Back to the Future and the Trap of Nostalgia | Video Essay

Back to the Future is a 1985 film that was written by Robert Zemeckis and Bob Gale, and directed by Zemeckis solo. It tells the tale of Marty McFly as he finds himself trapped in the 1950s and has to play matchmaker to his parents (or phase the consequences of never getting born). It was followed by two sequels in 1989 and 1990 respectively and... is super iconic. Like, super, SUPER iconic.
For many, the trilogy is a fun tale of time travel, pop culture humor, and some truly peak 80s mainstream film action. But, as I discovered upon a deeper look at the movies, there's actually quite a bit of subtle commentary on the nature of nostalgia to be found here. Or, at least, enough for me to string together 30 minutes worth of material about it! Idk man, you be the judge!
Feel free to support this channel by subscribing/donating to my Patreon: / nichecaesar
You can also listen to my podcast Media Obscura here: pod.link/themediaobscura
And you can also, also check out my novel "Guppy Falls" over on Amazon: a.co/d/hchPZxk
Credits:
Research:
Nostalgia: a conceptual history | PubMed
How ’80s Hollywood and Ronald Reagan fueled each other - and paved the way for Trump | Vox
Video/TV/Media:
Back to the Future (1985)
Back to the Future Part II (1989)
Back to the Future Part III (1990)
Family Guy (1999-Present)
Ronald Reagan's Acceptance Speech at Republican National Convention, July 17, 1980 | YT: Reagan Library
Happy Days (1974-1984)
Late Night with David Letterman (1982-1993)
Peggy Sue Got Married (1986)
Warner Bros Classics Promo (1996)
The Last Outpost (1951)
Tropic Zone (1953)
The Making of the Back to the Future Trilogy (2010)
Paris, Texas (1984)
Blue Velvet (1986)
Reagan at 1980 convention: "make America great again" (C-Span)
Cattle Queen of Montana (1954)
Johnny Rockets Original Crew | YT: Johnny Rockets
Michael Jackson - Slave to the Rhythm Performance
A Flying Car (1949)
Midnight In Paris (2011)
Ready Player One (Trailer)
Stranger Things Season 1 (Trailer)
Ghostbusters Afterlife (Trailer)
It’s A Wonderful Life (1948)
Music: Super Back to the Future II OST (Super Famicom)
#backtothefuture #videoessay #80smovies

[@jb888888888]

Let's face it, nostalgia ain't what it used to be.

[@jonisilk]

.... but it will be again, someday.

[@grantorino2325]

RIMSHOT

[@SandwichGlitch]

​@@jonisilk😂 let's make nostalgia great again

[@piratetv1]

Yeah but great memories

[@thecompareablezombie]

Its still there, sadly it has been corrupted.

[@pangypirate]

My grandpa used to say people who want to go back to the 50s clearly don't remember the 50s

[@urkersen5246]

The 90s were good though. Waaay better than the dystopian semi hell that is the 2020s.

[@NinaFelwitch]

The 80s loved the 50s and the 2010s loved the 80s.

[@latenightlogic]

Half truth. The noughties also loved the 80s and were still in that phase now.

[@SandwichGlitch]

@@latenightlogic I remember the 2010s loved the 90s

[@anthonysmith3415]

and the 2040s loved the 2010s which oddly was similar to the 80s

[@DelicateRedRose]

I would argue only a select group of people "loved" the 50s. The rest of us were glad they were over.

[@brian_b_music]

@@latenightlogicAbsolutely and if you were born at the beginning of the decade you would only be 44 years old. 80’s nostalgia isn’t going anywhere anytime soon.

[@sverrg]

I grew up in the eighties where evertthing was 50s nostalgia, now people are stuck in 89s and early nineties nostalgia. It's the age of the writers that dictates it

[@JoJoJoker]

Early-2000s are now the thing on any elite college campus. Lots of baggy clothes, Jnco jeans, Birkenstocks & socks. It’s weird to say “I used to dress like that in high school” like my mom said when I was younger.

[@atomicpunk7109]

@@JoJoJoker I can't think of any aspect of Western culture in the early 2000s (art, music, movies, fashion...) that anyone in their right mind would feel nostalgic about. Maybe the PS2...but the PS2 is not Western, it is Eastern. The 2000s are not as horrible as the 90s but they are second on the list. The 2010s and 2020s are next on the list. 🤢🤮

[@AnneHathawayRules]

I can't wait till everything goes back to late 90s early 00s nostalgia so everything that was cool when I was a teenager is cool again 😂

[@tlaloqq]

@@atomicpunk7109 i assume you are older, im older gen z (25) and everyone is dressing like late 90's 2000s. I actually am one of the few that stays more goth/librarian mommy lol my skinny pants aren't going anywhere after I worked so hard on these legs!

[@calebleland8390]

​@@AnneHathawayRulesI graduated in 94, and still dress like I did in the grunge era. Not nostalgia, just comfortable. 😆😆

[@alcapone6733]

Sorry to hear about your friend dying

[@NicheCaesar]

Thanks, I appreciate your kind words. I’m sorry your account’s namesake had his brain eaten alive by an undiagnosed case of syphilis. He seemed, uh, really good at bootlegging lol

[@Angel-Otk]

He was thirsting for this comment when he recorded that part🤣

[@SP-qo3pd]

@@NicheCaesar Et tu, Brute?

