The Success of the Back to the Future Film - Essay Example

?Running head: Success of the ‘back to the future’ film Lecturer: Introduction Back of the future is a comedy, science fiction andadventure film that was launched in1985. The director of the film, Robert Zemeckis, based the film on a story of Marty McFly, a high school boy, and his scientist friend Doc Brown's. Marty and this eccentric innovator travel to the past and to the future by use of a modified DeLorean automobile machine DeLorean machine, and make significant impacts in both the past and the future.(Meyncke 2010, p. 1). Their traveling causes some errors in the different eras, such as Marty attracting his mother’s affection while she was young. They have to rectify this by traveling back to time to ensure that Marty’s mother finds Marty’s father. At the end, a trilogy is developed. This movie made it to the topmost film in 1985, and it won several awards. To-date, it is still a classic film dominating the Disney World, Theme Parks, and the Sequels. The gist of this paper is to evaluate the reasons behind the film’s massive commercial success in 1985. This film has experienced tremendous box office success. The success of the film is evident by its selling rate. It is considered a high concept event cinema because when it was produced, it attracted a large audience. This is because the film is market driven and aimed at reaching out to the diverse markets (Maslin 1985, p. 1). This is so because the film appeals to both the old and the young generations. It is a comedy, which keeps the audience entertained to their satisfaction. Ensuring the film has subtitles in different languages also enhances its appeal hence success. Moreover, the uniqueness of the subject matter of the film has also brought its success. This is because prior to its production, the idea of traveling back to time had never been imagined. This unique feature caught the curiosity of most of the audience. It is fascinating and well filmed making it a formidable accomplishment (Nowell-Smith 1997, p. 302). The movie back to the future has withstood the test of time. Having been in existence for the last twenty-seven years, the film is still a bona fide classic. A number of reasons contribute to this success. The reasons include the character choice; the uniqueness of the tale, as Zemeckis brings up a concept of traveling back to the past and the future, which had never been featured before, and marketing and distribution. Audience-directed motives also increase the success of this movie. Being a high concept event cinema also serves to increase the movie’s victory. The movie makes use of film modern technologies and diversity in styles. In the production of the film, the directors deployed advanced technology like animation, among others. They include high computer imagery, relevant sound-effects, and songs. The advanced computer generated images have been used to create stimuli on the audience, and in the creation of distinctive effects (Williams, Hammond, & Fonda 2006, p. 250). All these reasons serve to increase the appeal of the movie to diverse audiences; hence making the movie an outstanding success (Fleming 2012, p. 1). The characters The movie back to the future, which was based on a supremely entertaining script, was accompanied by some of the most popular and attractive actors in Hollywood, including Christopher Lloyd and Michael J. Fox. The characters make some of the most influential actors in Holly wood. For instance, the performance by Fox and Lloyd displayed an admirable agreement and chemistry between them. Apart from their extra ordinary matching, these actors are some of the most pre-sold artists. They are characters that people are familiar with hence making the movie sell with much ease. For instance, Michael J. Fox had featured in the famous Family Ties hence becoming a celebrity to his audience (Meyncke 2010, p. 1). In other movies that he had directed, Robert Zemeckis is known to bear a trademark of always making use of acting stars such as Christopher Lloyd and, therefore, his character in the movie back to the future is an advantage. The seriousness with which the casting was taken was seen when the producers spend extra $3 million to re-shoot the film. Initially, the character of Marty McFly was played by Eric Stoltz after the preferred Michael fox lacked time because he was committed to the show called family ties (Meyncke 2010, p. 1). After filming for four weeks, Zemeckis realised that there was a miscast of Stoltz. Together with his assistant director Bob Gale, they decided to recast and released Eric Stoltz. The recasting saw the preferred Michael Fox feature because by then he was freed by the show. The directors’ perfectionist nature ensured that they produced a perfect film, which impressed the audience and, therefore, became the film of the year. The uniqueness of the movie The movie back to the future is based on a truly unique aspect, which depicts originality in its production from the previously done works. It is based on the feature of travelling in between time. This creates curiosity upon the audiences since many people are fascinated by the chance of going back in time and experiencing some things again. Travelling to the future is also a profoundly admired idea by many people out of curiosity of the way present events might turn out. Both aspects make the movie a timeless classic. Combining of various genres into one is also a unique aspect of this movie making it entertain a variety of audiences (Williams, Hammond, & Fonda 2006, p. 246). Since these aspects capture the