all the way. This would have cause a loud audible popping noise that may have blown the speaker before ever strumming the guitar.
Doc Brown asks Marty to meet him that night at the Twin Pines Mall, giving time for the first act to show all the main characters lives in 1985. The film takes place in the fictional oxymoronically named town of Hill Valley. First we see the town as Marty skateboards from the affluent suburbs through downtown to his school. We see a Burger King and Toys R Us, which were by then modern chain businesses abundant in suburbs across the United States. Downtown has the remnants of once thriving locally owned businesses. An adult bookstore is briefly seen. We see campaign posters to re-elect the mayor. A downtown movie theater is now an Assembly of Christ church, which appears to no longer be in use. Even his high school is covered in graffiti. We later see another downtown theater that now shows only pornographic movies. There is a subtle racism in these scenes. While all the main characters are white, the mayor is black. Some of the graffiti is in Spanish. There are mostly black extras in the background. It’s as if the film was trying to avoid it, but was coming off worse by stating it so softly. It’s not completely off base. Whites fled the city for the suburbs and are responsible for leaving it in disrepair, devaluing the property until it was the only place poor people could afford to live. There is systemic racism which leaves minorities poorer than whites. But the movie prefers to do this subtly at the beginning. It becomes more obvious when we travel back to 1955 when downtown Hill Valley was full of happy white people.
Marty lives in what appears to have once been an affluent neighborhood, with large concrete forms announcing the entrance to Lyon Estates. But the entrance is covered with graffiti. His father George (Crispin Glover) is introduced groveling to his boss Biff Tannen (Thomas F. Wilson), who has has just wrecked George’s car and blames him for causing the accident. Biff is a jerk. George is embarrassing. His mother Lorraine (Lea Thompson) is overly pristine about her views on courtship. The adults here are played as teenagers in 1955 by the same actors. Lorraine gives a quick bit of exposition regarding the way she and George met, which we will see play out when Marty travels to 1955.
Finishing up the first act, Marty meets Doc Brown at the Twin Pines Mall, the ultimate symbol of the cause of urban decay, second maybe to highways. Here he witnesses Doc Brown being killed by the terrorists from whom he stole the plutonium. He escapes in the Delorean time machine to 1955. The Twin Pines mall is now just a farm in what was then a rural area, before the population moved to the suburbs. I grew up in the suburbs. My mom told me that when she was a kid, the town I grew up in was considered to be out in the country. In this time period, Marty’s home has not been built yet. The Lyon Estates are still under construction. The “home of tomorrow” will be valuable today but will quickly succumb to decay just 30 years later. It is also located in a then rural area, just 2 miles from Hill Valley.
A nostalgic view of downtown Hill Valley follows. The theater shows popular films. There is a record store. All the teenagers hang out at a soda bar. The Texaco station employs way too many people to take care of one car. There are lots of white extras walking around. The clock tower is not stuck at 10:04.
The plot of the film centers on Marty’s interactions with his parents while he attempts to fix the Delorean and return to 1985. For that he needs to generate 1.21 gigawatts of power, which is present in plutonium or lightning. Luckily we know the exact minute when the clock tower will be struck by lightning, not that the clock has a second hand. The misadventures with his parents stem from his saving his father from being hit by his maternal grandfather’s car, preventing his parents from meeting. Instead of falling in love with George, his own mother develops a crush on Marty.
Doc Brown lives in a very large extravagant home. Is this the Brown Mansion that was reported as destroyed by fire in the newspaper clipping from the opening of the film? There is no further explanation of his wealth and how it was destroyed. Was there a longer script that showed this? Marty explains who he is, while Doc Brown worries that he is going to create a paradox if he interacts with his parents, for which it’s too late.
Watching this now, 30 years later, this is a similar look back in time as took place in the movie. While I was only 11 in 1985, my mom was also a young child in 1955. Both of us were much younger than our counterparts in the time the movie takes place, yet we both have memories of these decades. I could imagine 1985 me would be as horrified as George McFly if somebody came from the future, claimed to be Kylo Ren from Hogwarts and blasted my ears with terrible emo music. The 1950s seemed quaint. I was bombarded by nostalgia from shows like Happy Days. It’s amazing to think that a younger person today might have a similar perspective on the 80s. I have no nostalgia for the 80s beyond a love of some movies from that time.
The nostalgia for the 50’s has a dark side. Biff attempts to rape Lorraine, finally bringing George to stand up for himself. This ensures their union and Marty’s existence, but also elevates the family’s economic status upon his return to 1985. For some reason they still live in the same rundown neighborhood. Regrettably the film shows white Marty McFly inventing rock ‘n roll and gifting it to Chuck Berry. It’s clever but kind of insulting to black musicians who had their music appropriated by white musicians in the 50s.
The film ends in a way that just begs for a sequel. Doc Brown sends Marty to 1985. He goes against his own principles reads the note Marty writes him about the future. He saves his own life by wearing a bulletproof vest on that night in 1985. Doc Brown then goes 30 years in the future, then quickly returns to take Marty and his girlfriend Jennifer with him back to the future to save their children. I’ll write a blog entry on Part 2 soon.
This trailer is the property of Universal Pictures.