[@JosephRocco-mi4cm]

Human nature doesn't change, no matter what decade it is.

[@SandwichGlitch]

Humans, humans never change.

[@behindthescenesphotos5133]

The violent crime rate in the US was at an all-time low in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Something changed, and it certainly can't be blamed on weapons that were more easily accessible at the time.

[@simpleanswer8954]

@@behindthescenesphotos5133 Yes, all time LOW. Meaning it was higher before that. It dipped for a while, then spiked before leveling out to be lower than it was at the turn of the previous century. in 2018 the violent crime rate was almost as low as it was in 1954, and lower than any time prior to 1940. People whine about violent crime, and the reported rates of crime are almost as low as ever. Plus, you'd have to be pretty ignorant to only look at the last 50 or 60 years when discussing human nature. Humans have been around for thousands of years, our violent tendencies have been on full display all over the world since the beginning. But you go ahead and only consider the part you lived through, and only consider what 'Murica is doing. Cause 'Murica represents all of humanity everywhere, right? No one else counts, only what happens there. Bam, you're an expert on human nature. The last 60 years of American history is all you need... so long as you also cherry pick you statistics to support your nostalgia.... in a video about how nostalgia is a lie. Beautiful irony, it's just hilarious.

[@garyturner5739]

That is the message to take from these movies.

[@foljs5858]

Try visiting 1950s and see how much human nature changed... not necessarily for the better in many ways

[@henrywallacesghost5883]

What does it mean when a film about nostalgia has become so nostalgic on it's own😮

[@TheTillmanSneakerReview]

Meta

[@BillLaBrie]

We’re trapped in a nostalgia loop.

[@Drawkcabi]

The key is keeping alive the memories of things that made us feel good, sharing that with others but not imposing it on them.

[@WinstonCodesOn]

It was great to see some analysis on the third film since most people dismiss it, despite it being a great part of the story that gives closure to all of the character arcs.

[@SandwichGlitch]

@@WinstonCodesOn from what I experienced most people loved the second one the most in the 90s but the mindset altered to dismissing the second and the third one is in second place now

[@ahhamartin]

I grew up around older individuals who universally considered the Great Depression as better than the (then current) 80's. Only we kids saw the irony of calling the time before our area had electricity (pre 1950) the "good old days", while sitting under the air conditioner.

[@MatthewTheWanderer]

How anyone could think that the Great Depression was the "good old days" is insane!

[@tronam]

I love the reference to Midnight In Paris. It nailed the allure and inherent trap of nostalgia so well.

[@aisle_of_view]

Agreed. Anyone living in the now has no idea how this moment will be looked upon in the future. People will claim they do but they don't.

[@BillLaBrie]

BTTF is a special case of nostalgia: the 80’s were a whole decade of looking back at the 50s and reliving them in real life. The movie is a document of a time when culture in the US tried to reclaim the strength and innocence people liked to selectively remember from 30 years before. It posits “what if we had changed one little thing back then?” It’s one of the factors making it a perfect movie of sorts.

[@paulglover6525]

Like Billy Joel said "The good ole' days weren't always good and tomorrow ain't as bad as it seems".

[@jasonjerusalem]

Like Chuck Berry once said "How the F do you know my song? I just laid it down last week!"

[@kunserndsittizen2655]

My life currently SUCKS. It’s not nostalgia. If I could QUANTUM LEAP back to 1993 then I’d be overjoyed. Only thing is that after everything horrible that has happened...I probably would be scarred and not enjoy it.

[@MrPivotRPG]

Man.. the 2050s were so much better than the 2020s

[@MatthewTheWanderer]

Nice! I see what you did there.

[@uzetaab]

I appreciate that you had something different to say about Back To The Future. I don't think you even mentioned that the actor who played Marty was recast. Bravo.

[@FragginWagon76]

Ah, but did you know that it was... Eric Stoltz???

[@iwanttocomplain]

@@FragginWagon76 serious, strange, Eric. His role as his dad was still pretty strange and compelling. He wanted to play Marty as haunted and fraught but they changed him to childlike instead.

[@FragginWagon76]

@@iwanttocomplain Probably for the best.

[@iwanttocomplain]

@@FragginWagon76 yeah he's quite a serious actor. He was in Dead Man with Johnny Depp. That's a really horrible monochrome film about sad things that haunts me. By Jim Jarmusch. It's a masterpiece. Jarmusch is spookier than Tim Burton.

[@teresamckeown5594]

That is still INSANE to me.

[@tanookiplayer]

The Back to the Future trilogy are my favourite films of all time. It's hard to pinpoint which one is my favourite but its probably the first one. Despite being about time travel it is a timeless classic that I think anyone can watch with ease. This was an interesting analysis on the film about nostalgia & repeating past mistakes.

[@NicheCaesar]

Glad you enjoyed it and yeah, I totally agree that the movies are totally timeless. I had a blast doing my yearly rewatch of the trilogy for this video

[@_OUTATIME_]

Facts

[@chriswest8389]

The plants, leading of course to the payoffs, are so good that upon rewatching , you can’t believe the writers weren’t telegraphing them. How could you have not seen the hem coming.

[@Jonwood74]

The first film stood alone for a huge portion of my childhood....and then came the sequels. If you saw the first one in theaters back in '85, you hold the first one separate, regardless of your opinion of part 2 and 3.

