7 Reasons Why 'Back to the Future' is the Perfect Hollywood Blockbuster

Back to the Future is, for me, the most quintessential Hollywood blockbuster ever made. No movie is more Hollywood blockbuster than this and no movie can be more Hollywood blockbuster than this. There is no more Hollywood blockbuster to be had for this movie, for this movie is all of it. It is perfectly Hollywood blockbuster. 

What does that even mean? 

Here's 7 reasons why Back to the Future is the ultimate Hollywood blockbuster.

1. A Perfectly Structured Script
The script is about as perfect a distillation of 3 act structure as you can find anywhere. Every book written about screenplay structure has to come to Back to the Future and bow in reverence. Every emotional beat, every character arc, every object that gets introduced and later fulfilled, every scene that moves forward both plot and character, every event that raises the stakes and complicates the happy outcome. It effortlessly reveals character and plot information while our narrative focus is looking elsewhere. It is a magic act but even if I know the trick I see the beauty in the execution. 

That's not even mentioning the witty dialogue. 
"Where's my pants?" 
"Over there...on my hope chest."

September 2015 - MDP Film Journal

Nightmare Alley (Edmund Goulding, 1947)

September was focused on trying to squeeze in as many noir and 2000s movies as I can before the end of the month, because October is all set for Hoop-tober! 2.0. I did make it to the theater and caught the new Mission: Impossible. Thoughts McQuarrie's entry in the franchise can be read here.

Best of August 2015
1.  Nightmare Alley (Edmund Goulding, 1947)
2.  Body and Soul (Robert Rossen, 1947)  
3.  Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation (Christopher McQuarrie, 2015)
4.  The Hitch-Hiker (Ida Lupino, 1953)
5.  Gone in 60 Seconds (Dominic Sena, 2000)
6.  Gilda (Charles Vidor, 1946)
7.  Spartan (David Mamet, 2004)
8.  Kansas City Confidential (Phil Karlson, 1952)
9.  Shooter (Antoine Fuqua, 2007)
10.  Boomerang! (Elia Kazan, 1947)

Favorite Rewatches of August 2015
Double Indemnity (Billy Wilder, 1944)
The Seventh Victim (Mark Robson, 1943)
T-Men (Anthony Mann, 1947)
The Way of the Gun (Christopher McQuarrie, 2000)

Films watched in August: 24
Rewatches in August: 5
Total tally for 2015: 177

(I'm borrowing this format idea from Curtsies and Hand Grenades.)

Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation (2015), Auteurism and Genre Determinism

Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation (Christopher McQuarrie, 2015)
If Jack Reacher was Christopher McQuarrie's resumé for getting the next Mission: Impossible gig, I say that he was clearly the perfect hire. While the Colin Trevorrows of the world are busy making cynical, redundant self-parodies of beloved franchises and the J.J. Abrams of the world are making hundred million dollar Rorschach tests, Christopher McQuarrie is legitimately building upon the legacy of someone like Raoul Walsh or John McTiernan with clever action set pieces and off-handed character humor while still delivering the "impossibly stacked-odds" thrills common to the M:I franchise. It is the perfect popcorn movie in that sense, but, like McTiernan, if you're willing to look closer, you may find even more.

It is neat to see several spy thrillers of the mid-2010s deal with the legitimacy and utility of espionage in the 21st century (I'm thinking also of Skyfall), and that is exactly where Rogue Nation begins. Immediately pitting a top secret conspiratorial shadow government against a top secret conspiratorial shadow agency is a clever bit of plotting in itself but as the movie progresses and the who-can-you-trust/who's-playing-whom dynamics are working themselves out in ever more labyrinthine twists and double-crosses, I began to realize that this is the true legacy of espionage. It could be cynical if we didn't have an investment in seeing Hunt succeed. But this sort of identification is what paints the "good guys" of espionage decidedly behind a nationalistic brush. How do we know who the good guys are? They work for us and are there to keep us safe. In an age that ironically has become increasingly dependent on government involvement, it has also come to despise blatant nationalism. When nationalism suffers, the spy movie suffers along with it. Fittingly then, the bad guy to be stopped is the one who is establishing a "rogue nation" outside of the proper order of things and beyond the accountability (such as it is) of any government or agency. 

But it begs the question: what keeps Hunt – a spy no longer recognized by his home government who is conducting a secret mission without the aid or approval of any other agency – from just walking away from it all? Is it determination or determinism? 

