A Year in Film: 1985

Halfway there! All right. Back to the ‘just exited a theater’ scenario. As you emerge, blinking, into the cigarette-smoke-tinted cold night, you can swear you can see, out of the corner of your eye… lines of fire, just as far apart as a car can drive. Like tire skids flaming off into the horizon. You rub your eyes and turn your head towards this fiery happenstance. It’s gone. You’ve had a late night, so it’s understandable that you might start to see things that aren’t there. As you hunker down and stumble through the crisp night air, you start to hear the unmistakable sound of hooves on pavement. And as you whirl your head around to face the direction you believe the sound is coming from, for a moment, a rider on a horse is visible. However, as your vision focuses, the aberration is gone. You’re about 75% sure you’re losing your mind, as you turn around and bump right into a man wearing an overcoat. You reflexively apologize, as a candlestick slips out of his coat and clatters onto the floor. He hurriedly picks it up, mumbles something, and then darts off into an alleyway. You blink a couple times, shake your head, and go to the bay to think about what just happened. Across the horizon, you spot a pirate ship. This is getting ridiculous.

Back to the Future is one of the strangest pop culture phenomena in recent memory. It stars a sleep-deprived Michael J. Fox, hired halfway through production after the original star was fired for being too difficult and method-y. Back to the Future is about time travel, but it’s on a relatively small budget (for what they could have done with the concept).

The entire trilogy is set in one town, at three wildly different time periods. The first movie goes back in time, from the 80s to the 50s. The second movie travels forward to the future, until the far off year of 2015, and the third movie goes even farther back in time, to the Wild West. Back to the Future is a trilogy about Americana and the nuclear family, most especially in the first.

The central focal point of this movie is Marty McFly, the character played by Michael J. Fox. The key point of knowledge that should enhance the movie-viewing experience is that Fox was also taping a show at the same time, and averaged about 5 hours of sleep while he was filming this movie, because he drove straight from the show to the movie set. Most of the movie was filmed between 6 p.m. and 6 a.m. Fox was tired the whole time, and that kinda bleeds through into the performance, as Marty is very nervous and voice-cracky, and kinda squinty while he was on screen. Fox is trying to keep his eyes open, but that really adds to the character.

The movie’s message is that your parents aren’t perfect, and at one point, were people too, as opposed to the ideal they hope to present themselves to the world as. Marty goes back in time accidentally and, also accidentally, causes his parents never to meet. He has a picture of his family with him, and they slowly start to fade away over the course of the runtime. And towards the end of the movie, so does he.

Back to the Future is a piece of 80s ephemera that glorified the 50s, and its iconography is now forever associated with the decade that it wanted so badly to escape.

Goonies! Oh man we’ve just got a bucketful of the ‘classics’ today. This is Spielberg at his Spielbergiest, writing a story about incredible childhood adventure and cartoonish villains, as well as some spooky elements, like skeletal pirates and a ship that controls itself.

But if that sounds just incredible, the central conflict of the movie centers around foreclosure and a very adult financial crisis. Even in Spielberg’s fantasy world, he can’t escape the consequences of the real. But hey, there’s a funny ugly guy! His name’s Sloth and his weird eye was remote-controlled by someone off-camera.

He’s played by a former football player! We also have… drumroll… the director of the first Superman movie on board! And Sam Gamgee from Lord of the Rings! And Short Round from Temple of Doom! And the two Hollywood Coreys! Wow what a loaded, all-star cast. But I’m forgetting someone.

Oh yeah, the guy who ended up playing Thanos. Josh Brolin is in this movie. Wanna see how he looks?

PFFFFFFFFFFF

That’s hysterical.

Moving on.

Ah yes, one of my favorite movies, and to my knowledge the only successful board-game-to-movie adaptation in existence! Clue. Listen, I know I focus too much on the actors over here at Year in Film, but Tim Curry is revolutionary in this movie, he is the spine and the engine on which the whole thing runs.

Ok now on to other things about this movie. The set design is incredible, and the house is probably top 10 all-time movie locations. The escalation of violence is really great, as well. Until the characters are almost apathetic about three corpses that have appeared in their vicinity. The escalation of mania is also incredible, as the characters quickly realize that they are the only other people that won’t arrest them for this occurrence, they band together, albeit in a suspicious-of-the-person-next-to-you-because-they-might-have-a-knife way.

Another thing that works really well is the writing. This movie is hysterical! I can’t believe they took a board game with little to no in-depth lore and extrapolated that into a Cold-War era paranoia comedy! All of the character interactions hit the exact right notes!

The soundtrack is KICKIN’! The opening sequence is really great because the song used really exemplifies the goofiness of the events that are about to unfold! Go watch it I will not spoil!

Oh another interesting thing about Clue is that it was released with three different theatrical endings, so, theoretically, you and a friend could go see the exact same movie at the exact same theater, one after the other, and have completely different experiences.

That’s pretty neat.

Pale Rider. Clint Eastwood revives the Western with a significant amount of gruff, leading man energy. The only Eastwood Western of the 80s, and the last until Unforgiven. This is his swan song for the kind of role that made him famous, a nameless, gun-toting wanderer with a questionable morality and a heart of gold.

It’s kinda sad, if you look at it from that perspective. Eastwood was a titan, back in his heyday. A legitimate box-office draw. He still is, but not to the crazy extent of his prime, throughout the 60s 70s and 80s. This is his last ride.

Formulaic? Yes, absolutely. Good? Yes, absolutely. Atmospheric? Yes, absolutely. Clint Freakin’ Eastwood? Yes, absolutely.

Only five years left until we are rid of this decade forever. Congratulations on making it this far! Here’s a clue as to the star of the show next time around. Do you feel the need?

The need for speed?