[@sambas9257]

more time will pass more back to the future will be one of the favourite movies for more people. The reason is that there will never a remake until Bob Gale will be alive so it will not be smeared as it happened to all other pop-cultural icon franchises like Star Wars, Star Trek, Ghostbusters, Terminator, Aliens...

[@bespectacledheroine7292]

Lorraine prude scolding Marty's sister when she was out here wilder than the boys her age is the funniest thing ever to me. One's nostalgia blinds them to their own behavior.

[@Fenris30]

Or she was ashamed of her actions.

[@ajw4782]

The 50's were guilded as hell but damn did they make some cool looking cars

[@thewewguy8t88]

What's amazing about this movie is it's still just as relivent after nearly 40 years and still worth watching and talking about and even just discovering.

[@grog3514]

I lived through the 80s and i can tell you without a doubt it was incredible. The things that are hardest to describe or put your finger on was the sense of community and the incredible excitement and optimism we had towards the future.

[@bryanbeach2572]

I don't have anything against nostalgia. I miss the 1990s.

[@whichgodofthousandsmeansno5306]

I would assume we all miss the best years of our lives which coincide with the decade. I mean it would make no sense to miss any decades that sucked for us.

[@whichgodofthousandsmeansno5306]

Should add... some might miss decades they were not even alive during and/or too young to remember but just going off perception, which can certainly be subjective.

[@sinnsage]

totally, but the critique of nostalgia is a critique of make America great again. sure things looked good back in some imagined past, minorities were treated as second and third class citizens, women couldn’t vote or have a credit card, didn’t have bodily autonomy, couldn’t leave an abusive partner, etc. so the point is that the past is often gazed upon with rose colored glasses, and that is problematic because it ignores or previous injustices. example, 90’s music and media was awesome! but queer ppl lived in contestant fear of being outed, couldn’t marry, it was the beginning stages of politics turning into dramatic entertainment instead of working for the people, etc.

[@slimjimpui]

I miss the days before smartphones and social media

[@kpusa1981uk]

​@@sinnsage He does not want ti go back to the 1950s maybe bring back manufacreing ro rhe usa so that 90-99% of is not made in China or ar least nor overseaa

[@lancebaylis3169]

This reminds me of a conversation I had with my dad a little while ago. He told me he'd finally watched the second movie - for years he'd seen Part 1 and Part 3, but apparently never the movie in the middle. Quite apart from the fact this shows us that in some ways Part 2 is maybe the least essential - he managed to pick up a lot of the plot beats in 3 without ever needing to see 2 - his main other observation was that 2 wasn't tonally in complete step with the others, and that the whole thing felt a bit messy and self indulgent. I love all three movies, but I can't deny that his critiques do hold up. Parts of 2 are a bit silly and stretch credibility to its breaking point - I don't think it crosses that line, but it does skirt it a bit.

[@RobKMusic]

Love those movies! But the problem I have with 2 is that you can't jump to the future and visit yourself. You have to leave the present and jump over the intervening years to get there. By leaving the present you "skew into a tangent" future where you don't exist.You can visit anyone else, just not yourself.

[@lb1984]

Nostalgia ceases to exist when you attempt to recreate it.

[@garyturner5739]

Nostalgia will always be with us because every generation looks back in fondness to last one.

[@ROBYNMARKOW]

My parents would wax nostalgic about the 1940's bcuz they were young & the movies were classic awa the music & fashions but I'd always remind them that there was a WORLD WAR going on. Then my dad would reveal his fears about being drafted if it dragged on( he was 16 when it ended) & my mom would talk about having to draw a line on the back of her legs bcuz stockings & many other goods were being rationed & the Black Stars in neighbor's windows when they lost a family member who was fighting overseas. Anyway ,I just had to dig a bit deeper .

[@Groffili]

That's not quite correct. Every generation looks back in fondness _to themselves, when they were younger._ True, this may include glorifying "the last one"... but it's usually from the view of a child admiring their parents.

[@joecrackin3783]

Nostalgia for me is a time when things just didn't suck. I know the world has always been a messed up place, but I didn't know that as a kid. I had no responsibilities, no one relying on me for anything. I just played with toys, watched cartoons, and had a blast with my friends. I look back fondly on those times.

[@HerecomestheCalavera]

So true, it isn't that it was a better time exactly. It was that we were kids. For example pretty much the only people nostalgic for the 90s are people who grew up in that time. There aren't many people who were 30+ in the 90s who is nostalgic for it like it was the best time. Those people would say 60s and 70s were the best time. Everyone just misses the simple times of being a kid. I remember back in High School talking about how older people say school was the best time of their lives. We said if this is the best times then life must really suck.....we weren't exactly wrong.

[@JoJoJoker]

What I love about the past is I know how it ended. The future is an open book.

[@ingvar3072]

so, it is nostalgia for a childhood in general, not for some exact times

[@joecrackin3783]

@@ingvar3072 i have nostalgia in both forms.

[@sverrg]

People in their forties run Hollywood, late thirties write the scripts. That's why nostalgia is always in that range reversed

[@behindthescenesphotos5133]

So long as there's an audience for it. In the 1930s and 40s, there were a lot of movies set at the turn of the century, Multiple TV shows about 1920s gangsters in the 1950s, WWII in the 60s, Happy Days in the 70s, Wonder Years in the 80s, That 70s Show in the 90s, etc...