August 2015 - MDP Film Journal

By Player (Kaneto Shindô, 2000)

In August I really sat down and dug into my 2000s backlog, checking up on some movies I have been meaning to see for quite some time. It was nice to get out to the theater and Straight Outta Compton will likely make my end-of-year list (if I have even seen enough movies to compile one). It was fantastic.

Best of August 2015
1.  By Player (Kaneto Shindô, 2000)
2.  Michael Clayton (Tony Gilroy, 2007)
3.  Straight Outta Compton (F. Gary Gray, 2015)  
4.  Onibaba (Kaneto Shindô, 1964)
5.  Children of Hiroshima (Kaneto Shindô, 1952)
6.  Memories of Murder (Bong Joon-ha, 2003)
7.  We Own the Night (James Gray, 2007)
8. Tomorrow is Another Day (Felix E. Feist, 1951)
9. Conan the Barbarian (John Milius, 1982)

Favorite Rewatches of August 2015
Charlie Wilson's War (Mike Nichols, 2007)
Kill Bill: Vol. 1 (Quentin Tarantino, 2003)
Hulk (Ang Lee, 2003)
Kill Bill: Vol. 2 (Quentin Tarantino, 2004)
Boyz N the Hood (John Singleton, 1991)
Wonder Boys (Curtis Hanson, 2000)

Films watched in August: 28
Rewatches in August: 9
Total tally for 2015: 153

(I'm borrowing this format idea from Curtsies and Hand Grenades.)

July 2015 - MDP Film Journal

Los (James Benning, 2001)

July found me traveling to Alaska for some R&R at my in-laws house and beginning a new viewing project: a study of film noir. I have seen most of the main texts of the genre but have never spent the time to really get my mind around what the genre is and with any clarity or precision. I created a list to guide my genre viewing in that vein which can be found on my letterboxd. It is easy to see that Los Angeles continued to be a major theme of my viewing, as was a large part of the impetus behind the genre study.

With all the vacation time for movie watching, it was a very productive month of viewings.

Best of July 2015
1.  Los (James Benning, 2001)
2.  The Wolves (Kineto Shindô, 1955)
3.  Detective Story (William Wyler, 1951)
4.  Park Row (Samuel Fuller, 1952)
5.  Reign of Terror (Anthony Mann, 1949)
6.  Union Station (Rudolph Maté, 1950)
7.  Crime Wave (André de Toth, 1954)
8.  La Petite Lise (Jean Grémillon, 1930)
9.  Bitter Lake (Adam Curtis, 2015)
10.  The Strange Love of Martha Ivers (Lewis Milestone, 1946)

Favorite Rewatches of July 2015
Terminator 2: Judgment Day (James Cameron, 1991)
Raw Deal (Anthony Mann, 1948)

Films watched in July: 24
Rewatches in July: 5
Total tally for 2015: 125

(I'm borrowing this format idea from Curtsies and Hand Grenades.)

Film Noir Analysis: Crime Wave (1954)

Crime Wave (André de Toth, 1954)
Steve Lacey is a guy who just wants a quiet life. An ex-con who has done hard time and now has found a decent job at the airfield and a wife who is loyal to her reformed/reforming man, Lacey knows there is not much open to him outside of trying to build his own American dream. But he also knows even that hangs by a thread. The constant calls from guys he knew once in his life plague him – men who seek him out for the very reasons he makes a good honest citizen – he’s loyal, hard-working and always knows the score. Lacey is doomed because no matter what he does, he can’t completely hide from those he once knew (even though he tries).

Night Movies - A Film Noir Watchlist

The following are the 50 films I am planning on viewing for a personal study of the film noir, with an additional 10 others I am planning on rewatching. This study will take place over the last months of 2015. 

I often lose steam with these types of planned viewing efforts, though I am hopeful to follow through this time because this is a genre I have intended to study for some time but have not gotten around to doing any more than a cursory pass on most of the canonical classics. My 50 planned viewings include both accepted genre classics and underrated tertiary noirs that deserve more love and attention. 

While I am still getting my head around the genre itself, I know one unique focus I will be taking with these films is a particularly keen interest in the geography, location photography, and urban settings of these films. Invigorated by the geographic explorations and investigations of Thom Andersen’s Los Angeles Plays Itself (2003), I am curious to see how many of these films deal with their geographical setting and in what ways the story and locations are tied together. 

I am a bit of a geography nut, so this type of approach is really fascinating to me. Noir strikes me as one of the early genres that more consistently gets out of the studio into the world of urban location shooting (often Los Angeles, considering the ease of proximity), so I am very curious to see what how that technical changes affects the films being made. Many of the films I have chosen to view were planned with this thesis in mind. 

