"Back To The Future"

Title: "Back To The Future"

MPAA Rating: PG

Director: Robert Zemeckis

Producer: S. Spielberg, K. Kennedy, and F. Marshall

Editing: H. Keramidas and A. Schmidt

Composer: Alan Silvestri

Starring:

- Michael J. Fox as Marty McFly

- Christopher Lloyd as Dr. Emmett "Doc" Brown

- Lea Thompson as Lorraine McFly

- Thomas F. Wilson as Biff Tannen

- Crispin Glover as Marty McFly (1955)

- James Tolken as Mr. Strickland

Plot and Critical Review: Seventeen-year-old Marty McFly lives with his boring family in Hill Valley, California. His father, George, is bullied by his supervisor, Biff Tannen, and his unhappy mother, Lorraine Baines McFly, is an alcoholic. Marty's underachieving older siblings, Dave and Linda, also live in the household. When Marty and his band audition to perform at the high school dance, they are rejected. Despite this setback, Marty's girlfriend, Jennifer, encourages him to pursue the dream of being a rock musician. At dinner that night, Lorraine recounts how she and George first fell in love when her father hit George with his car.

Marty meets his friend, scientist Dr. Emmett "Doc" Brown, late at night at a deserted shopping mall where Doc reveals a time machine made from a modified DeLorean; the vehicle's time displacement is powered by plutonium, which supplies 1.21 gigawatts of energy to a device he calls the "flux capacitor." Doc explains that the car travels to a programmed date upon reaching 88 miles per hour, using the date November 5, 1955 as an example destination. Before Doc can make his first trip, the Libyan terrorists from whom he stole the plutonium shoot him. Marty attempts to escape in the DeLorean and inadvertently activates the time machine. He is transported back to November 5, 1955 and finds himself without the plutonium needed for the return trip.

While exploring Hill Valley, Marty meets his teenaged father, who is being bullied by Biff. As George is about to be hit by Lorraine's father's car, Marty pushes him out of the way and is knocked out by the impact. Consequently, a teenaged Lorraine becomes infatuated with Marty instead of George. Marty is disturbed by her flirtations and leaves to find the younger Doc of 1955. Marty convinces Doc that he is from the future, and asks for help returning to 1985. Doc explains that the only available power source capable of generating 1.21 gigawatts of energy is a bolt of lightning. Discovering the "Save the Clock Tower" flyer that Marty received in 1985, indicating that lightning will strike the courthouse clock tower the following Saturday at 10:04 pm, Doc makes plans to harness the lightning strike to power the DeLorean's flux capacitor. When they observe a fading photograph of Marty with his siblings, they realize Marty has prevented his parents from meeting, jeopardizing his family's existence.

Marty attempts to set George up with Lorraine. To make his parents fall in love, Marty plans to have George "rescue" Lorraine from Marty's inappropriate advances on the night of the school dance. A drunk Biff unexpectedly shows up, pulls Marty from the car, and attempts to force himself on Lorraine. George arrives to rescue her from Marty, but instead finds Biff, who humiliates George and pushes Lorraine to the ground. Standing up to him for the first time, George knocks Biff out. A smitten Lorraine follows George to the dance floor, where they kiss for the first time, assuring Marty's existence.

Marty arrives at the clock tower where Doc is making final preparations for the lightning strike, and tries to warn Doc of his impending 1985 murder in a letter, but Doc tears it up, fearing it will lead to altering the future. A falling tree branch disconnects Doc's wiring setup, but Doc repairs the connections in time to send Marty and the DeLorean back to 1985. Although Marty arrives too late to prevent him from being shot, Doc is still alive and admits to reading the letter and wearing a bulletproof vest.

Doc drops Marty off at home and uses the time machine to travel 30 years into the future. Marty awakens the next morning to find his family changed; Lorraine is happy and physically fit, a self-confident George is a successful science fiction author, Dave is a businessman, and Linda no longer has trouble finding boyfriends. George and Lorraine now have a closer relationship than ever, while Biff has become an auto detailer/washer who is deferential towards George. As Marty reunites with Jennifer, Doc arrives, insisting they accompany him to the future to sort out a problem with their future children. Marty and Jennifer enter the upgraded DeLorean, now a hovercar powered by nuclear fusion, and Doc flies the time machine into the future.

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Here's a real gem. "Back To The Future" opened to a tremendous response from the box office. It gained and held the #1 spot for 11 weeks and ended up being the highest grossing film of 1985, beating out "Out Of Africa" and "Rocky IV" (and "The Goonies"!). We watch"Back..." and might be tempted to scoff at shoddy special effects and over-acting, but the film was highly praised for both innovation and delivery. While it was only Robert Zemeckis' fourth directorial title, it became his most successful film to date and gave folks a taste of what was soon to come in blockbuster titles like "Forrest Gump" and "Cast Away."

My Rating: 8/10

Content to Caution:

V-1.5 - "The Libyans!" Also some brief fist-fighting and harassment between students.

L-2 - No comment.

DU-1.5 - Some drinking and smoking, occasionally by minors.

