BACK TO THE FUTURE

Yes y’all.

YES.

Yes.

This golden classic (and that is PRECISELY what I am going to call it) has completely hooked me; and this post is to tell you how and why. Please stick around for a dangerously long review of the amazing blockbuster trilogy, Back to the Future. Despite the fact these movies were made in the 1980s, I instantly fell in love with them.

Okay so if you know me now you will definitely know what I like to do – write extremely long reviews of my favourite moves. And why not, right? I mean it’s an awesome way to waste someone’s time (mine and yours)…

So let us begin. Just make sure your watch is one minute late, and let’s go…

first thoughts.

Okay so there was a lot running through my head while watching this film – one of these things was how similar the eighties are today. I KNOW, I know, they had weird TVs that looked like they were from the year zero and they dressed a little….weird. But seriously, there are more parallels than you’d think. I mean, take clothes. We may not wear two sweatshirts on top of each other but we do wear…sweatshirts. Check shirts. Skinny jeans and leggings. I’d have to say that my favourite parts were with the girls who walked about in Chernobyl green leggings and sports shorts AT THE SAME TIME. That is just.

But think about music – we didn’t exactly get our cool new music ideas from nowhere did we? Michael Jackson styles, beatboxing, and synthesizers…any of those ring a bell? We have them all in modern music to some extent. Weird eh? Who knew this blog post would turn out to be a history lesson.

Some other things about the films – probably the most “old” thing about it was how they envisioned 2015 to look like. I mean, you just KNEW they were imagining it from the perspective of the 1980s, with the weird space-like fashion, self-lacing shoes, electronic gear and flying cars. The odd thing is that often history in 30 years doesn’t change as much as we think it will, but in other areas it does.

And now, onto the review!!

the storyline. DO NOT READ IF YOU DON’T WANT SPOILERS

This awesome trilogy covers the life of teenager and guitarist Marty McFly, an ordinary kid with an extraordinary friend in a local scientist, Emmet Brown. With a wandering eye and a talent for getting in trouble Marty is your typical Han Solo style character; cute and flattering but good with his fists. Plus he’s played by Michael J Fox. BIG PLUS.

yEAH I’m just a tiny bit of a fan atm. Moving on, I loved the first and second films tremendously – they basically cover Marty’s first and second adventure in his inventor friend(Doc)’s time machine, but of course the second movie overlaps the first because if he hadn’t gone back in time the second time certain things would have not worked out the first time.

In the first movie we are introduced to Marty McFly, an ordinary kid with high hopes of becoming a famous rockstar. I personally thought he (Michael J Fox) was 12, he is that tiny, but I guess that’s just coming from a young(ish) teenager who is already 5′ 7″ and has an eighteen year old bro who is…well, 6′ 5″. Now you can probably understand my amazement. I am not used to guys being 5′ 4″ (but that doesn’t take away anything from who he is as a person. I still think he’s totally awesome).

Back to Marty. So he eventually ends up through a series of unforeseen circumstances in the time machine and accidentally goes back to 1955 when trying to outfox (DID YOU SEE WHAT I JUST DID THERE?!) some Libyan terrorists which sounds far-fetched but is definitely true, and ends up messing up his dad meeting his mom. Upshot is his mom falls in love with HIM instead of his dad…by the way if you don’t think that’s creepy then, go figure!

And the entire rest of the movie is basically him teaching his dad how to fight bullies, not be a loser and get back together with his mom so him and his siblings can actually be born and don’t….disintegrate into nothingness.

The second movie instead takes Marty to the future with his rather elusive (through no fault of her own) girlfriend Jennifer to the future so they can stop their kids from going to jail. Jennifer spends most of it unconscious and so there isn’t much of her in them but I’ll forgive Steven Spielberg because of course there’s the Doc. And, as everyone knows…

Why is Doc the best? Because of both his hilarity, smartness and his ever-present creepy, mad scientist gaze.

Not only that but Doc Brown is also incredibly sweet despite his crazed exterior and is one of the most loyal friends that Marty will ever have. *cue tears for the ending of #3* What I love most about him is how he is so scatterbrained and forgetful but when it comes to Marty and trying to find a way to get him safely back home he’s all in.

