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Back to the Future
WHY'D I WATCH IT?
Reassessment TIME!
Final Verdict: [Pretty Good]
Back to the Future
Sci-Fi / English / 1985
WHY'D I WATCH IT?
Reassessment TIME!
WHAT'D I THINK? *SPOILERS*
It's interesting to think about how nostalgia comes and goes in waves.
I had said that Nightmare Before Christmas holds a lot of nostalgia for me and I would probably attribute that to not having seen it for over a period of 10 years at least. Since then I've popped it in regularly alongside Back to the Future and today I'm struck with the peculiar thought...
Imagine if this was the first time I'd ever seen this movie.
I don't even remember my first time seeing BTTF and I've seen it so many times that I feel the effect has seriously worn off on me. I can only imagine how pleased I would be having only just gotten around to it, but the magic new discovery or even revisiting old memories is gone... I've just seen it too many times.
Not that I don't like it any more, far from it, Back to the Future is a fantastic movie, but my experience with it now is probably a big reason why you haven't seen me review Ink yet, I just DON'T WANT TO WATCH IT.
I mean I DO. But I don't want to ruin it by seeing it too often, you know? I like to keep that experience preserved fresh.
ANYWAY, so what do I make of BTTF now that it's perhaps worn stale?
Probably harsher criticism.
Seeing it again there's no mistaking that the movie is chock-full of melodrama, overacting, and numerous little leaps in logic. I couldn't even really begin to count them, they're everywhere.
Why is Doc working on a mind reading device without someone to mind read? Was he mind reading the dog?
Why do the farmers leap to the conclusion that Marty's an alien because of his car? Sure it looks futuristic, but it still looks like a car. They have cars in 1955.
Why is George so accepting of this total stranger with a bizarre and never explained compulsion to specifically hook him up with the one girl who's after him?
Why is the billboard any reasonable hiding spot for a car? It stands right in front of a construction site. Won't construction workers see it?
In fact, why do the first people Marty meets on the road freak out and drive away from him? Because he's a kid with a "life preserver" jacket? Is there's some 50s era paranoia about strange high school kids jacking old couples in broad daylight in the midwest somewhere? WTF was that about?
And of course there's the biggest plothole of the movie which is the fact that Marty and his family slowly vanishes over time if he triggers the Grandfather Paradox.
This doesn't make any sense at all since there's no direct explanation for why he would only slowly disappear at some arbitrary rate.
Is it relative to how close he is to his parents' conception?
If it is, then would he not see any effects if he went further back in time?
Why do his siblings disappear before him if not for dramatic convenience?
Why do his siblings disappear top to bottom, but Marty just fades from existence?
When Marty begins to fade away when George is parted from Lorraine it implies that the future is slowly undone by the progression of the now, not the inevitability, so what if Biff showed up and knifed George at the concert? Would Marty fade away?
What if he didn't die, just went to the hospital and he and Lorraine still got it on another day? Would Marty still fade away?
Marty's future seems dependent on their relationship, not their literal sex, so what if they got together and just agreed to be friends? Would Marty fade away?
What if their relationship was cut short, Marty faded away and their relationship came back together? Would Marty fade back?
Is Marty the same Marty if he was born on a different day?
Would it be a different sperm that makes Marty?
What if Marty had sex with Lorraine and Marty disappeared? Would her baby disappear?
He already shares some of her DNA so would only part of the baby disappear?
Would she miscarriage?
What if Marty had sex with Biff? Would Biff disappear?
What if Biff had sex with Lorraine who had sex with Marty and THEN had sex with George, would Marty disappear?
Would Biff be Marty's daddy?
Would Marty have different Biff siblings?
Would they be called Bifflings?
What if Biff got Doc pregnant? Would Marty disappear?
What if Biff was Doc's son? Wou-OH MY GOD I'M MAKING FAN-FICTION.
The biggest issue here is the assumption that anyone would disappear at all. This seems to be everyone's answer to the Godfather Paradox that if you "shouldn't" exist, you stop existing, but that doesn't make any sense. All you're doing is removing history, you're not removing the present, so why should the present change? History isn't really gone, it's just separate timeline.
Which is one of the reasons Back to the Future: Part 2 is better. BTTF seriously pushes that level of acceptable suspension of disbelief. We don't REALLY have a firm understanding of time travel, so these assumptions are made for the sake of producing conflict. It's a significantly worse variation on what Inception pulled by suggesting that our dreams occur fast, rather than slowly.
I still like it though. And to be perfectly honest BTTF is a far smaller cluster**** than most other time travel movies.
Doc's still fun, Biff's still fun, Marty's... there, and all the little clever continuities in the background are neat to pick out. Also the soundtrack. It's a hard one not to revisit.