RT-1 - Minor mistreatment of a person of color, especially re: his dreams of being mayor.

H/S-1 - 1.21 Gigawatts!

CH-2 - No comment.

S/N-1.5 - Some kissing and fondling.

The "Reel Revelation": "An Ignatian Adventure Through Time - Part I"

St. Ignatius of Loyola (1491-1556) was a pioneer in the discipline of creative spiritual meditation. In founding the Jesuits he, among other things, desired to develop a method of prayer and discernment by which both laity (regular folk) and religious (priests, monks, nuns, etc.) might seek the will of God through solitude and deep prayer. One of his chief "inventions" (and one of my favorites) is the Imagination Prayer. In this method of prayer one reads a scene or set of scenes from the Bible and places themselves "in the moment", observing and even interacting with those in the scene. I'd like to propose we utilize this special method of prayer in the three reviews for the "Back to the Future" films. We'll use a different passage for each reflection. Here's the general break-down of how the Imagination Prayer works:

1) A passage from Scripture is read aloud slowly.

2) Silence is observed for general reflection; get a sense of the "scene", the big picture.

3) The passage is read again, silently or aloud.

4) Silent is observed once more.

5) A series of questions are asked about the scene and how we interact within it.

6) Silence is kept for meditation and prayer. We listen for how God speaks to us through His Word.

7) A final prayer is spoken.

Let's enter into God's presence together and meditate on His Word.

1) The following passage is read aloud slowly.

“When He had come back to Capernaum several days afterward, it was heard that He was at home. And many were gathered together, so that there was no longer room, not even near the door; and He was speaking the word to them. And they came, bringing to Him a paralytic, carried by four men. Being unable to get to Him because of the crowd, they removed the roof above Him; and when they had dug an opening, they let down the pallet on which the paralytic was lying. And Jesus seeing their faith said to the paralytic, "Son, your sins are forgiven.” But some of the scribes were sitting there and reasoning in their hearts, "Why does this man speak that way? He is blaspheming; who can forgive sins but God alone?" Immediately Jesus, aware in His spirit that they were reasoning that way within themselves, said to them, "Why are you reasoning about these things in your hearts? Which is easier, to say to the paralytic, 'Your sins are forgiven'; or to say, 'Get up, and pick up your pallet and walk'? But so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins" He said to the paralytic, "I say to you, get up, pick up your pallet and go home." And he got up and immediately picked up the pallet and went out in the sight of everyone, so that they were all amazed and were glorifying God, saying, "We have never seen anything like this.” (Mark 2:1-12)

2) Keep silence for a while. Reflect on the scene and try to get the big picture. Consider the following:

- What did this day look like?

- How was the weather?

- Are you in the scene or observing from afar?

- Are you alone or did you bring someone with you?

- Did you come to this house to see Jesus, or did you just follow the crowd?

3) Read the passage again, aloud or silently.

4) Keep silence for a while. This time think about the specific details of the scene. Consider the following:

- How many people are there at the house? Can they all fit inside?

- How close can you get to Jesus? Can you see Him? Can you hear His voice?

- What are people around you saying? What are they saying about Jesus?

- How long have you waited to see Jesus?

5) Meditate upon the following questions. Ask these questions honestly and search for honest answers:

- What is Jesus saying when you reach the house? Is He speaking to you directly?

- Is there a commotion when the four men try to get the paralytic into the house?

- How do those around you respond when they start to rip the roof open?

- How do the disciples respond? How does Jesus?

- You hear Jesus say, "...your sins are forgiven." What do you feel in that moment?

- Does he offer the same forgiveness to you?

- Jesus knows the scribes are criticizing them in their hearts; what thoughts do you hold in your heart that Jesus can also hear?

- You see the paralytic get up. What does he do? Does he walk? Does he fall to his knees? Does he dance?

- The paralytic walks right past you as he leaves the house. What does he look like? What sort of look is on his face?

- Someone next to you says, "We have never seen anything like this." How do you respond?

- Do you want to talk to Jesus?

- Does Jesus want to speak with you?

- What sort of paralysis do you suffer from? Do you want Jesus to heal you?

- Does Jesus want to forgive your sins, too?

- Did you come to the house just to see Jesus, or to be healed?

- Did you come to the house just to see Jesus, or to be forgiven?

6) Keep silence and slowly step out of the scene. Come back to the present moment.

7) We pray together: "Jesus, you reached out to a complete stranger and healed his paralysis. As if one miracle wasn't enough you forgave his sins in the sight of all those people. We want to come to you, Jesus. Maybe we can come to you by our own strength. Maybe we need friends to carry us into your presence. We want to come to you and know your love for us. Grant us your healing, your peace, and your gracious pardon for all our sins; all the things we've done that have hurt ourselves and those around us. May we, like the paralytic, shake off the infirmity of sin and walk in the freedom of your love. May the witness of our lives cause others to say, "We have never seen anything like this before," and come to you. We humbly pray in your most precious name. Amen."

See you tomorrow -E.T.