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Marty McFly receives a call from his friend the scholar Doc Emmett Brown who wants to present his new invention: a DeLorean made into a time machine …
Inspired by a conversation about what a meeting with their own young parents might have been like, Robert Zemeckis and Bob Gale embark on the 1980s in a time machine story, first viewed as a refrigerator, which will become the legendary DeLorean of an equally legendary trilogy.
With Spielberg as executive producer, the first part of Back to the future released in 1985 and is such a hit that the director and his team are backing up for two parts that were not originally planned. An attraction, video games and loads of goodies later, Back to the future and its sequels are part of the cuddly films that are transmitted from the generation of children of the 80s to those of today. It must be said that the films contain all the elements of a cult work.
First, there is this idea of time travel that makes you dream, but rather than using it to witness major historical elements or delve into very distant eras, the screenplay uses it in a way. intimate, tightening its plot around a small number of characters, who gain in density and realism and create a strong attachment on the part of the spectators. It is above all the tandem between Marty (Michael J. Fox) and the Doc (Christopher Lloyd, also in the major role in Who wants Roger Rabbit skin), accomplices in their curiosity and courage, but also the parents of Marty, George (Crispin Glover) and Lorraine (Lea Thompson), who can be discovered at different ages of their lives and in different scenarios, which required a lot both composition and makeup work to make them perfectly believable in all circumstances. And let’s not forget Biff Tannen (Thomas F. Wilson), the villain we love to hate, a thick not very clever brute who just has to throw “behind you!” To stick a donut on him.
With its stakes very close to the family, the trilogy has all the intergenerational entertainment, which makes it possible to recall that the parents were young people loving to have fun, dreaming of the first loves and making decisive choices for their future. Through the metaphor of time travel, the work reminds us that everyone is in control of their life and must make conscious decisions to build their destiny, often interdependent on that of those close to them.
In the writing, the films also have a lot of strengths, with gimmicks skillfully reused from one shutter to another and well-crafted jokes, both placed in the dialogues, always dynamic, and in the elements of the set . It is abundant and filled with clues and discoveries that contribute to the cohesion of a universe all the more impressive as it was not initially planned to be deployed in three feature films. Aesthetically, the result has the charm of the 80s but still a very nice outfit today thanks to the analog effects in particular, but also to a joyful creativity. We feel that Zemeckis and his team had fun inventing the clothes of tomorrow, transcribing the atmosphere of various eras, creating all the inventions of the Doc, and above all in concocting an extremely meticulous assembly that allows to preserve the credibility of the intrigue despite all its ramifications and to amaze us over the discoveries. We feel at home in this universe of adventure, and even if the sequels are less light than the first opus, it is emotions resurfaced from childhood that predominate in front of the saga, allowing us, too, to travel in time in front of our screens.
