Back to the Future
Back to the Future tells the story of Marty McFly, a teenager caught up in a web of drug use, alcoholism, and prostitution. Marty, played by fresh face Michael J. Fox, has a chance to break this negative downward cycle by going to college. From the outset, it appears that Marty will fail to break free of what seems like his inevitable future. But can he? Will he turn his back to the future!
Marty’s mother, Lorraine (played by Lea Thompson) is a junkie and an alcoholic. His father, George (played disturbingly by Crispin Glover) is a crackhead. Both are turned-out by Biff Tanner (played by future superstar and definitely soon to be multiple Oscar winner Tom Wilson), their pimp. Lorraine is Biff’s best girl, and George is the prize stud of Biff's stable. Biff has controlled Lorraine and George for Marty’s entire life and now he’s ready to turn out Linda and Dave, Marty’s older brother and sister. Everyone knows it won’t be long before it’s Marty’s turn to join Biff’s harem of prostitution.
Marty’s best friends Doc Brown (played by Christopher Lloyd, best known as Jim Ignatowski on TV's Taxi, and who will certainly soon fade into obscurity) and Einstein encourage Marty and his girlfriend Jennifer to apply for college. Specifically, Doc encourages Marty to apply to an out of state college in order to escape his family’s plight and Biff’s iron grip over them. Doc Brown is Marty’s chemistry teacher and Marty excels at science, but the situation is complicated by the fact that Doc is also the heroin and crack producer in their town Hill Valley. As such, he is the person that supplies Biff with the very drugs that he uses to keep Marty’s parents pacified and controlled.
After Doc Brown is shot in a drug deal gone bad which Marty witnesses, he takes Doc’s DeLorean and goes into hiding. Days later, when he returns home, he learns that Doc survived his gunshot wounds and has given up producing and selling illegal drugs altogether. Because Biff has failed to secure a new supplier, Marty’s parents are going through terrible withdrawals. Marty sees his opportunity to help free his family from Biff once and for all. Marty is able to convince his dad that he needs to stand up to Biff and free the family as Marty’s brother and sister, and Marty himself, are literally disappearing into an abyss.
George is reluctant to challenge the lopsided power dynamic that has existed between he and Biff for decades, but when Biff tries to get Lorraine back on the heroin, George finally acts. In an especially gritty scene where Biff is beating Lorraine and Marty, George is able to get a hold of, and kill Biff with his own gun. Marty’s siblings, who had almost faded into nothingness reemerge as productive members of society, as do George and Lorraine. Marty does end up going to college, but there is no longer any need to go out of state. He is able to stay in Hill Valley, and get everything he ever dreamed of without turning his back to the future at all.
This heart-wrenching drama delivers on every level. Oscar anyone!
