The importance of Back to the Future

I remember that day so well. My dad, being a physical education teacher, decided to give me this challenge: climb a rope at his school and get to see a movie. I hated that. So very much. To climb this huge rope to the top was a daunting task, at best. I had been trying to do it forever, only to fail. Yet, somehow, this deal seemed to be a motivator.

So what movie did I chose? What movie did my Dad take me to? He took my 8 year old self to see Back to the Future. When I got to see the movie, I was amazed. I remember just how floored I was by the very idea of time travel. Of course, I didn't understand why or what it was. It was just some kid who went back into the past. I loved it. If nothing else, I loved the Delorean. For years, I had no idea what that car was, but it was silver and it made noise, the doors lifted up, and it sparked and left a fire trail. All in all, I was stupefied.

So why, after all these years, do I still fall back on this? Yes, the nostalgia does play a huge part and just how wonderfully it holds up after all this time, even filled with full on 80's sensibilities and clothes, but there has to be something else. I think it's because even after all this time, I still can't wrap my head around the idea of traveling back in time.

For those who don't know the film, and if you don't I feel sorry for you, it is about Marty McFly, your average high schooler whose family seems plagued with bad luck. His parents are losers, his family is a mess, and his dreams are crushed. After he is able to go back in time, he meets up with his parents and almost is lost because of the changes he's made. In the end, he travels back home and finds his whole life has changed.

Next time, you wear it!

Doc Brown, played by Christopher Lloyd, has always been one of my favorite characters. He is a mad scientist type, who invents the time-machine to travel through time, solving some of the Universe's biggest mysteries. He's a blast to watch and somehow, when I was a kid, he was just so darn funny. His facial expressions and over-the-top acting skills are just dead on. Not to mention that hair.

Marty is played by Michael J. Fox, who just screams that aura of teenage years. You can really see this kid growing up in this time, in this place, in this world. He was the character that I most wanted to be like when I grew up (from this movie) just so I could go back in time! His "life preserver" vest was always something cool that, even when that fashion went away for good, I still secretly wanted one. And the fact that he could ride behind a car on a skateboard while holding on to the back bumper? Who didn't want to do that? He was a cool teenager! I was never that cool in high school.