Live Life Team
So many forgettable films have stunning visual effects. What makes them forgettable is that there is nothing else. Amateur filmmakers hide behind visual effects rather than use them. What sets director Robert Zemeckis apart is his use of use of sci-fi as a means to making interesting films, most of which you’ll find in the comedy section of movie stores.
In “Who Framed Roger Rabbit”, the hybrid of animation and live action told a crime story. In “Forest Gump”, he edited Tom Hanks shaking hands with John F. Kennedy and mooning Lyndon Johnson. But before all that, in “Back to the Future”, one of his earliest films, he uses the visual effects to tell a pretty unconventional story.
Michael J. Fox plays Marty McFly, a high school student who, for reasons that are never really explained, has an eccentric scientist for a best friend. Christopher Lloyd plays Doc Brown, the eccentric who has built a time machine out of a Delorean. On its test run, McFly is transported from 1985 to 1955, and the year his parents met. He immediately places himself in existential disaster when he inadvertently sabotages their chance encounter that leads to marriage and kids.
The film is an entertaining potpourri of great filmmaking. The acting and writing is hilarious. The visual effects are awesome without distracting from the story. And the set design of the 1950s is highly effective. It’s no wonder Zemeckis milked the formula for two more sequels.