[@krystiankrysti1396]

thefuck are you talking abouyt?! There was hardly any shit from 50s or 70s in 80s or 2000s !!! Theres practically nothing besides BTTF, ocassionally they do it when it fits the story.

[@chriswest8389]

The seventy’s also loved the 50s. The 80s, to an extent, the 60s and the 90s, the 70s.

[@BullittOutdoors]

We didn’t give a shit about the 70s in the 90s

[@danielstockley5631]

The 90s seemed more about boomers reminiscing on the 60s. Movies like Forrest Gump, Apollo 13 and Austin Powers were loaded with nostalgia and there was even that Brady Bunch movie.

[@chriswest8389]

@@coreym162 Ta for you lengthy response. “ Verrry Interesting”. Get the reference?👍

[@chriswest8389]

@@coreym162 Oh. Your welcome. I don’t know where it was but it said, skip X decade, get nostalgic for decade prior to that. 70s for 50s I think. 80s for 50s too? What yr did ‘ that 70s show premiere?🙂

[@fatherlucid4995]

The 90s loved the 60s. It was reflected in the music of the 90s

[@alptigin5438]

Let's acknowledge that a massive part of these films' quality is the triple-S-rank acting clinic being put on by Thomas Wilson.

[@behindthescenesphotos5133]

In the original script, the present was 1982 (reflecting when it was written) and Marty went to 1952. The creators said they made the 50s look like the 40s because the 50s looked too recent. 50s nostalgia wasn't a consideration. It's evident when you watch the movie. The theater's playing Cattle Queen of Montana, a traditional western, not something "current" like Blackboard Jungle or Rebel Without a Cause. When Marty passes the record store you hear Tennessee Ernie Ford, not Fats Domino or Bill Haley. Biff drives a car from 1946, and you don't see a greaser, leather jacket, or hot rod anywhere. They don't even have any rock n' roll music until the dance. 1955 was intentionally as old-fashioned as possible. A similar idea was done with Hangin' Out With Cici, a 1977 YA novel where a teenage girl having issues relating to her mother goes back in time and meets her as a teenager. It was made into an ABC Afterschool Special called My Mother Was Never a Kid in 1981.

[@emsleywyatt3400]

Biff's a kid, he would drive an old car.

[@behindthescenesphotos5133]

If nostalgia were a consideration, they'd have given him something more "1950s-ish." Some teenagers also have relatively new cars. The V8 shown at the service station was from 1940.

[@belstar1128]

but while i am not sure what the 50s were truly like i think if its anything like later decades you had a lot of older stuff still hanging around like in the 90s you still had a lot of junk from the 80s being used .even now i am using a bunch of things from the 2010s like my pc and monitor are from 2017 my keyboard is even older i have no idea how old my desk is its at least 30 but could be from the 1950s for all i know

[@hufficag]

@@belstar1128 Yeah my PC I built in 2010 and my 3 HD 22 inch monitors also bought in 2011, my 40 inch 4K monitor I think from 2018, and my IKEA desk is from 2010. The house is from 2015.

[@jasonjerusalem]

Well said about successful Biff from the vol. 2: the dude just can't let it go and grow the hell up. So he spends the rest of his life on achieving teenage jock's values and goals, like having the hottest girl and the biggest toys. Even killing his school rival. What a rich development of character following a flawless story and a masterpiece film.

[@ClellBiggs]

I'd still go back to the 80s or 90s if I were given the option. lol

[@HouseofVenesianberg]

Stop lying, You wouldn’t last a day without today’s necessities

[@mattwolf7698]

​@@HouseofVenesianbergFor the 90's it actually wouldn't be that difficult. The internet was getting common by the mid 90's, cable was a thing and honestly better as there were barely any reality shows. You could rent movies at Blockbuster, basic cellphones existed, there were plenty of good video games out. The 80's would be pretty much the same thing, just with slightly more primitive tech and basically no Internet or affordable cell phones. I'm not saying that I would personally want to go back to those eras but it wouldn't be terrible. I definitely wouldn't want the 50's though, just way too primitive from a tech stand point and too many backwards values. If I went back to the 90's the technology I would miss the most would be always having the Internet and camera with me as well as GPS but it wasn't the dark ages.

[@godhimself1128]

Time only moves forward and you'd only realize how empty your life is reliving through the same era

[@ClellBiggs]

@@HouseofVenesianberg That's an odd thing to say. I did fine the first time, I think I would do fine the second. I get the feeling you didn't actually live through those decades and don't know what they were actually like. What do we have now that we didn't have then in some form, smart phones and the internet? I've never even owned a smart phone so I know I wouldn't miss that, and we did have cell phones and a very simple and slow form of the internet in the 90s which I used quite a lot. I would make due and likely be very wealthy with the knowledge I'd have of the future. The thing I'd miss the most is probably ordering things online and having them delivered in 2 days. Truth is my daily life now is not very different from how it was then. The world has not changed that much.

