Back to the Future is the first movie I vividly remember watching. I was probably four years old. I wasn't going to bed when I was supposed to, so my parents let me stay up late with them and watch this movie they had rented on video.
Even at four years old, this movie had a huge impact on me. The skateboarding scenes, the flames, the DeLorean ("You made a time machine?! Out of a DeLorean?!"). Michael J. Fox was my first movie star hero. I didn't discover Star Wars until I was about ten, so I spent several years pretending I was Marty McFly.
(Side note: the first "bad word" I remember saying in front of my dad -- we were playing with my remote control car. I turned to look at him and said, "When this baby hits 88, you're going to see some serious shit!")
So, a few nights ago, my seven year-old son wasn't going to bed and wasn't tired. It was 11pm, and browsing through our movies, I asked him, "Have you seen Back to the Future?"
"No," he said. So I put it on, and we watched it together.
The good news is, the movie still holds up. It perfectly encapsulates that high school trying-to-be-something-even-though-some-people-say-I-won't-amount-to-anything feeling. The awkwardness of Marty and his mom and his dad in 1955 is still hilarious, and yes -- still creepy.
It was great watching my son watch my favorite movie of my childhood. He was fascinated with the DeLorean. He thought Doc Brown was crazy. He thought Marty McFly was the flyest guitar player this side of Huey Lewis.
And just like me, nearly 25 years ago, the ending-- where Doc says "Roads? Where we're going we don't need roads," and the time machine mother-loving FLIES -- absolutely floored him.
"It can fly?!"
Guess we need to watch Part II now.
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