Back To The Future - 1985
Directed by - A Fellow Lithuanian
****
Since I double-posted the "Burn Holly Wood Burn / Black To The Future" thread, I figured I'd write something about this. It is ironic that this showed on HBO a day before the fire that consumed the courthouse set. What hit me watching it again, is that how much this film echoes today, and how much it predicted correctly. Back then it was kind of weird that terrorists would want uranium to build a nuke in the US, as terrorists were just overseas. Back then it was weird that there would be a car with "butterfly" doors - now David Banner (the Mississippi rapper, not Bill Bixby) writes songs about them.
Michael J Fox's character is so bland - but in a good way - that he could just as easily be a character from 2008. There's not much 80's slang, or situations. Fine, he likes Van Halen, and his dream car is a Toyota pickup, what can you do.
What the film has a great understanding of, is the fact that the Rock & Roll Age is similar from decade to decade. It's the reason Marty can jump right in and play Johnny B Goode, but would've had a whale of a time trying to figure out what to play in a Big Band. The post war high school experience is basically the same, and has been the same for decades.
It's other thesis is that things that happen in high school, reverberate for the rest of our lives. I remember reading something about Kurt Cobain's suicide, when the author asked if we ever truly get over "teenage angst." This film says we may, but only if we overcome it as kids.
Great movie that holds up even better today.
Directed by - A Fellow Lithuanian
****
Since I double-posted the "Burn Holly Wood Burn / Black To The Future" thread, I figured I'd write something about this. It is ironic that this showed on HBO a day before the fire that consumed the courthouse set. What hit me watching it again, is that how much this film echoes today, and how much it predicted correctly. Back then it was kind of weird that terrorists would want uranium to build a nuke in the US, as terrorists were just overseas. Back then it was weird that there would be a car with "butterfly" doors - now David Banner (the Mississippi rapper, not Bill Bixby) writes songs about them.
Michael J Fox's character is so bland - but in a good way - that he could just as easily be a character from 2008. There's not much 80's slang, or situations. Fine, he likes Van Halen, and his dream car is a Toyota pickup, what can you do.
What the film has a great understanding of, is the fact that the Rock & Roll Age is similar from decade to decade. It's the reason Marty can jump right in and play Johnny B Goode, but would've had a whale of a time trying to figure out what to play in a Big Band. The post war high school experience is basically the same, and has been the same for decades.
It's other thesis is that things that happen in high school, reverberate for the rest of our lives. I remember reading something about Kurt Cobain's suicide, when the author asked if we ever truly get over "teenage angst." This film says we may, but only if we overcome it as kids.
Great movie that holds up even better today.
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