USA 1985 116m Directed by: Robert Zemeckis. Starring: Michael J. Fox, Christopher Lloyd, Lea Thompson, Crispin Glover, Thomas F. Wilson, Claudia Wells, Marc McClure, Wendie Jo Sperber, George DiCenzo, Frances Lee McCain, James Tolkan, J.J. Cohen, Casey Siemaszko. Music by: Alan Silvestri.
The future for teenager Marty McFly is not shaping up well. His family is dysfunctional, his schoolteacher, Mr Strickland, is out to get him, his music is just too loud and the rest of the world doesn't care. Only with his girlfriend, Jennifer Parker and local eccentric scientist, Dr Emmet Brown does he find the encouragement and excitement that he needs. Then, one of Doc Brown's experiments goes slightly wrong and Marty gets caught up in a race to set it and his future right again. "When this baby hits 88 miles per hour you're gonna see some serious shit."
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Back to the Future is a film that is based on a teenage boy who is from a small town in California. The film was released in July of 1985. Marty McFly (Michael J. Fox) is the teenager who is transported back in time to the 1950's because an experiment from his scientific, eccentric friend Doc Brown (Christopher Lloyd), goes very wrong. Traveling through time in a DeLorean car, Marty lands in the time where his parents are teenagers. His parents are George (Crispin Glover) and Lorraine (Lea Thompson). Marty has the task of also making sure his parents fall in love or he will cease to exist. He also needs to get back to the future to save his friend Doc who was shot just before he traveled in time.
The them in Back to the Future would be courage versus fear. Both Marty and George are afraid in different parts of the film. Marty is afraid of the band that he is a part of, being rejected again. He doesn't think he can handle that kind of rejection. Ironically, when Marty is talking with his father George as a teenager, George also says something similar. But this time it is about Lorraine, Marty's mother. George is afraid if he tells her that he likes her that she will reject him and he does not think he can handle that kind of rejection.
One of the other themes in the movie would be that Marty is able to see that he has the same feelings about his girlfriend Jennifer that his dad had for his mother when they were teenagers. All Marty has known so far is the distance that his parents have and no the loving relationship that they used to have. Marty comes to understand they shared a similar love for the women in each of their lives.
Back to the Future has a theme that is similar to Peggy Sue got Married. Marty got to see before life changed a lot of things, that his dad George loved his mother Lorraine very much. This is similar to Peggy in the movie, going back in time to when she was in high school. This happened after she passes out at her reunion and travels back to a time where she realizes that she does love her husband who she was going to divorce before the reunion.
The theme is courage versus fear and several motifs come up throughout the film to support that theme. One part of the film is Marty having to make a split-second decision to drive the DeLorean to leave Doc dying on the ground after he had been shot. To travel back in the time to try and get away from the people who shot Doc. He then must have the courage to get back to the future so he can reverse what happened to Doc. Lighting also supports that same thing when the people start chasing Doc, it was darker but then the gun fire started lighting everything up and Marty was trying to get away from them. Doc was unable to do so, and therefore got shot. The lighting was prevalent to where you could see a lot of what was going on. You could see the courage on Marty's face when he got into the car in hopes to get away from the guys before they shot him also. The lighting and the motifs play an important role in the film, tying together the theme of courage versus fear by showing examples of why it is important to courageous even when you are afraid.
Review by george-08410 from the Internet Movie Database.