Butchu still got dogfood, dogs, meatloaf, kissing, obvious SFX, and...
..."love".
I had said that Nightmare Before Christmas holds a lot of nostalgia for me and I would probably attribute that to not having seen it for over a period of 10 years at least. Since then I've popped it in regularly alongside Back to the Future and today I'm struck with the peculiar thought...
Imagine if this was the first time I'd ever seen this movie.
I don't even remember my first time seeing BTTF and I've seen it so many times that I feel the effect has seriously worn off on me. I can only imagine how pleased I would be having only just gotten around to it, but the magic new discovery or even revisiting old memories is gone... I've just seen it too many times.
Not that I don't like it any more, far from it, Back to the Future is a fantastic movie, but my experience with it now is probably a big reason why you haven't seen me review Ink yet, I just DON'T WANT TO WATCH IT.
I mean I DO. But I don't want to ruin it by seeing it too often, you know? I like to keep that experience preserved fresh.
ANYWAY, so what do I make of BTTF now that it's perhaps worn stale?
Probably harsher criticism.
Seeing it again there's no mistaking that the movie is chock-full of melodrama, overacting, and numerous little leaps in logic. I couldn't even really begin to count them, they're everywhere.
Why is Doc working on a mind reading device without someone to mind read? Was he mind reading the dog?
Why do the farmers leap to the conclusion that Marty's an alien because of his car? Sure it looks futuristic, but it still looks like a car. They have cars in 1955.
Why is George so accepting of this total stranger with a bizarre and never explained compulsion to specifically hook him up with the one girl who's after him?
Why is the billboard any reasonable hiding spot for a car? It stands right in front of a construction site. Won't construction workers see it?
In fact, why do the first people Marty meets on the road freak out and drive away from him? Because he's a kid with a "life preserver" jacket? Is there's some 50s era paranoia about strange high school kids jacking old couples in broad daylight in the midwest somewhere? WTF was that about?
And of course there's the biggest plothole of the movie which is the fact that Marty and his family slowly vanishes over time if he triggers the Grandfather Paradox.
This doesn't make any sense at all since there's no direct explanation for why he would only slowly disappear at some arbitrary rate.
Is it relative to how close he is to his parents' conception?
If it is, then would he not see any effects if he went further back in time?
Why do his siblings disappear before him if not for dramatic convenience?
Why do his siblings disappear top to bottom, but Marty just fades from existence?
When Marty begins to fade away when George is parted from Lorraine it implies that the future is slowly undone by the progression of the now, not the inevitability, so what if Biff showed up and knifed George at the concert? Would Marty fade away?
What if he didn't die, just went to the hospital and he and Lorraine still got it on another day? Would Marty still fade away?
Marty's future seems dependent on their relationship, not their literal sex, so what if they got together and just agreed to be friends? Would Marty fade away?
What if their relationship was cut short, Marty faded away and their relationship came back together? Would Marty fade back?
Is Marty the same Marty if he was born on a different day?
Would it be a different sperm that makes Marty?
What if Marty had sex with Lorraine and Marty disappeared? Would her baby disappear?
He already shares some of her DNA so would only part of the baby disappear?
Would she miscarriage?
What if Marty had sex with Biff? Would Biff disappear?
What if Biff had sex with Lorraine who had sex with Marty and THEN had sex with George, would Marty disappear?
Would Biff be Marty's daddy?
Would Marty have different Biff siblings?
Would they be called Bifflings?
What if Biff got Doc pregnant? Would Marty disappear?
What if Biff was Doc's son? Wou-OH MY GOD I'M MAKING FAN-FICTION.
The biggest issue here is the assumption that anyone would disappear at all. This seems to be everyone's answer to the Godfather Paradox that if you "shouldn't" exist, you stop existing, but that doesn't make any sense. All you're doing is removing history, you're not removing the present, so why should the present change? History isn't really gone, it's just separate timeline.
Which is one of the reasons Back to the Future: Part 2 is better. BTTF seriously pushes that level of acceptable suspension of disbelief. We don't REALLY have a firm understanding of time travel, so these assumptions are made for the sake of producing conflict. It's a significantly worse variation on what Inception pulled by suggesting that our dreams occur fast, rather than slowly.
I still like it though. And to be perfectly honest BTTF is a far smaller cluster**** than most other time travel movies.
Doc's still fun, Biff's still fun, Marty's... there, and all the little clever continuities in the background are neat to pick out. Also the soundtrack. It's a hard one not to revisit.
Butchu still got dogfood, dogs, meatloaf, kissing, obvious SFX, and...
..."love".