Visual Essay #1

Back to the Future: An Explosion of History

The movie Back to the Future (Robert Zemeckis, 1985, USA) focuses on the story of teen Marty McFly’s (Michael J. Fox) accidental travel backwards in time and his subsequent interference with the course of history, threatening his very existence. While the temporal setting, so to speak, changes twice in the film, both time periods fall in between the Cold War era of tensions between The United States and the former Soviet Union. Within this context, the possible destruction of Marty’s existence parallels the imposing threat of nuclear annihilation.

This film, like many science fiction films, does not rest squarely in the genre of science fiction. Director Robert Zemeckis classified this movie as a “Comedy-Adventure-Science-Fiction- Time-Travel-Love-Story.” (1) The prominent aspect that leads this film into the science fiction category is the obvious use of time travel to facilitate the narrative. With most of the film set in 1955, taking place during the “period that is commonly referred to as the ‘golden age’ of the science fiction film” (2), there are other references to the genre throughout the movie. Besides Marty referencing Darth Vader and Vulcan from the Star Wars and Star Trek franchises, respectively, the use of a DeLorean as the time machine was to make the vehicle’s appearance seem outer-worldly, as that of a space ship. (1)

In the film, when the Peabody family finds the DeLorean recently crashed into their barn, the father thinks the vehicle is an airplane without wings and the son, showing his father the comic book in his hand, convinces his father that it is a spaceship and that Marty is a space mutant having taken human form. By the end of the film, a portion of that child’s imagination comes to fruition as the DeLorean is outfitted with jets allowing it to soar through the air.

Zemeckis is no stranger to the use of special effects or, as J P. Telotte may describe it, the art of “trickery.” (3) Aside from the two Future sequels, Contact was his only notable sci-fi endeavor to date. Most of his films, however, have made extensive use of visual “trickery,” like Who Framed Roger Rabbit and Forrest Gump, for example. Zemeckis’ use of special effects, much as is the nature of special effects in general, matured in scope and execution as his career progressed. When Back to the Future was made, computer generated effects were still in its infancy with movies like Tron (Steven Lisberger, 1982, USA). His last two films, however, have featured nothing but computer generated visuals (The Polar Express, Beowulf).

Being set in both 1985 and 1955, the audience is able to witness, in reverse, the transition from the pristine, bustling downtown of the fictional Hill Valley to a dirty, rundown city. This parallels many small towns during that time span with the transition from small, privately owned shops to malls and corporate conglomerates. The audience also witnesses the boom of the suburbs that took place during that period as well with the display of Marty’s yet-to-be-constructed subdivision.

Being set during the Cold War, it is ironic that the act of time travel (in the bulk of the film) relies on a heavily radioactive substance in order to succeed. Even more ironic is the fact that the original method in which Marty was to come home relied on a nuclear explosion. (1) Due to budgeting constraints, the filmmakers were forced to adjust that scene, but, in doing so, were able to take that destruction for time (nuclear explosion) and make it a destruction of time, for time (lightening striking the clock), thus adding another layer of metaphor to the film.

Endnotes:

(1) Back to the Future. Dir. Robert Zemeckis. Perf. Michael J. Fox, Christopher Lloyd and Lea Thompson. 1985. DVD. Universal Pictures, 2002.

(2) Christine Cornea. “Science Fiction Films in the 1950s,” Science Fiction Cinema : Between Fantasy and Reality. (New York: Rutgers UP, 2007) p. 30.

(3) J. P. Telotte. “Introduction: The World of the Science Fiction Film,” Science Fiction Film. (New York: Cambridge UP, 2001) p. 25.

Works Cited

Back to the Future. Dir. Robert Zemeckis. Perf. Michael J. Fox, Christopher Lloyd and Lea Thompson. 1985. DVD. Universal Pictures, 2002.

Cornea, Christine. Science Fiction Cinema : Between Fantasy and Reality. New York: Rutgers UP, 2007.

Telotte, J. P., and Barry Keith Grant. Science Fiction Film. New York: Cambridge UP, 2001.