In film numero tres, Marty has got stuck again in 1955 and has to head back to the past to find Doc’s 1985 self and get him back home. Things get interesting but I felt it was a TINY bit of an anti-climax after numbers 1 and 2 being so darn good.

And this leads on to our next topic..

main characters//Marty

Marty is your average kid at the beginning of the series, despite being definitely un-average in both popularity and looks. He kind of seems like he has everything together on the outside but really he is struggling with his family relationships and on the inside just wants some real love and real friends. I think it’s incredible how this was put together because by the end of the trilogy he has transformed into a really smart and capable young man.

He could still get in punch-ups and have adventures before but one of my favourite scenes is when he deliberately ignores his “friend”s taunts about him being a coward in the last film, mans up and actually saves himself from breaking his hand and therefore making him unable to do his favourite thing in the world: play guitar.

One of the best lessons in these movies was that what you do now will definitely impact you later, it could even be life changing! Marty goes from being just a little bit arrogant to having real courage in not giving in to every single jeer he receives.

I don’t think I’ve ever built a truer sentence out of GIFs. Go get em, Marty. You’ll learn your lesson in the end. 😉

(The funny thing is that SOMETIMES, him getting in a fight IS necessary….but I believe his character is learning to do it for the RIGHT reasons)

main characters//Doc

The Doc is cute. I know he’s weird and he’s old and he has absolutely nooooo sense of fashion…but he’s such a nice human being who really just needs another crazy person beside him and his inventions all the way.

I think what is so sweet about this mad inventor is how he really understands Marty and his need for good, solid friends; and though he can sometimes be a bit daredevil and silly he knows what matters most. Even though he seems like your typical touch-feely high school guy with oodles of girls around him, Marty really just wants true love and friendship and couldn’t be more loyal to his girl and his bud.

That’s the man I’m talkin about, people! Role model alert!

(Lol just went into another thing about Marty. Where was I?)

Oh yes. The Doc. I love him so much because he’s a perfectionist and also loves to create things (he also receives weird inspiration for what he creates when standing on a toilet and has an odd obsession for antique clocks – in these areas I couldn’t agree more, he is definitely like me. Except I prefer to look at the clocks, not hoard them. Who knows, maybe when I’m old I’ll get a Delorean and hook up my massive number of clocks to my dog feeding thingy).

Anywho, away from that STRANGE subject…

Finally Doc finds true love in a human being rather than his machines which, gotta admit, I did not see coming. I mean, he then builds an express train time machine with his true love after the Delorean’s destruction; I KNOOOOOW THE DELOREAN GETS DESTROYED!!! How could they do that?

(For all those who are watching who have not yet watched, please note this is not the Delorean exploring. I’m not meant to spoil it for you – so I’ll just say that that’s what it’s NOT doing. There.)

Three words to sum up Doc: lovable, messy and absolutely hilarious.

That was four.

lessons learned//

Okay so we’ve already touched base on how Marty grows throughout the series in character but I just wanna close with four things that really shape this movie series.

1. Having Courage is Not Necessarily Punching Someone When You’re Called a Coward. We’ve already touched on this but just for the sake of reiterating it, being brave isn’t just about getting in punch-ups. It’s about saving who you care about and having the courage to stand down when it counts.
2. Drinking and Smoking Aren’t for Kids. I think this one is so important especially for younger viewers, to show the downsides of either (be it in a rather funny-not-funny way)
3. True Friendships WILL Change Over the Years But Should Inevitably Grow Stronger. This is such a true one because people do move on but that won’t change your relationship with them for the worse – in fact if you nurture it right you could have a life-long friend!
4. What We Do in Our Everyday Lives Has an Impact On Our Future. This one is kinda self-explanatory but so so true. We need to be careful what we do with our time and think about how are actions now could affect us later, for better or worse.

I hope you’ve all had as much fun with this series as I have; if you have not you MUUUUUUST go and watch the moves, I just know you’ll love them. And to close: a great big round of my favourite BTTF GIFs!!

And with that…