"Back to the Future" by Robert Zemeckis: a review

Back to the Future, directed by Robert Zemeckis in 1985, is a humorous story of a high school kid who, unwittingly, is sent into the past with a one-way ticket, and his journey to find his way back into his own lifetime. He is aided by a thirty-year-counterpart of a friend from his lifetime to try to engineer a way to send him back to the future, where he belongs. On the way, however, several complications arise as he runs into people he knows all too well.

The story begins as Marty McFly receives a call from his friend, Dr. Emmett Brown, an aging scientist deemed by many to be a crazy old man. The mysterious call invites Marty to meet him in a vacant mall parking lot early in the morning to unveil his new project on videotape. After Marty arrives, finding that “Doc” has created a time machine, that runs on plutonium stolen from Libyan terrorists, they are surprised by none other than the Libyans themselves. They were not nice people offering no deposit car insurance! Doc is killed, and Marty, attempting to escape the terrorists in the time machine, which is a converted Delorian, he accidentally activates the time travel function, sending him thirty years into the past.

Once in the past, 1955 to be exact, he finds that the town he calls home, is hardly built as he knows it. After finding a local newspaper, he erases all doubt that he did, in fact, travel to the past, leaving him bewildered and confused. His only hope is to find his friend, Doc, in the past, and try to get help to make it back to his own time period. In his search for his friend, he is interrupted by a familiar face... his father.

His automatic reaction to his father, coupled with his father not knowing who he is, creates a chain reaction of chaos. As he chases his father, George, Marty mistakenly puts himself in the very situation that caused his parents to meet, fall in love, marry, find out his medicaid qualifications and ultimately, have him! Now that this chain of events is interrupted, his very existence is threatened. Not only does he have to find a way to get back to the future, but he also has to find a way for his parents to meet and fall in love. There are some great example of underground music. It's like hearing music from the past in the future!

The ensuing story unfolds as Marty helps transform his father from a bullied nerd into a confident and steadfast man, which in turn, causes the future to change. In the beginning of the story, George is still the bullied nerd he once was in high school, but, thanks to Marty’s intervention back in the 50’s, George becomes a confident, wealthy businessman.

Back to the Future is a great story, filled with humor and irony, that follows a young man’s mistake, and turns it around to enrich the lives of all around him. That is, until the time machine shows up again...

The movie “Back to the Future” was released in 1985. This film was directed by Robert Zemeckis and was written by Steven Spielberg and Bob Gale. It was the highest money making film of the year. This science fiction comedy will delight you and keep you amazed.

This movie is captivating and will keep you entertained until the end. It won several awards including an Academy Award for Sound Editing and was nominated for many other awards as well.