50 Films Noir to View
711 Ocean Drive (Joseph M. Newman, 1950)
Angel’s Flight (Raymond Nassour & K.W. Richardson, 1965)
Armored Car Robbery (Richard Fleischer, 1950) 
Autumn Leaves (Robert Aldrich, 1956) 
Beware, My Lovely (Harry Horner, 1952) 
The Big Heat (Fritz Lang, 1953)
The Big Knife (Robert Aldrich, 1955) DVD
The Bigamist (Ida Lupino, 1953)
Blast of Silence (Allen Baron, 1961)
Body and Soul (Robert Rossen, 1947)
Boomerang! (Elia Kazan, 1947)
Border Incident (Anthony Mann, 1949)
Brighton Rock (John Boulting, 1947)
Caged (John Cromwell, 1950)
Call Northside 777 (Henry Hathaway, 1948)
Cape Fear (J. Lee Thompson, 1962)
The Chase (Arthur Ripley, 1946)
Crime Wave (André de Toth, 1954)
The Crimson Kimono (Samuel Fuller, 1959)
Criss Cross (Robert Siodmak, 1949)
D.O.A. (Rudolph Maté, 1950)
Detective Story (William Wyler, 1950)
Edge of Doom (Mark Robson, 1950)
Gilda (Charles Vidor, 1946)
Gun Crazy (Joseph H. Lewis, 1950)
The Hitch-Hiker (Ida Lupino, 1953)
Kansas City Confidential (Phil Karlson, 1952)
The Killers (Don Siegel, 1964)
Lady in the Lake (Robert Montgomery, 1947)
Leave Her to Heaven (John M. Stahl, 1945)
M (Joseph Losey, 1951)
Mildred Pierce (Michael Curtiz, 1945)
The Money Trap (Burt Kennedy, 1965)
Nightmare Alley (Edmund Goulding, 1947)
Odd Man Out (Carol Reed, 1947)
The Phenix City Story (Phil Karlson, 1955)
The Postman Always Rings Twice (Tay Garnett, 1946)
Reign of Terror (Anthony Mann, 1949)
Ride the Pink Horse (Robert Montgomery, 1947)
Riff-Raff (Ted Tetzlaff, 1947)
Rififi (Jules Dassin, 1955)
Scarlet Street (Fritz Lang, 1945)
Side Street (Anthony Mann, 1949)
Somewhere in the Night (Joseph L. Mankiewicz, 1946)
The Strange Love of Martha Ivers (Lewis Milestone, 1946)
The Tall Target (Anthony Mann, 1951)
They Made Me a Fugitive (Alberto Cavalcanti, 1947)
Tomorrow Is Another Day (Felix E. Feist, 1951)
Underworld U.S.A. (Samuel Fuller, 1961)
Union Station (Rudolph Maté, 1950)
The Window (Ted Tetzlaff, 1949)

Ten Overdue Rewatches
Double Indemnity (Billy Wilder, 1944)
Fallen Angel (Otto Preminger, 1945)
The Lady from Shanghai (Orson Welles, 1947)
The Killers (Robert Siodmak, 1946)
Kiss Me Deadly (Robert Aldrich, 1955)
Out of the Past (Jacques Tourneur, 1947)
Raw Deal (Anthony Mann, 1948)
T-Men (Anthony Mann, 1947)
Thieves Highway (Jules Dassin, 1949)
Whirlpool (Otto Preminger, 1949)

June 2015 - MDP Film Journal

The Burmese Harp (Kon Ichikawa, 1956)

June found me traveling to Los Angeles for a week, the first time I've been to the city in my life. I didn't realize just how seminal the trip would be for me and how much I had internalized so many of the city's sites from the movies filmed there. Needless to say, I loved being there and, naturally, I took advantage of the city's many cinemas to catch up on some current movies (more than I would normally watch in a month). I had to pull out Los Angeles Plays Itself after I got back home. It is becoming a very important movie in my life.

Best of June 2015
1.  The Burmese Harp (Kon Ichikawa, 1956)
2.  The Power of Nightmares (Adam Curtis, 2004)
3.  Mad Max: Fury Road (George Miller, 2015)
4.  Ride with the Devil (Ang Lee, 1999)
5.  Love & Mercy (Bill Pohlad, 2014)
6.  The Overnight (Patrick Brice, 2015)

Favorite Rewatches of June 2015
Los Angeles Plays Itself (Thom Andersen, 2003)
Mean Girls (Mark Waters, 2004)
Tropic Thunder (Ben Stiller, 2008)
Ugetsu (Kenji Mizoguchi, 1953)
True Romance (Tony Scott, 1993)

Films watched in June: 20
Rewatches in June: 5
Total tally for 2015: 101

(I'm borrowing this format idea from Curtsies and Hand Grenades.)

