The 1985 classic Justin Long called “the most perfect movie ever made”
Justin Long first began to take off as a star in the late 1990s and early 21st century, where he played heroes and aspirational characters in films like Galaxy Quest, Accepted, Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story, and Live Free or Die Hard, before temporarily receding from public view.
In recent years, however, he has begun popping up in more genre films like Barbarian and Tusk, and has also become a television star thanks to Disney+’s Goosebumps.
Given that Long is best known for both coming-of-age stories and high-concept genre films, it should come as no surprise that he considers Back to the Future to be one of his all-time favourites. Although he has said that the film was both “sentimental” and “cinematic”, he also found it to be without flaw in terms of structure.
“In terms of just a movie that you love, measuring a movie in terms of how often you can see it without getting tired of it, it’s all of those things for me,” Long told Rotten Tomatoes, “I think it’s the most perfect movie ever made. It’s like the form of a movie that all other movies, entertainment-wise, should aspire to. It’s something that I’ll always study, just the storytelling, the efficiency of it. The fact that every element works so perfectly in harmony. It’s a thing to behold.”
Back to the Future was a truly miraculous production, as the film went through several beguiling drafts before it became the classic that it is today. Shooting had already been underway for several weeks before Eric Stoltz was fired from playing Marty McFly and replaced by Michael J Fox, who had been the first choice initially, but there was no guarantee that the film would connect with audiences, even with Steven Spielberg as the producer.
Robert Zemeckis had made two good films previously with I Wanna Hold Your Hand and Used Cars, but there were still doubts about his abilities, which were all cast aside when Back to the Future announced itself a masterpiece, becoming the biggest hit of 1985, and it remains one of the most well-regarded classics of all time.
As Long pointed out, there’s not a single misstep within the direction or a moment that doesn’t work, which is why it resonated even after its version of the future has proven to be too aspirational. While there were several beloved ‘80s films that were attacked at the time for being too commercial or sappy, not even the most snooty critics had anything bad to say about Back to the Future.
The film clearly left a strong impression on people like Long, who grew up with it, but it’s also a rare ‘80s classic that hasn’t been diluted.
Both of the sequels are well-regarded, and the fact that Zemeckis owns the rights to the series ensures that there will never be a sequel or reboot that could tarnish its reputation, which has unfortunately happened to many other franchises from the same era. Ironically enough, a film that is so specific about arriving at a particular date has proven itself to be timeless.
