''Back to the Future,'' which opens today at Loew's State and other theaters, takes this sweet, ingenious premise and really runs with it. What child wouldn't love the chance to tell the two lovestruck teen-agers who will someday become his mother and father: ''Hey, if you guys ever have kids and one of them, when he's 8 years old, accidentally sets fire to the living room rug - go easy on him, willya?''
Zemeckis has now gone himself one better with ''Back to the Future,'' about a boy who wonders what his parents were like in their salad days and is miraculously given the chance to find out. Zemeckis, together with his screenwriting partner Bob Gale, has progressed from teen-age kamikazes willing to risk anything to meet the Beatles (''I Wanna Hold Your Hand,'') to salesmen ready to peddle any form of figurative snake oil (''Used Cars'') to a timid pulp novelist who travels to the tropics (''Romancing the Stone,'' with a screenplay by Diane Thomas) and becomes her own most adventuresome heroine. Decades later, it’s still hard to keep up with the oldie where McFly comes from.THE people in Robert Zemeckis's films have the great fun of living out their craziest daydreams. With Berry’s passing, countless younger fans will no doubt think of the song blasting from McFly’s red Gibson as the rest of the band tries to keep up. Make no mistake: Back to the Future needed “Johnny B. It helps the song’s legacy that Back To The Future was one of the biggest film hits of the decade, but commercial success aside, the film’s third act drastically changes without a moment as purely pleasurable as Marty McFly finally rocking out in front of the student body. 1 from Back to the Future, a classic in its own right.
Goode” in the film remains: along with “Don’t You (Forget About Me)” in The Breakfast Club and “(I’ve Had) The Time of My Life” in Dirty Dancing, it ranks as one of the most iconic uses of music in any ’80s film - even outstripping Huey Lewis & The News’ own contemporary Hot 100 No. Having a white character go back in time and be the “real” creator of one of the most famous black rock-n-roll songs in history? A little problematic in hindsight, to say the least.
Goode” at his most relaxed moment in Back To The Future - he’s defeated Biff, his parents have kissed, his hand is no longer becoming invisible (and if none of that makes sense to you, just see the movie already) - and with most of the conflict settled, he can let loose with one of the most euphoric musical moments ever recorded. Marty goes, goes, goes he “never ever learned to read or write so well,” as Berry sings on the track, but he’s going to win your heart. Fox plays him, Marty is a freight train, barging into high school gymnasiums and shootouts with terrorists and different dimensions with a hangdog charm and ease of knowing that he can skateboard past his problems. Goode” as the token from the future that Marty bestows to the past is that the song encapsulates Back To The Future‘s main character to a tee. (And, in Marty McFly’s case, an Eddie Van Halen-inspired metal outro that’s too wild for even his young parents - “But your kids are gonna love it,” he memorably prophesizes.)īut really, the sly genius of using “Johnny B.
Look no further than that opening riff to shake America awake - if 1950s popular music needed a kick in the pants (and in Back To The Future, those stuffy students certainly did), then that scorching electric credo was the boot that set the tempo for decades of brilliance. 8 on the Hot 100 chart, “Goode” perfectly represented the disruptive nature of Berry’s blues-influenced music, the first rock-star origin story defined by a swagger and showmanship that had not yet invaded radio. Although Berry’s 1958 single only hit No. Goode” was the clear and enduring choice. It wasn’t a coincidence that, out of all of the songs for director Robert Zemeckis had to choose from for his extended 50s-kids-get-a-preview-of-rock-n-roll scene, “Johnny B.