Can you believe that Back to the Future turned 40 this year? Now, that’s heavy.
This sci-fi comedy has had such a grip on pop culture that Back to the Future is soaring back to theaters this weekend.
Ordinarily, a film’s impact is dulled by the passage of time, but Back to the Future still has a passionate fan base that’s willing to revisit it over and over again.
Now, Watch With Us is going to share four reasons why Back to the Future is still a classic.
Michael J. Fox Gave the Defining Performance of His Career
Michael J. Fox was reportedly always the first choice to play Marty McFly, but the role initially went to Eric Stoltz because Fox was obligated to work on his TV series, Family Ties. However, Stoltz was eventually replaced by Fox after just a few weeks of filming, and the rest was history.
It feels like Fox’s comedic persona was tailor-made for Marty, and he doesn’t act like he’s in a comedy. There are a lot of funny moments that play out when Marty reacts to life in 1955, but he also treats it as a serious situation. Marty’s not only trapped in the past, he may have accidentally prevented his parents from ever falling in love. Marty’s exasperation and even desperation come across through Fox’s performance, and it only makes the audience love him even more. This character set the tone for almost every major role that Fox had afterwards.
Christopher Lloyd and the Supporting Cast Are Excellent
As great as Fox is in the movie, he didn’t do it alone. Christopher Lloyd was perhaps the best comedic wingman he could have hoped for as Marty’s friend, Emmett “Doc” Brown. Lloyd got to play his character as an older man as well as his younger self, and he was incredibly enjoyable in both incarnations. Lloyd’s comedic timing is impeccable, and he even got all of the time travel exposition across without missing a beat.
Thomas F. Wilson‘s Biff Tannen is the recurring bully throughout the entire franchise, and the film pulls off the trick of making him a total buffoon as well as a legitimate threat late in the movie. As amusing as Biff is, he’s actually scary when he attempts to force himself on Marty’s mother, Lorraine Baines (Lea Thompson).
Thompson’s character unexpectedly falls in love with Marty, which is also very amusing in a messed-up way. But the resolution of that plot was well done without going into Game of Thrones territory. Finally, Crispin Glover was hysterical as Marty’s nerdy father, George McFly. He’s such a geek that his moment of redemption is both unexpected and earned. Unfortunately, Glover was the only one among these actors who didn’t return for the sequels, but that’s another story entirely.
The DeLorean Time Machine Captured Our Collective Imagination
The DeLorean used in the Back to the Future films has outlived the car brand by several decades. Younger movie fans may not even realize that DeLorean cars were a real thing in the ’80s and not an invention of the movie. There have been plenty of outlandish time machines in film and television, but Back to the Future‘s DeLorean is the one that drove away with our hearts.
Even the odd design choices of the DeLorean, including the gullwing doors, make it seem timeless. Yet the most irresistible thing about it is the idea that you can just get behind the wheel of the car and travel through time. The only thing better than that was when the DeLorean was upgraded into a flying car in Back to the Future Part II.
‘Back to the Future’ Works as Both a Sci-Fi Story and a Comedy
One of the most impressive things about Back to the Future is that it so perfectly balances the comedy with the sci-fi aspects of the story. There are real personal stakes for Marty and even Doc, and yet the film keeps getting big laughs out of everything they go through.
The clock tower scene above is a good example of this. Lloyd gives a slapstick performance as Doc desperately tries to connect the wires in time to send Marty back to the future. His facial expressions alone had audiences howling with laughter. And yet there’s still a lot of tension about whether Doc can untangle himself in time. It’s a masterclass of filmmaking, no matter how many times you see it. And now that the film is temporarily back in theaters, there won’t be a better opportunity to revisit this classic for at least another five to ten years.
Back to the Future is available to rent or buy on Prime Video.
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