Editors Intro: Back to the Future returns to the big screen TODAY!, 1st October. Since this opportunity won’t be coming around again any time soon, we want to make the most of of it. Many of the writers on HeyUGuys.co.uk love Back to the Future and we wanted to bring you some of the reasons why, along with the experiences that we’ve had with the movie, and talk about how it affected us and what is it about this film that makes us all warm inside when we think about it.
Keep you eyes peeled on HeyUGuys for loads more Back to the Future stuff coming up in the next few days.
You can keep track of all the stories and coverage including the new HD re-release trailer here.
——————————-
I’m a huge fan of Back to the Future, having first seen it at the cinema as an excited, impressionable nine year-old (which actually makes me feel incredibly old in light of this 25th anniversary!) The film is a rare example of near faultless Hollywood film-making – from the tight, well-constructed script to the perfect pacing, engaging performances and overall massive sense of fun (something incidentally, completely lacking from this summer’s list of blockbusters). Even after all those years, I still think director Robert Zemeckis has yet to equal or surpass this (his third feature) in terms of purely joyous entertainment.
A lasting memory of the film for me occurred after it’s cinema release when I entered a competition in one of the national newspapers and won a copy of the film when it was released as a rental (rrp £85.50!!). I still remember the excitement and anticipation of receiving that huge, chunky VHS box and being the first to check the post every day for a whole month, waiting for it to be delivered. I was the envy of all the kids on the block, especially as the two video shops in my town only had one copy each between them and, due to its popularity at the time, there was a huge backlog of several weeks for anyone who wanted to rent it out.
For a film filled with so many memorable moments, I still get goose bumps during the scene with Marty on stage at The Enchantment Under The Sea dance, where he’s moments away from being “erased from existence”. Just when all appears to be lost, his dad finally acknowledges his “density” and pushes aside the bully to steal a kiss from Marty’s mum, saving the day.
I love how we, the audience, go from an incredibly tense moment to a sudden overwhelming feeling of real joy and jubilation as Earth Angel swells up on the soundtrack and Marty regains his composure as everything has gone according to plan and Doc Brown’s matchmaking scheme has succeeded! At the end of the song, George McFly gives his time-travelling son a reassuring wave. It’s a beautiful moment in modern popular cinema.
