Monday Movie on the Mind: Back to the Future

Welcome to a weekly feature here at Movies With Abe: Monday Movie on the Mind. I’ll be kicking off each week with a clip or trailer from a film that happens to be on my mind, designed as a retrospective look at some well-known, forgotten, or underappreciated classic from movie history, be it antique or current. Chime in with your thoughts about the film or any other movies that you might be thinking of this week!

Back to the Future
Directed by Robert Zemeckis
Released July 3, 1985

I was reminded of the first film in this fantastic trilogy for two reasons, both of which arose this past weekend. A reference was made about a bride-to-be being an impending groom's destiny, with a hit tip to the future husband's love for this film and that token line ("You are my density"), and, later on, the signature score by Alan Silvestri had to come up sooner or later in a guessing game of hummed movie themes. I am a proud owner of the trilogy DVD set, and while I would cite the second film as my favorite, the first one is probably the best and most inventive. It's amusing to realize just how much content there is in this 1985 film aside from the decently sound and logical time travel science and plot related to the McFly family and its near-nonexistence. Terrorists chasing down Doc Brown to retrieve their stolen plutonium and jokes about Ronald Reagan, "the actor," being president are among the myriad references that make this film so great. My favorite line would probably be "Give me a milk - chocolate," but anything said by Marty or Doc has to rank high as well. It's criminal that Silvestri’s music wasn’t nominated for any major awards since it’s easily one of the most iconic melodies I know. I can instantly picture Doc plugging the cables into each other and sliding down into the bushes and Marty driving the car back into the future. Pitch-perfect comic performances from Michael J. Fox and Christopher Lloyd can be found here, as well as spot-on supporting turns from Crispin Glover and Lea Thompson. As a science fiction film, this is probably the most excellent example. As a corny parody of the 1950s, it’s just as capable, and as an all-around film, it’s simply one of the best, and there’s just nothing else like it. Having two sequels that are pretty damn good isn’t too bad either, and this is one of those movies – and trilogies – that I could watch over and over and over again. Treat yourself to this collection of some of the funniest scenes from the film.