Back to the Future

comfort isn't a good of the whole?

just missed out on a few votes there son

comfort isn't a good of the whole?

no. you are thinking too small. comfort is a perk for organisms wired by natural selection to be hedonically rewarded by resting, eating, reproducing and serving other biological necessities. true collective units will be freed from the burden of self-regard through cognitive re-conditioning at first, followed by pharmacological and cybernetic additions, and finally through genetic engineering.

i'm aware of the drive for efficiency in the irish public sector, thank you

Heading along tonight to see the 25th Anniversary re-release at the cinema and I am soooooooo excited you wouldn't believe! I genuinely feel sick with anticipation. I was too young to catch the first one in the cinema, but have loved it forever, so to finally get the chance is immense. Hurrah!!

I haven't been so happy for a long time, that was utterly glorious!

:) it's hands down the best thing about the 80's

totally flawless movie imho

metalstream

http://movies.yahoo.com/feature/thr-eric-stoltz-as-the-original-marty-mcfly.html

I don't have a blu-ray player, and I just bought BTTF on dvd about six months ago anyway, but I'm glad we all finally get to see something more than just stills with Stoltz in the role.

I'm seeing this in theaters on the 25th. AMC theaters are running it the 23rd and 25th. The 25th, at 7PM (the movie's showtime), will be mark 25 years since Marty went back fwiw.

If I had a cinema I'd do a special showing on November 5th.

this movie is absolutely perfect. i can't think of another movie that rewards on so many repeat viewings. i've taught this film several times, and i learn more and more from it.

i like some of bob zemeckis's other movies, but it still astounds me that he made this one.

i have met probably two people in my life who claim (CLAIM) not to like this movie.

i love it of course but it seemed pretty far from perfect the last few times i saw it and their's a real creepy ugly reagan air to it right beneath the surface. mind you christopher lloyd and michael j. fox but esp christopher lloyd more than make up for any flaws or bad vibes that might be there.

What is the ugly Reagan air, aside from the new pick-up?

Agreed. The triumphalism at the end of the movie creeps me out; it's the nerd's version of Rambo.

Still like the movie overall. One of my best childhood experiences is watching this with my parents on a late Sunday afternoon in summer '85, with no expectations, and everyone had a ball.

reagan is on record as claiming back to the future as his favorite movie. He was fairly close to making a cameo in part iii as a sheriff or something, which i admit would have been pretty cool.

My little brother is such a diehard fan that when he was 11 or so he asked my mom to take him to the various filming locations for this.

We have a picture of him in front of Marty's house. It's hilarious because it made him tremendously happy to go there but in the photo his face just expresses that stoic sense of triumph little boys have in a lot of pictures. "I have conquered" is the feel.

I guess I get that.

I did always think it was weird that a little town like Hill Valley would have its own porn theater sitting in the city square.

What is the ugly Reagan air, aside from the new pick-up?

The city is a crappy cesspool with a bunch of closed-up stores and garbage in the streets and homeless dudes asleep on park benches (oh and BTW a black mayor who used to be a janitor) unlike in the 50s when everything was perfect?

Wasn't a small Californian town in the 50s less likely to have glaringly visible social problems than one in the 80s? That's my hunch, correct me if I'm wrong. Maybe I got that idea from the movies!

The black mayor is the present-day mayor even before Marty ruins the past though.

the 50s had racism underage drinking drugs violence peeping tomism incestful lust albeit innocent incestful lust and manure

reagan is on record as claiming back to the future as his favorite movie. He was fairly close to making a cameo in part iii as a sheriff or something, which i admit would have been pretty cool.

Wow -- do you have a link??

yes reagan was in cowboy movies and part iii was a cowboy movie

lol

He also mentioned wanting to use Barbara Stanwyck's corpse to play Elizabeth Shue -- he thought it was a remake of Cattle Queen of Montana.

from IMDB (which probably got it from the DVD commentary):
"Actor and former President Ronald Reagan was originally approached to play the part of Mayor Hubert because of his fondness for the first film in the trilogy. He reluctantly turned down the role, and the part went to Hugh Gillin instead."

would have been neat, the same way if The Man in the High Castle ever gets made, it'd be cool if Schwarzenegger was Governor of alt-California.

The black mayor is the present-day mayor even before Marty ruins the past though.

Well, yeah. That's what I'm saying. Marty's own experience of 1985 changes based on his activities in the past, but 1985 Hill Valley is a shithole regardless, not like those picture-perfect 50s.

Don't get me wrong, I like the BTTF movies, but there was always that underlying strain of conservativism that rubs me the wrong way.

i dunno if it's so much conservatism as unrepentant nostalgia (used cars, forrest gump, who framed roger rabbit),
which ends up being the same thing a lot of the time, but they seem pretty self-aware about it (cafe 80s in pt II)

In Reagan's America, your mother's attempted rapist is in your driveway, hired by your father to wash your truck.

in Reagan's cinematic America, nerds become heroes by adapting the methods of the guys who beat them up and winning, terrible furniture and all.

idg all this reagan's america- his ideal america, the one he created, what?

In Reagan's America, machine-gun toting Libyan terrorists cruise the streets of your hometown in VW vans.

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1385/846917774_3468b25871.jpg?v=0

The city is a crappy cesspool with a bunch of closed-up stores and garbage in the streets and homeless dudes asleep on park benches (oh and BTW a black mayor who used to be a janitor) unlike in the 50s when everything was perfect?

Screenwriter Bob Gale is one of the 134 Republicans in Hollywood, so no surprise there is a certain conservative strain in the movie.

That being said, crime (especially of the violent sort) was the lowest it had been in decades in the 1950s, and in the sixties it skyrocketed and never looked back. Pointing out those social changes in America isn't Reagantastic, necessarily

would the perfect movie be the adventure of back to the future crossed with the politics of robocop?

No, because that would be called "Back to the Future II".

someone plz photoshop Reagan on Robocop to make him into RonnieCop. Thnx.

oh c'mon this film is totally silly and self-conscious about the nostalgic stuff.

the porn theater is a gag,. there are two movie theaters at either end of downtown hill valley in the 1950s. in the 1980s they have become, respectively, a porn theater and a storefront church. which were two very common fates for single-screen theaters in that period. it's more a cinephilic gag than a political one.

this film is beautifully, beautifully, beautifully made. it's like a masterclass in popular filmmaking.

This thread has made me want to watch it again. One of my favorites.

a film-making friend of mine didn't see this until he was 20, and only after my friends and I hounded him into seeing it. Were amazed he could go that long without ever seeing it.

He had also never seen Ghostbusters until recently

talk about great reaganite comedies!

Did he like them?

reagan is on record as claiming back to the future as his favorite movie. He was fairly close to making a cameo in part iii as a sheriff or something, which i admit would have been pretty cool.

Too bad they couldn't squeeze in Charlie Manson or Pol Pot instead, huh.

this movie is absolutely perfect.

ugh

First time I ever saw this movie was on a Saturday night and after the movie was over I picked up a newspaper THAT WAS DATED THE FOLLOWING SUNDAY. This is when I first learned that Sunday papers came out Saturday, but for the few minutes inbetween picking up the paper and being told that, my mind was suitably blown...