“Back to the Future”, directed by Robert Zemeckis in the year 1985, is a renowned comedy and science-fiction movie, part of a trilogy that receives the same name.
The protagonist is Marty McFly (Michael J. Fox) a 17 years old teenager. He is friends with Doc (Christopher Lloyd), a “crazy scientist” that managed to create a time machine using a DMC DeLorean.
By using this device, Marty travels to the year 1955. However, his arrival disrupts the passing of the years, endangering his life and family.
This is a film with a lot of interesting aspects related to music and sound. In fact, it won an Oscar for Best Sound and a Golden Globe for the Best Original Song (“The Power of Love” by Huey Lewis).
Back to the future’s main theme is worldwide known for his grandiosity and strength. The soundtrack, Alan Silvestri, says that when he talked with the director about the composition of the music, the main indication was to compose something big. In this way, the music has the function of magnifying the whole movie, based on big emotions and adventures but visually with a clear predominance of short shots.
In this video, we can see the composer himself explaining this idea:
This movie has diegetic music that is part of the fictional world and extradiegetic only audible for the audience.
To illustrate the functioning of extradiegetic music, I will analyze the scene where Marty travels in time for the first time. In this sequence, while Doc is fine-tuning the machine, he gets shot by a group of lybians. Marty is able to escape using the time machine, arriving to the year 1955.
Music starts to play when Doc shows the container with plutonium. Plutonium is a very important element, because it is necessary to enable the time machine. Some seconds after we can listen a mysterious music played by violins. The volume of the music at this moment is low to keep the spotlight on the sound of the scientist manipulating the container and accent its relevance.
When Doc puts the plutonium in the machine, a continuous percussion rhythm joins the violin melody. During the last preparations to turn on the invention, the music rises until the brass sections replace the strings, anticipating the lybians attack.
For the attack, we listen to these percussion rhythms and a deep melody. Just when one of the lybians is going to shoot Doc, the percussion stops to open the way for some strings playing long and high notes to provide intrigue before the shots. Just after the fateful moment, we can hear a melancholic melody while we contemplate Marty’s horrified facial expression. Immediately thereafter, the brass and a piano accompany the escape of the protagonist. During this chase-escape situation, we hear the main theme of the movie mixed with the ambience sound of the engines and the shots, but in this case the music is in the first sonorous plane. The theme stops cold when Marty arrives in 1955.
Back to the future also has diegetic music that helps to create a time-space environment when Marty is in 1955. Most of this diegetic music are preexisting songs from a determinate time period.
There is a very interesting sequence in sound terms that includes this resource. I’m referring to a scene where Marty’s mum (Lorraine) is at a prom dance. At that dance there was also future Marty’s dad (George). To not change time-space, it was necessary for them to have their first kiss. On the contrary, Marty would disappear due to time alteration.
Marty is playing the song “Earth Angel”(Marvin Berry & The Starlighters) with a band while people are dancing. At a particular moment, one guy tries to set closer to Lorraine and Marty starts missing notes, adding tension to the moment. Then, this guy grabs Lorraine and Earth Angel fades out to an extradiegetic and turbulent theme. At this point all ambience sounds are silenced, and we can only hear this music and special effects. When George manages to dance with Lorraine again, we hear the movie’s main theme and, finally, Earth Angel again while they are having their first kiss. In this video, you can have a deeper analysis of this sequence:
To know more about the well crafted music design and the fascinating main theme you can consult this video with a closer examination:
Webgraphy/Bibliography:
Back to the Future (1985) | Adventure, Comedy, Sci-Fi. (1985, 3 julio). IMDb. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0088763/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1
Film.Music.Media. (2020, 22 de octubre). Flashback: Alan Silvestri – “Writing The Back To The Future Theme” [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=28ICnRWMIQk
Jon Sorokin. (2020, 7 de septiembre). Why the Earth Angel Scene in Back to the Future is a Masterpiece of Movie Music [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PqK1PbQRR1c
Musicólogo Friki. (2020, 11 de diciembre). ¡La Música de VOLVER AL FUTURO tiene una función que no conocías! [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PCDdZDEf-X8
Regreso al futuro (1985). (s.f.). FilmAffinity. https://www.filmaffinity.com/es/film309023.html
Universal Pictures. (2020, 9 de mayo). Back to the Future | The Very First DeLorean Time Travel Scene [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FWG3Dfss3Jc
7colors_gallery. (2015, 9 de diciembre). Earth Angel Scene – Back to the Future 1985 HD [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vPrPfkT82Pw
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