[@HouseofVenesianberg]

@@ClellBiggs I was born in 1981 so I should know. Can’t say the same for you though

[@hufficag]

I remember growing up in the crumbling 80s, right before and during the 4th Turning collapse of the USSR. Looking fondly at old 1950s optimism, clean slate new world, prosperity, how the world was designed to be. As a kid it was always sad to see good intentions go to waste, broken street lamps, communities. Things like, when the post-war housing was finally built, my grandfather got together with neighbours, built a gazebo, and hung up a chandelier inside. All gone and destroyed by the 1980s, time of thick plastic jewelry and casual sex. Boarded up municipal facilities like an ice skating rink, with peeling blue paint on the wooden boards, everything dysfunctional, everything broken. It's nice to live in a bright and clean newly built community in Dalian where so far everything is as it was designed to be. It sucks to observe urban decay and everything going to hell. In the 80s I'd think back to my grandpa's glory days in the 50s, and later the 60s and 70s. To my great-grandmother immigrating to New York, the land of opportunities and wealth, that photo of a clean all-American dream life.

[@garyedwards3269]

"Those who forget the lessons of the past, are doomed to repeat it." Marty was able to go back to 1955 and better his parent's future... which bettered his present. Then Marty went to 2015 and realized what goes wrong in his in his future...which he then fixes in the present. Hindsight is 2020...but this is 2024 and the future is back...but looking pretty bleak. Just as movies, television and toy companies repackage the past...and politics, technology and religion try to mold the future...people need to take off the rose-colored glasses and realize that remembering the past and visualizing the future are not nearly as important as securing and optimizing the present. What's missing now that we used to have in the past generations? What do we have now that should be preserved for future generations? The past is set in concrete while the future hasn't been poured yet. All we can do is mold the present before it becomes the future.

[@JustinProper]

For some reason, this video came back in my recommended feed. This is one of my favorite videos essays on my favorite movie of all time!

[@MK-of7qw]

What do we want? TIME TRAVEL! When do we want it? IT'S IRRELEVANT!

[@stu1037]

I love how 50 years of sports statistics fit in a small magazine... a magazine with a dust cover? smh

[@BlackoutsBox]

I like part 2 the best because it's meta & contains the 1st movie in it. If you watch the first one closely you can see the 2nd Marty sneaking around.

[@whichgodofthousandsmeansno5306]

As a kid in the late 60's early 70's I did romanticize the 50's by being into the music and dressing like a greaser and driving old hot rods etc. Heck even as a teen in the late 70's we went to the movie "American Graffiti" like a dozen times in the theatre. It pissed off my dad so bad who used to tell me the 50's sucked and was nothing like we were portraying. I have to wonder if he was correct or perhaps it was just that the 50's were bad for him for whatever reason. Of course I was only seeing it through the eyes of a middle/working class white kid but that is also what my dad was in the 1950's. I guess maybe it is human nature to look back assuming better times because so often the future seems bleak. And never in my lifetime has the future seemed bleaker then it does now. That said, when I hear "Make America Great Again" I see nothing wrong with striving for a great America but it is the "again" part that needs consideration. I mean was it really that great for everyone? After WW2 the slogan was "Never Again". Food for thought.

[@davidstarsky6435]

It is fun movies! Nostalgia is great! And the 80ies weren´t so terrible. Plutonium is hard to get even in 2024

[@dumdumchord]

This is going to be interesting because, while I saw these movies years ago I didn't think anything special about them (but enjoyed them), around 2009 or so I started hearing about it being held in such massively high regard.

[@DynomitePunch]

ok, so here's the thing about nostalgia, is it's all about naivety, things WHERE simpler, things WHERE easier, things DID make more sense, FOR YOU, BECAUSE YOU WHERE A NAIVE KID! their are two core reasons you have a nostalgic view of a place, time, or object (game, movie, etc) the first is, you where younger and where dealing with way less problems on your plate, and therefore, compared to now when you gotta worry about bills, job, economic issues, personal things, etc, the childhood or young adulthood, looks WAY better in comparison, this is doubly true for objects, because they REMIND you of a time when you had less real life problems, and therefore make you feel happy for a while because their taking you back, and then theirs the fact that you pulled through those times largely unscathed, realizing that you already conquered that time in your life and so now it seems less daunting than the current time, like how a lot of people look back on the good times in high school and not the bad, if they had more good than bad going for them, in fact the opposite can be said for people who suffered in their childhood, they'll usually latch on to something specific that represents and time when things weren't so bad, this can cause those people to be EVEN MORE nostalgic of a thing or place, than others because they had a lot more bad layered on top than the rest of us.

[@PanhandleFrank]

"Ghoulardi hates nostalgia. Ghoulardi knows nostalgia ain't what it used to be." ~ Ghoulardi

[@erinelizabethmsw5137]

Fabulous video. BTTF is/are three of my favorite movies ever. I saw the musical in NYC this spring and it was super cute. I LOVE your take on nostalgia and will definitely be rewatching. I also adore the third movie. They could’ve phoned it in and they gave it the love and time it deserved. ❤

[@NicheCaesar]

Ahh so jealous you saw the show. I’m hoping to catch it sometime this month!

[@dakotanorth1640]

I was born in 1967 so my land of nostalgia is the 1970s. I listen to 1970s music all the time.

[@ChristopherGonzalez1280]

Great video. I'm a BTTF fan myself and was bitten by nostalgia. Thanks for the video!