interest of both regretting audience and visionary elements, the film becomes a classic and all encompassing. High concept event cinema Being a high-concept-event cinema makes the film back to the future highly marketable. This is because being a high concept event cinema means that the film is an easily reducible tale. It also means that this movie has a number of notable features apart from the ability to reduce the storyline into a short and clear tale. The film bears images and songs that the audiences associate with, having renowned artists and a unique plot, as well as a strong marketing fixes. An example is in how colour is used to depict the different time lineages. Most audience can relate with that hence playing a leading role in entertaining and bringing success. Sound effects are also used to bring out emotion variation. This makes it possible for the audience to change in scenes, for instance in the romantic scenes there are soundtracks that vary with scenes that represent action. Therefore, the music directors selected classic music, which has appealed to the audience of all times. The history of the film making reveals that there was a lot of effort that the director made to ensure that the music played in the film was classic. Before they arrived at the track Back in Time, other tracks were tried and failed the test. Music supervisor Bones Howe was employed to coach Michael Fox on simulating playing all the track parts such that it looked as if Michael was playing the track even behind his head. The tracks were done by Hollywood music experts, and it is fit in a way that it seems realistic that Michael Fox is playing. This expertise amazes the audience ranking the film to be the most captivating and realistic of the time. Marketing and distribution Another reason for the success of this movie is the marketing and distribution efforts that were put into this movie. The marketing and distribution of this movie has contributed to its success in a major way. Various advertisements have been done to make it popular including timely advertisement and distribution. Marketing is vital in promoting the success of any movie. The marketability of this movie is responsible for the high sales it has had. Advertisements are normally done even before the release of a movie. Many people were curious to watch this movie due to the uniqueness its advertisements and commercials (Maslin 1985, p. 1). In the movie back to the future, success has been achieved by use of advertisement. This movie was market-driven with an exceptional reception by the audience and, therefore, it marketing was easier. Marketing it is based on the fact that it suits the needs of everyone in general. Creating exceptional demand, serves as a means of marketing any item or commodity. Commercials of this movie are quite useful in gaining its affection among masses of audience. This movie is a Hollywood production, which also not only creates its demand, but also works to make the film an outstanding success. This is because Hollywood productions have always gained preference in the cinema market. This is, therefore, another means of marketing the movie. The image that the distributors make is that of a bestseller movie with preferences even in non-English speaking countries, which is real. Conclusion The movie back to the future still moves its audience 28 years after its production. This movie introduced a scientific fiction of all times in the cinema industry. It set a standard that other science fictions have, henceforth, tried to emulate. The director, Robert Zemerick’s success has been attributed to a number of reasons. Being a Hollywood production, this movie has found favour with its audiences. This film’s success is an aspect that is used in the academic situations to learn to achieve success in the field. Authors of cinema and other related articles always find it indispensable to use this movie as a model in their illustrations. An example of such illustrations from the film is in the book Contemporary American Cinema. Recently, any attempt made to redo the movie has received a negative response from the audience since every one prefers the original piece of art. Performance of this movie has made use of filming technologies and relevant styles, which make this movie a blockbuster. Moreover, the marketing and distribution of the film has been directive to the movie audience, as well. The originality of this movie makes it stand changing times without getting forgotten or erased in the minds of all who love it. The character selection in the movie is done so that the leading characters had established confidence with the audience. Their exceptionally performance and complementary nature are admirable. Their popularity too adds to the fame of this movie hence the success. Balancing the movie between a serious tone and a comic one is an advantage because it makes the movie gain popularity as being a science fiction, comedy and a romance movie. The movie gained it popularity because of all these qualities, which have never been captured by most films even to date. Bibliography Fleming, M 2012, Back to the future' heading to Broadway? Viewed 10 May, 2012, . Maslin, J 1985, Movie review: Back to the future, 1985, The New York Times, Viewed 10 May, 2012, . Meyncke, AM 2010, Back to the future 25th anniversary Trilogy. Viewed 10 May, 2012, . Nowell-Smith, G 1997, The New Hollywood. In D. Gomery, The Oxford History of World Cinema, Oxford University Press, Oxford U.K. Williams, L. R., Hammond, M., & Fonda, J 2006, Contemporary American Cinema, London, U.K: McGraw Hill. Read More