BACK TO THE FUTURE (1985) *** Michael J. Fox lacks credibility as a time traveler (in the '50s) because he says that Ronald Reagan would be elected President. If that alone isn't enough to make you want to go back in time and change things... The first time I saw this I was in the throes of Existentialism class, and I pompously informed my mother, "This film represents the moment when Hollywood catches up with the teleological suspension of the rational," or some such desperado bravado nonsense. No, but it is one of the moments that the '80s attained enough critical mass and identity to move beyond the '70s, an important if dubious event. It did so while carrying a Huey & the Lewis tune to acknowledge the musical depravity of the day, counterbalanced with mock Chuck Berry, Pete Townshend, and Eddie Van Halen licks offered by a young man who portrayed a young Republican on a popular American tv show. Very eighties, they rocked, you know. So what about teleology? I think we've all looked at our parents and wished that we could have done something different for them. Robert Zemeckis and Bob Gale don't insult us by claiming to know much about time travel, they just point out that it could be there and must be fun and dangerous. Christopher Lloyd crowns his dominance as the most successful prototype silver screen eccentric of his generation (when Crispin Glover is the real nutter)... There's a lot to be said for fun movies that make you feel good at the end. "Last night, Darth Vader came down from planet Vulcan and told me that if I didn't take Lorraine out that he'd melt my brain." Way to go, Eddie.
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