[@g.davidturnblom5751]

All three films are great, but Back to the Future part 2 has certain lessons in it that, while harsh and sometimes poorly portrayed, are essential to understanding the trilogy as a whole, in my opinion.

[@greglbennett]

I grew up in the 70s and 80s. I have a friend whose son is always going on about how he wished he grew up in the 1980s and I always tell him, it was like every other time in history. It had its good and its bad. It wasn't a utopia.

[@RaeganSmashOfficial]

Great take, great production quality. This Ytber has a future on this platform.

[@radicalizeme]

Really interesting take on BTTF. It’s also my favorite and has been since I was really young, and this is an interpretation I haven’t heard before. It’s good to see a fellow up and comer making good sh*t. Keep it up!

[@angelagokool9514]

I'd only seen a couple of episodes on the DVD special features, but Back to the Future's animated series had continued Doc's and Marty's adventures, with Clara, Jules, and Vern along for the ride. It was pretty cute. Another movie that involved time travel and romance was 2001's Kate and Leopold, from Miramax Films. Liev Schreiber's character, Stuart, found himself in 1876, via time travel, and had discovered an inventor, the titular Leopold, played by Hugh Jackman. The only exception was that Stuart didn't need a machine but had uncovered a portal in the fabric of time. When Leopold had followed Stuart back to the 21st century, he met Kate, played by Meg Ryan, and her brother, Charlie, played by Breckin Meyer. I won't reveal any more details, for those who haven't seen it. The best Back to the Future movie for me is probably the original, although I also enjoy the sequels. I love how much George learns from Marty about perseverance, whether it involved pursuing his dreams of becoming an author, or finding the love of his life, Lorraine, or both. I love that George quotes Marty back to him at the end, when he tells him that if he puts his mind to it, then he can accomplish anything. I suppose the message of part 2 is that greed doesn't pay. But part 3 brings it full circle: The future is whatever we want it to be, so it better be a good one!

[@AnneHathawayRules]

The thing about back to the future is this: if you came up for a reason for the "present day" of the film to still be set in the 80s, you could STILL film that film today shot for shot and it would still be a box office smash.

[@lankanainen]

Even though I academically agree that the first film is superior, my personal favourite is the second film. It’s the one that I happened to see the most as a child, and I love the ridiculous future and dystopian 1985. The car scene in the tunnel is boring for me, though. My favourite moment from the whole trilogy is the moment when the delorian gets struck by lightning and Doc is sent back to 1885.

[@thewewguy8t88]

Hey fun fact thanks to Picard and even being able to re-watch every single scene of tng I have been able to recreate new context for the show that I don't think the writers intended to happen or realize was happening but just flows so naturally. I say this because I can totally understand the idea of giving new context to something that decades old that not even the writers were aware was happening.( Same thing for star wars there is random throw away shot in return of the Jedi which now makes hardcore fans get so excited to watch.( It's basically the equivalent of discovering wolferine was helping the avengers this whole time but off screen and random throw away shot conforms that lol)

[@churchking2527]

I thought the title "Back to the Future" was a reference to him being stuck in the past and trying to get back to his present time (the future in perspective).

[@NicheCaesar]

It is - the line I said about it never being about going to the future was a half-thought out non sequitur to transition from one thought to another. It’s just poorly worded sentence: I was saying that the movie was never about Marty going back to 1985, but rather about him learning about the past/his family history.

[@EPYCpeacemakers]

I’m so sorry you lost your best friend. I know that pain.

[@michaelfasher]

I saw it at the movies in 1985. It was the first movie that matched the Star Wars trilogy. I saw the original Star Wars in the late seventies and everyone else had a hard time competing.

[@CrazyPato1979]

I can’t watch the train scene without looking at the kid calling whoever he is calling and pointing at what looks to be his “ding-a-ling” 😂 I think he wanted to go to the washroom or something lol

[@UndeadAbomination]

An incredibly nice analysis, gr8 watch, thank you for the effort

[@Lopfff]

The theme of this essay is also one of the main themes of No Country for Old Men

[@otakubullfrog1665]

The older you get, the easier it is to see how the present will become the past in the future. Nostalgia for the current decade will probably focus heavily on its second half while the first half will be glossed over except for certain pop culture highlights (works going for realism will include the pandemic, inflation, etc., but even those will likely avoid dwelling on them).

[@mitchelmodine9197]

Perhaps you’ll find this interesting: the Bible of all things has a line burying nostalgic thinking: Do not say, “Why were the former days better than these?” For it is not from wisdom that you ask this” (Ecclesiastes 7:10 NRSVue).

[@ChrisJones-ij3xp]

That's very good, actually. I should go look that up and then go by that wisdom.

[@DalekQueen]

This guy can sniff a nostalgia trip from 10 miles away 😂

[@bobdrago69657]

My parents arrived in the USA in the 1920’s. They built a life and the kids and grandchildren did very well professionally and financially. However, the legal and institutional racism during the era of the 20’s-50’s was pretty bad. Stuff like redlining, sundown towns, segregation, voting rights, you know, overt racism. Mom and Dad fought through that and “model minoritied” themselves to relative success. Not true for many minorities and women.

[@NicheCaesar]

Oof yeah. Dont get me started on the model minority stereotype. Been likened to that in the past and it’s brutal.

