 |
| Back to the Future: BFI Film Classics | |
|---|---|
| Author(s) |
Andrew Shail and Robin Stoate |
| Pages |
96 |
| Dimensions |
13.5 x 0.8 x 19.2cm |
| Publisher |
Palgrave Macmillan |
| Publish date | |
| Type |
Paperback |
| ISBN | |
Back to the Future: BFI Film Classics was a non-fiction book by Andrew Shail and Robin Stoate, which was an in-depth study of Back to the Future.
It was published by Palgrave Macmillan on behalf of the British Film Institute (B.F.I.) in the United Kingdom in 2010.
Publisher's summary[]
(Note: The summary shown here is as exactly it was originally published, complete with U.K. spellings — i.e. 'time-travelling' instead of 'time-traveling' and 'favourite' instead of 'favorite'.)
Back to the Future was the top-grossing film of 1985 and the eighth highest grossing film of the 1980s. It was nominated for an Oscar and a Golden Globe for Best Original Screenplay in 1986, and won the 1986 People's Choice Award for Favourite Motion Picture. Co-written and directed by Spielberg protégé Robert Zemeckis, it became a landmark of 'New New Hollywood' and has continued to grow in popularity, climbing Empire magazine's 2006 reader's poll of the best films of all time from 72nd place in 1999 to 20th in 2006. In 2007, the United States Library of Congress deemed Back to the Future to be 'culturally, historically or aesthetically' significant enough to be 'preserved for all time' in the National Film Registry. Other choices that year included such classics as The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962), Now, Voyager (1942), Oklahoma (1955) and 12 Angry Men (1957).
Andrew Shail and Robin Stoate's study of the film places it in the historical context of Reaganite America and the cinematic context of the 'New New Hollywood' and Zemeckis's filmmaking career. They discuss the film's treatment of time travel and its depiction of the potential and pitfalls of science and of atomic energy. Shail and Stoate consider Back to the Future's attitudes towards teen culture of the 1980s and the 1950s, seen in the film as a period in which traditional 'American' values and gender roles held sway to the benefit of family and community life, in contrast to the more troubled decade from which Marty McFly begins his time-travelling adventures.
Contents[]
- Introduction
- 'You're gonna see some serious shit': New New Hollywood in Action
- The 1950s and Teen Culture
- The 1950s Imagined in the 1980s
- Film and Time
- Conclusion: 'Your kids are gonna love it'
- Notes
- Credits
Writing and publishing notes[]
- The book contains a number of photographic stills from the movie for illustrative purposes, some of which are previously unseen.