Back to the past
From this weekend UK cinema-goers get to relive the mid-eighties with the re-release of one THE greatest family movies of that (or indeed any other) decade – Back to the Future. Whether you’re old enough to have seen it first time around or you’re discovering it anew on the big screen, it’s a cinematic must-see.
Originally released in the UK in December 1985, the first of the time-traveller trilogy of movies still remains one of my favourite movies ever, ever, EVER, twenty-five years later.
I went to see it with my mate and his brother at the ABC in Bradford. I remember being gobsmacked by the fantastic story (which could have been disastrously complicated but wasn’t) and also by how damned cool Marty McFly was.
Eric Stoltz as Marty
Of course it could have been a different film entirely. Eric Stoltz began filming as Marty when Michael J. Fox couldn’t be released from his sitcom, Family Ties. Thankfully, the producers realised that choice was wrong and struck a deal with Fox.
Even the time machine itself changed guises. It was intended to be an atomic refridgerator but producers feared kids would try to copy Marty and climb inside their own fridges! Instead the iconic DeLorean made an appearance (its gull-wing shape considered more likely to be mistaken for a spaceship by Old Man Peabody). Funny to think it could have been anything else!
The rest, as they say, is cinematic history.
Back in 1985 my future hadn’t been written. No-one’s had. I do wonder where I’d like to go if I had a DeLorean, a flux capacitor and enough plutonium to generate the 1.21 gigawatts. Doc Brown goes to great pains to prevent Marty from changing history, but would we be so careful if we could go back in time?
Personally, I’d love to travel back to Dallas in 1963 to see who really shot Kennedy. Of course that is a challenge even with a temporally-displaced DeLorean. How do I get to Dallas then? Hmm, let’s gloss over that.
I’d also travel back to just before I was born to watch the first moon landing. That offered an optimistic vision of a future that never really materialised, but to witness it first-hand would be worth nicking anyone’s radioactive material.
Instead, I’ll make do with reliving an evening in 1985 when I was transported across time with a Californian teenager and a mad scientist.
Over to you, dear reader. If you had a juiced-up DeLorean and all the plutonium you wanted (or maybe a Mr. Fusion unit) where would you go, past or future?
family movies of that (or indeed any other) decade – Back to the Future. Whether you’re old enough to
have seen it first time around or you’re discovering it anew on the big screen, it’s a cinematic
must-see.
Originally released in the UK in December 1985, the first of the time-traveller trilogy of movies still
remains one of my favourite movies ever, ever, EVER, twenty-five years later.
I went to see it with my mate and his brother at the ABC in Bradford. I remember being gobsmacked by the
fantastic story (which could have been disastrously complicated but wasn’t) and also by how damned cool
Marty McFly was.
Of course it could have been a different film entirely. Eric Stoltz began filming as Marty when Michael
J. Fox couldn’t be released from his sitcom, Family Ties. Thankfully, the producers realised that choice
was wrong and struck a deal with Fox.
Even the time machine itself changed guises. It was intended to be an atomic refridgerator but producers
feared kids would try to copy Marty and climb inside their own fridges! Instead the iconic DeLorean made
an appearance (its gull-wing shape considered more likely to be mistaken for a spaceship by Old Man
Peabody). Funny to think it could have been anything else!
The rest, as they say, is cinematic history.
Back in 1985 my future hadn’t been written. No-one’s had. I do wonder where I’d like to go if I had a
DeLorean, a flux capacitor and enough plutonium to generate the 1.21 gigawatts. Doc Brown goes to great
pains to prevent Marty from changing history, but would we be so careful if we could go back in time?
Personally, I’d love to travel back to Dallas in 1963 to see who really shot Kennedy. Of course that is
a challenge even with a temporally-displaced DeLorean. How do I get to Dallas then? Hmm, let’s gloss
over that.
I’d also travel back to just before I was born to watch the first moon landing. That offered an
optimistic vision of a future that never really materialised, but to witness it first-hand would be
worth nicking anyone’s radioactive material.
Instead, I’ll make do with reliving an evening in 1985 when I was transported across time with a
Californian teenager and a mad scientist.
Over to you, dear reader. If you had a juiced-up DeLorean and all the plutonium you wanted (or maybe a
Mr. Fusion unit) where would you go, past or future?
I am so old, I can remember the moon landings.
I was probably the age that Missy Woo is now but I remember it happening nonetheless.
I’d go back to VE day because it must have been something else to be in London when people realised the war was really lover.
And I’d go back to meet my grandmother who died before I was born.
And possibly to one day when my dad was still fully compos mentis and we could have had a proper chat.
Nice choices, Kate
Love the Back to the Future movies. I’ve read about Eric Stolz being cast before and I just can’t imagine what they would have been like with him.
Quite. Might have made him a star, or the film might have flopped and that would have been that. Perish the thought!
I always loved the phrase ‘flux capacitor’ – it sounds so likely somehow. Terrific movie and genius idea. I would go back and interview Keats or Dickens, or my Great Grandfather and his unorthodox family set up..
Keats, Dickens, blah blah… Unorthodox family set up??!! You can’t leave us hanging like that! We need to know more!
Sorry, not sure where I would go in my time machine, but just had to say that I love this film so much! One of my favourites ever (with some other 80s seminal classics such as the Breakfast Club and St Elmo’s Fire!)
You are my bestest friend, Sarah. I love those films too, plus I’d add Pretty In Pink and She’s Having a Baby to that list. Brill movies.
I fear we are just showing our ages! Did you see the Brat Pack “reunion” at the Oscars when they did a tribute to John Hughes? It was slightly scary to be honest….
(on another note, my son really loved the Stuart Little films, which feature the voice of Michael J Fox, so he’s engaging a new generation too).
This is still a fave of mine too – it’s a perfect film. Had no idea Eric Stoltz had originally been in the role though. As for me, I think I’d jump forward, to a time beyond my own years just to see how everything turns out – I’d like to think it’ll all be good
That’s a good idea BUT would you come back knowing what you know and be tempted to tweak things a bit? I don’t think I could resist. Great scott!!