Before becoming a blockbuster with planetary success declined in three episodes, Back to the future was one of the most denied screenplays in Hollywood history. In a catchy documentary, Nathalie Amsellem retraces the process of creating the trilogy and shows behind the scenes of the filming. Ingenious compilations also parallel excerpts from the saga and sequences from other films, revealing a work dotted with tributes to the cinema of Harold Lloyd, Sergio Leone, Martin Scorsese and Victor Fleming.
Imagined by Robert Zemeckis and Bob Gale in 1985, the famous American comedy produced by Steven Spielberg tells the time travel of young Marty McFly. This teenager from the 1980s, still dressed in his typical red jacket of the time, finds himself propelled sometimes into the America of the 1950s, marked by the birth of the consumer society, sometimes in the 2010s – which, at the era of the making of the film, represented a future conducive to anticipation.
Rock’n’roll and rhythm removed
Beyond entertainment, the trilogy addresses universal themes, such as the relationship to the past or family, and political issues, such as sexism, overconsumption or racial segregation. This explains its longevity. It is also interesting to watch it today, being attentive to the fate reserved for the “bad guy”, a grotesque and outrageous billionaire, straight inspired by a man named Donald Trump before he became president.
Nathalie Amsellem takes up the rock’n’roll style and lively rhythm of Back to the future to make his documentary a small cinematographic work. Enough to make you want to (re) immerse yourself in this “monument of pop culture” which, obviously, still has a future.