April/May 2015 - MDP Film Journal

Los Angeles Plays Itself (Thom Andersen, 2003)

Lots of things going on and didn't get much time in for film. Hence, the combined April/May months.

Best of April/May 2015
1.  Los Angeles Plays Itself (Thom Andersen, 2003)
2.  The Century of the Self (Adam Curtis, 2002)
3.  Lucky Dragon No. 5 (Kaneto Shindô, 1959)
4.  Gone Girl (David Fincher, 2014)
5.  Inherent Vice (Paul Thomas Anderson, 2014)
6.  Moonwalker (Jerry Kramer, Will Vinton, Jim Blashfield & Colin Chilvers, 1988)

Favorite Rewatches of April/May 2015
Mr. Thank You (Hiroshi Shimizu, 1936)
Mulholland Drive (David Lynch, 2001)
Heat (Michael Mann, 1995)
Collateral (Michael Mann, 2004)
Armageddon (Michael Bay, 1998)
Total Recall (Paul Verhoeven, 1990)

Films watched in April: 6
Films watched in May: 11
Rewatches in April/May: 9
Total tally for 2015: 81

(I'm borrowing this format idea from Curtsies and Hand Grenades.)

March 2015 - MDP Film Journal

The Last Polka (John Blanchard, 1985)

The month of my birthday I am often able to throw down the gauntlet and really get some movie-watching in. 

Best of March 2015
1.  The Remains of the Day (James Ivory, 1993)
2.  The Last Polka (John Blanchard, 1985)
3.  The Sheltering Sky (Bernardo Bertolucci, 1990)
4.  A Confucian Confusion (Edward Yang, 1994)
5.  Out for Justice (John Flynn, 1990)
6.  That Moment: Magnolia Diary (Mark Rance, 2000)

Favorite Rewatches of March 2015
The Ice Storm (Ang Lee, 1997)
L.A. Confidential (Curtis Hanson, 1997)
Alien 3 (David Fincher, 1992)
Dazed and Confused (Richard Linklater, 1993)
Snake Eyes (Brian De Palma, 1998)
The Silence of the Lambs (Jonathan Demme, 1991)
Cop Land (James Mangold, 1997)
Groundhog Day (Harold Ramis, 1993)

Films watched in March: 34
Rewatches in March: 18
Total tally for 2015: 65

(I'm borrowing this format idea from Curtsies and Hand Grenades.)

February 2015 - MDP Film Journal

Presumed Innocent (Alan J. Pakula, 1990)

Continuing the 90s viewings but most of my new viewings weren't that great. I was more successful with the rewatches. 

Best of February 2015
1.  Presumed Innocent (Alan J. Pakula, 1990)
2.  Galaxy Quest (Dean Parisot, 1999)
2.  Runaway Train (Andrei Konchalovsky, 1985)

Favorite Rewatches of February 2015
The Lion King (Rogers Allers & Rob Minkoff, 1994)
Glengarry Glen Ross (James Foley, 1992)
Aladdin (Ron Clements & John Musker, 1992)
Bulworth (Warren Beatty, 1998)
The Avengers (Joss Whedon, 2012)
The X-Files (Rob Bowman, 1998)

Films watched in February: 16
Rewatches in February: 8
Total tally for 2015: 31

(I'm borrowing this format idea from Curtsies and Hand Grenades.)

January 2015 - MDP Film Journal

Can't Hardly Wait (Deborah Kaplan & Harry Elfont, 1998)

The 90s has been my main cinematic focus and will continue to be for the next few months. I didn't squeeze in a ton of movies in January but here are the highlights.

Best of January 2015
1.  Through the Olive Trees (Abbas Kiarostami, 1994)
2.  L'Enfer (Claude Chabrol, 1994)
3.  Hobson's Choice (David Lean, 1954)
4.  Metropolitan (Whit Stillman, 1996)
5.  Godzilla (GAreth Edwards, 2014)

Favorite Rewatches of January 2015
Can't Hardly Wait (Deborah Kaplan & Harry Elfont, 1998)

Films watched in January: 15
Rewatches in January: 2
Total tally for 2015: 15

(I'm borrowing this format idea from Curtsies and Hand Grenades.)