[@michaellovell8352]

Please don't reproduce. Ever

[@hufficag]

And now that the West has corporations not hiring recent grads in 2010 and people's houses are being foreclosed on, me and my peers moved to China which everyone says is booming. Same story but in Asia.

[@serwinzzalot9989]

the 90s have a hard time coming back because black culture and grunge were prominent in that time.

[@benadams3569]

I've observed that people don't actually miss an era/decade as much as they miss being young. In most cases., they miss being young enough where they didn't have responsibilities, hadn't seen the real world to know that it's not "getting worse!!!!" It's always been like this, but thanks to 24/7 media, and internet lies (lol), people BELIEVE it's "worse now than it's ever been!!" 😂

[@user-yf5mr4rd7l]

There are some objective ways to measure a time being worse though. Example suicide rates, divorce rates, murder and crime rates, etc. are they improving or getting worse?

[@ingvar3072]

@@user-yf5mr4rd7l they are not so objective, especially divorce rates. For example, in more conservative society diverse rates could be lower because it is considered inappropriate or even almost impossible to do, not because people happily live together

[@laartwork]

​@@user-yf5mr4rd7lfun fact: crime and murder rate today is way down than it was in the 1980's. It peaked in the 90's and has declined ever since. But the news reports crime more than before. So perception is different than reality.

[@hufficag]

Some things do get worse, like community or employment prospects or how easy it is to afford education.

[@deepdrag8131]

It’s not the Four Aces. It’s the Chordettes’ version of Mr. Sandman we hear when Marty first arrives in 1955.

[@NicheCaesar]

Not that it really matters, but it is in fact The Four Aces cover that plays in the movie. You can pull clips of it up on KZbin or on the wiki for the soundtrack or even The Aces’ cover itself.

[@deepdrag8131]

@@NicheCaesar As you suggested, I pulled a clip. kzbin.info/www/bejne/aavKlY2Qor1qqJosi=8BA_1aNFjFlzwMNY And you, of course, are right. How could I have possibly gotten it wrong? Must be the Mandela Effect! 😉

[@NicheCaesar]

lol no worries, happens to all of us. I actually thought it was the Chordettes version for a while too, likely because someone had marked a download of the song as that back in the Limewire days

[@remelin75]

It never stops to amaze me how great American movies and music were during the 80's. Both large and small productions were done with passion, and that shows. But each era has its own stuff where people's passion shines through. Videos on KZbin are incredible today, and indi games are fantastic. And who knows what the next era will show us. I think AI will be incredible at visualizing our imagination, rather than just doing something similar to what we asked for as it does today. And a whole new world will open up when VR finally becomes more comfortable with higher quality than a monitor.

[@jenniferpearce1052]

I never thought so deeply about these movies but your take makes a lot of sense! I love the first and saw the next 2 in the theater and never rewatched them. I didn't like the second one. Dystopias are not my thing! The third was more fun. I still remember the glass of nice clear well water! I really need to watch the whole series again. Thanks!

[@NicheCaesar]

Glad you enjoyed the video and thanks for sharing your memories of the series! Back to the Future II was actually my favorite one as a kid but, after decades of rewatching it, I actually think it’s the weakest by a long shot! The third one has a lot of great jokes though (like the water gag you mentioned, or Marty noticing some buckshot in his dinner!)

[@33parra]

really cool video easy, food for thought! Gracias.

[@volt8ge]

Being a massive BTTF fan as well… the film is the reason why I picked up the guitar in 8th grade and why I wanted to do something in the film industry. I believe the Bob’s would whole heartedly agree with this video.

[@dionelreyes529]

Loved you análisis, I’m glad to know I’m not the only bttf fan that saw Midnight in Paris and changed my opinion on nostalgia. Both are amazing movies.

[@triplejazzmusicisall1883]

Great choices. Midnight in Paris is beautiful.

[@TheStarTrekApologist]

I saw Back to the Future when it was one movie, ad ended with "To Be Continued...". I was wondering if they would ever make a second one.

[@HeavensProtocol]

Marty is the actor symbol of The Walk (2015)? Director: Robert Zemeckis

[@cheeseusshow1390]

just because we can't be happy, doesn't make it wrong.

[@alexkunce2002]

Back to the Future is my choice for th greatest movie ever, just because every single scene is memorable. Every one. Which is amusing to me, since when I watched it as a little kid, I didn't really know much about history, so the entire time travel element was totally lost on me until I watched it when I was older.

[@MonkeyPunchZPoker]

I've been thinking that future nostalgia is dead because as a society we've reached a kind of a cultural singularity. If you think about last century there's a profound difference in scientific, industrial, and cultural advancements and evolutions between the 1910's and 1920's,, and between the 1920s and 1930s, and on and on. But there really isn't that much different in that regard between the 2010s and 2020s. Cell phones have about as much utility today as they did 10 years ago. You could say maybe that smartwatches are a thing that wasn't around 10 years ago but those types of things are insignificant gadgets. There's going to be no more meaniful advancment in anything, the 2030's will be just as indistinguishable from the 2020s as it is from the 2050s and 2080s. Unless we ever run out of oil then billions will starve and within 50 years we'll be back to the 1800s, then nostalgia will kick back in.

[@belstar1128]

don't worry new things are coming i see way more drones now until recently i thought the 2000s were recent. but i found some pictures of my room in the 2000s and 2011 and it looks so old i had to check the dates to be sure they were not from the 90s

[@rogersheddy6414]

Doc. An American in Paris. During Napoleon. After all, we didn't go to war with France .....

[@carvedouttastone]

Brilliant. So well done

[@Shred_The_Weapon]

I was five years old when the original Back to the Future at the cinema. I was a nursery school child living in New York Hudson Valley then. If I have a deep nostalgic for those days and then I think that they’re gone, did you to reflect on the premise that wanted to live in another time beyond our own presence is the wrong attitude.

[@wingitprod]

@19:00 lolED Tylenol😆👌

[@istp1967]

The '90s suits me fine 🤔😆😆😆

[@SpaceChief1872]

What is your favorite 1980s time travel/incest movie, featuring Michael J. Fox?

[@emilynelson9174]

I love these movies so much. First watched them in the mid 2000's as a youngster. A bit funny hearing my mom talk about seeing it when it first came out in her teens...nostalgia upon nostalgia upon nostalgia here. But when i dressed up as marty for a movie themed trivia night earlier this year, i won 2nd place so sorta paid off

[@aarondooley6543]

I am a huge fan of this movie. I can't believe people still remember it!

[@Water_Rabbit]

15:49 Elijah Wood playing the arcade game.

[@stevensiferd7104]

"He's been spayed AND neutered." 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

[@NicheCaesar]

What can I say, dude took getting punched by George *that* bad.

[@bungalowlogic7676]

Question: are those who respect and honor their parents more likely to indulge in wistful nostalgia than those who don't have that sentiment?

[@1001johny]

Did you watch any behind the scenes documentaries, or interviews by the writers? Nostalgia is a theme, hidden by time travel and making a good future.

[@briansinger5258]

An un-ironic discourse on Manifest Destiny in three films.

[@GaryLASQ]

There's one important thing not mentioned in this video. "Back to the Future predicts 9/11" by youtuber Barely Human.

[@Stane_FR]

I just came across your video, and it was really cool! I love these movies and your analysis was super interesting and showed a new look at them !

[@alancranford3398]

Nice video essay. Another example of a nostalgia trap is the Indiana Jones franchise--with "Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" dipping into the Fifties. Indiana Jones worked better in the Thirties, but that's fodder for another video. Nostalgia traps seem to snare more firmly those who didn't live through that actual Golden Era. Malls illustrate this well. Enclosed malls were shiny and clean nostalgia traps for the small-town square of fables. The downtown area became dirty, dangerous and neglected, so the town square was re-imagined in the suburbs where more-positive environmental control was practical. The same social ills that caused small town America's downtown district to become run-down and neglected hit the shopping mall. Want an artificial example of the mall that is still mostly successful? Try Main Street USA in Disneyland. "Back to the Future" had a lot of Disney references due to early production history including Fess Parker singing "The Ballot of Davy Crockett" from the 1954 television mini-series. Like the town square, the successful malls became overcrowded, and traffic snarls took away all the fun--so a larger and newer mall was built, and the crowds abandoned the now-neglected mall or town square. Over-regulation becomes a problem, too--because the attempt to limit traffic and control crowds siphons spontaneous fun. Malls are nostalgia traps for small-town America, except that malls got bigger and bigger to handle larger crowds and more traffic, and there went that small town feeling. But how many people today have grown up in towns with less than 5000 population? Urban sprawl has merged the suburbs into one big city. Having nostalgia for something never experienced makes nostalgia traps snare people more firmly.

[@cflisthebest]

which lense worked best?

[@jescis0]

I loved the "Back To The Future" trilogy but I think the worst part of 3 is the tease at the end of 2… otherwise it was great!! I also liked your take on this franchise!!

[@johnphantom]

So sorry to hear of your loss of your friend. I lost many along the way, including my father when I was 21 and a close friend my age that I did a hell of a lot with at 23. Both died in horrible ways, Jim Jim was gunned down by three AK47 wielding robbers where he worked as a bartender, RIP my friend.

[@DustinM83]

There was a cartoon that takes place after the third movie you forgot to mention.

[@througtonsheirs_doctorwhol5914]

richie Valen's La Bamba movie early 1980s, and in Canada, in Quebec, the Ye-Ye revival of the old school rock & roll was also happening as you show in that segment : @3:23

[@mrwoodandmrtin]

I liked this film series too. A lot of fun. What did he mean about breeding pine trees being a strange idea. ? The Californian pine trees are a great and in demand building material. I really have no idea why he said that. I saw the lone pine joke. but there seems to be more to it...

[@the_kombinator]

It's just like the 2020s love the 80s and moreso the 90s. Nostalgia is a POWERFUL tool, and I capitalize on it to sell retro computers, albeit my sales have slowed steadily, so that era may be coming to an end, or people just have less discretionary money.

[@pcb1175]

Yeah the nostalgia for the 2000s has been on a steady rise for a few years now that the generation that grew up in that decade are adults.

[@the_kombinator]

@@pcb1175 I was a teenager in the 2000s (for two years lol) but I don't often think about it much past 2005 or so. It was a more complicated time, with responsibilities, a marriage, living independently, University, etc. It was fun, but not as good as either the 90s or the first half of the 2010 decade. Each person's accounts and experience will be different, but I find many people have a strong attachment to whatever period they were 10-20 in.