This has been talked about a lot today and I wanted to add one more ode.
Many of the the Steven Spielberg/George Lucas movies from the 80s remained relevant to kids who grew up in the 90s. Indiana Jones, E.T., Star Wars and the Goonies to name a few. Back To The Future was my favourite of the bunch. Marty and Doc reigned supreme in my life. So much so that I remember in high school my friend and I once drove to his house at lunch hour so we could listen to the movie’s theme song, “The Power Of Love” by Huey Lewis And The News. (Our fanaticism impressive, but it’s also amazing that it was once necessary to drive somewhere in order to listen to a song.)
Back To The Future was also one of the first pop culture phenomenons that I arrived at on my own. Maybe not “on my own,” but without the influence of parents or friends.
It was sometime in 1996 or 1997. There was a promotion at McDonalds — if you bought a meal, you got a discount on a VHS copy of a blockbuster movie.
I remember staring up at the backlit menu and seeing the poster for the first time — Michael J. Fox, exiting the DeLorean, a streak of fire running between along the pavement beneath his feet, a shocked expression on his face as he looks down at his watch while simultaneously holding his sunglasses in case something bright, like gigawatts, affects his vision. It was the coolest thing ever. And not in a “hey that’s a cool old movie poster” way. It was cool right now. The movie was 12 years old at the time, but it was timeless.
For comparison, here is the poster for a movie that was cool 12 years ago, (also sci-fi) in the summer of 2003.
So it was the poster that hooked me. I didn’t buy the movie at McDonalds, but I must have rented it ASAP.
I fell in love with the whole trilogy. Part I was great simply for bringing me into Hill Valley, introducing me to Marty and the Doc. It was cool how they were friends even though one was a plucky teenager and the other an eccentric scientist. I’m being sincere here, unlikely friendships are terrific. Also my favourite line of the whole series is when Doc says - in such an ecstatic tone that he’s nearly speaking in tongues by that end - that he refilled the empty plutonium cases with used pinball machine parts. It’s a move that probably still angers terrorists worldwide.
Part II was great for its complex story and excursion into the alternate 1985. I still remember my pre-teen mind exploding like popcorn when Doc draws the alternate universe timeline on the chalkboard.
Part III, my favourite, is great for giving the story to Doc. His character became more complete when the unthinkable happens and he falls in love. Also I use this photo of Doc and Marty taken at the Hill Valley Festival Dance as a blueprint for any photograph taken of myself for years after: