The Balance between Narration and Special Effects

I've had so much on my mind I should have posted this on Friday but it escaped me I apologize, I would like this not to effect my grade considering how much work I have in other classes.

Greg Borkman, section 319

The Balance between Narration and Special Effects

In Back to the Future (1985), there are not too many special effects and so the narrative is not disregarded, therefore according to Bukatman it is a successful movie. There is the disappearing Marty, in which Marty's hand disappears slowly until he is able to get his dad to kiss his mother; inherently saving his life and existence. This special effect is used to enhance the realism of the fantastic narrative because the audience is fearful that Marty will not succeed in getting his parents back together.
As stated in class many effects have been used before and multiple exposure is one of them. This is how I assume they were able to make half of Marty's arm disappear / fade away into nothing. (photo here) The process of multiple exposure goes back to before film back to photography and trigger photography when multiple cameras were set up to trigger when a horse would run by them giving the final effect of a horse running in one photograph; Chronophotography. (photo here). There is however a special effect in Back to the Future that "brackets off" to clearly delineate the real world from this fantastic world.
In the movie, the audience is lead to believe that time travel is possible. What is interesting is the Director's (Robert Zemeckis) choice to remind everyone in the audience that this is fantasy by having one last special effect at the end of the movie. Doc Brown's DeLorean starts to hover and then flies off into the sky, with an include appropriate line "There's no need for roads where we're going", leaving the audience wondering what the future is actually like. (photo here)
Back to the Future uses the special effect to differentiate between the narrative story of the movie and the real world that the audience is coming from. These types of movies can sometimes be more effective when it comes to convincing the audience that they are real. For example, look at Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) , it takes place in history yet has elements of the future in it when clearly the two don't belong together, but for some reason they work together to convince the audience that it is possible.
When a film like a Back to the Future or an Indiana Jones comes to theaters movie-goers flock to them because they are like bedtime stories you use to be told as children. The special effects are when remind us they are only bedtime stories. What makes these movies successful is because we are reminded at the end of the movie that these are fantasy worlds, therefore we will come back to the movie theater to see the movie again because it is the only place to get the feeling of excitement and satisfaction.
Because Back to the Future uses special effects to both enhance the realism of the fantastic narrative and to bracket off to clearly delineate the real world from the fantasy of the movie, Bukatman argues that these types of movies can be successful a keeping the quality of the narrative intact. He states, "special-effects sequences are splendidly exhibitionistic" (264) and usually are "accompanied by a reduction in narrative sophistication" (265). Bukatman says movies that do not fail to "reinstate and acknowledge [his] presence in the theater and emphasize the experience of viewing" (267) are more fundamentally solid in terms of narrative are more enjoyable. Back to the Future does not disregard the narrative by throwing dozens of special effects at the audience just because they have the capability of doing so, just as most post Star Wars movies can, this is what makes the movie enjoyable.


Back to the Future. Dir. Robert Zemeckis, Perf. Michael J. Fox, Christopher Lloyd and Lea Thompson. 1985. DVD. Universal Pictures, 2002.

Bukatman, Scott. "Zooming Out: The End of Offscreen Space" (248-272)

Midterm

Women, minorities, and robots...last

I chose prompt two for my midterm however there were a few things in prompt one that I wanted to address. Because these two movies Back to the Future (1985), produced in the United States, and 2001: a space odyssey(1968), also produced in the United States, are so different in every way it was hard to find similarities between the two movies for prompt one, but there are some gender issues I discovered that I believe are worth time addressing.

In both movies, Back to the Future (1985) and 2001: a space odyssey (1968) there are gender restraints that are set by the society and in both movies these boarders are stepped over by the gender considered less important to society at the current time in both movies, the female. In Back to the Future (1985), Marty's mother steps over the line when she asks Marty if he would like to go to the dance with her. She even addresses how unusual it is to ask a guy out to a dance instead of the guy asking her, she expresses how it feels awkward to do so. In both movies women fall into stereotypical roles, in 2001: a space odyssey (1968) woman are no where to be seen in the board room meeting to discuss the strange find on the moon but the are more than prominent on board the space craft serving customers drinks and food. Women take backseat to men but they aren't the only ones, minorities and robots take backseat to men as well. In Back to the Future (1985), an African American man named Goldie Wilson says, "I'm gonna make something of myself. I'm going to Night School. And one day I'm gonna be somebody!", Marty replies, "That's right! He's gonna be mayor.", but to this the white man in charge of the diner says "A colored mayor, that'll be the day". Marty's dad, George McFly, even ignores Goldie as he tries to help him stand up to Biff's gang (pictured below). Not much is expected of woman or minorities during this time so why should anything be expected of robots such as HAL 9000 in 2001: a space odyssey (1968)?

Because HAL is a robot, he is expected to due certain tasks such as preserve the three men who are in hibernation, help Frank and Dave, and keep the ship running just as a servant would do. Because he was created by man he is considered less than equal to them and considered less intelligent. Interestingly enough there is a robot/computer program that identifies the man when he gets to the space station (before taking the journey to the moon) who is a woman. (pictured) The 1960s are full of suppression and having a woman as the computer program (no free will) doing man's bidding makes woman in this movie even more of outsiders. But just as Goldie Wilson does in Back to the Future II (1987) by becoming Mayor of Hill Valley, HAL over comes these unequal stereotypes and proves that he is capable of being smarter and better than the white man. HAL kills Dave and while Frank is out in space retrieving Dave's body, HAL kills the three men in hibernation because he feels they are a threat to the mission.

Many times through out the 2001: a space odyssey I felt different characters were subjected to outsiderism due to their ethnic differences, even though they may have been of the same race (HAL having a white man's voice). It was the difference between man and machine that made the outsiderism between characters this way. HAL is subjected to being an outsider when Frank and Dave talk about disconnecting Hal in the pod because he is having human-like emotions and predicting things that are not true just to get rid of Frank and Dave because he feels their actions are a threat to the mission (1:27:04) but his logic is flawed, without Frank, Dave, and the rest of the crew there is no mission. In Back to the Future (1985), Marty is the alien outsider who tries to fit in. There are multiple times in the movie where Marty is clearly not like anyone else

There is also a sense that Frank and Dave do not matter in the master plan of things because of their names, Frank and Dave are very common names for the 1960s; this film was released in 1968. There names mean "a free man" and "beloved" respectively, ironically Frank is not "a free man", he is under the perimeters of HAL who controls the whole ship just as a mother would control her household. He is not free until he kills / disconnects HAL in a small Oedipus Complex that Frank becomes "a free man", because HAL is a male voice but acts like a controlling mother it is not a complete Oedipus Complex. In someways HAL is the mother figure watching over the crew, it is not until HAL shows human-like emotions does this mother figure turn into a self-preserving body. He is also like a father figure because he seems to "know what's best" in certain situations such as the part that malfunctions even though he is wrong, he is not willing to listen to Frank and Dave. Notice I said human-like emotions because HAL is not capable of being human; he has no free will, he does not show the human emotion called love, and his actions show little concern for life.

The reason that women, minorities, and robots are put in the backseat and told they are not as good as the white men is because of the time these movies were based in (Back to the Future based in the 1950s) and filmed in (2001: a space odyssey film in 1960s). In 2001: a space odyssey the issues between man and alien (HAL) do not get resolved without consequence, when Frank unplugs HAL's memory a video plays on a screen in the memory chamber. After the video Frank seems to progress towards death rather quickly. In Back to the Future (1985) the relationship between Marty and his young parents is resolved because George ends up doing what Marty says and falls in love with Marty's mom. In both movies, it seems there is nothing the outsider can do to be accepted, it is all up to the society to change and adapt or grow a custom to the outsider. Some societies do not change such as in 2001: a space odyssey, a movie which came out in the 1960s during a time of equal rights movements, it predicted that the future would still be run by white men (there is not one black man in the movie) and Frank will not accept the newly changed HAL for what he is. Since Back to the Future (1985) came out after this progressive era the 1950s society portrayed in the movie is more willing to accept Marty for what he is, an alien.

Back to the Future. Dir. Robert Zemeckis, Perf. Michael J. Fox, Christopher Lloyd and Lea Thompson. 1985. DVD. Universal Pictures, 2002.

2001: a space odyssey. Dir. Stanley Kubrick, Perf. Keir Dullea and Gary Lockwood. 1968. DVD. Turner Entertainment Co. and Warner Home Video, 1999.

Back to the Beginning

To better understand the film Back to the Future (1985), we must understand the historical context and rhetoric this film is responding to. It is responding to terrorism, kidnapping, and a new rebel generation.

As you can see in the picture, the terrorists are of middle eastern descent. This is a reference to the conflict in the middle east. But what you cannot see in the picture is the VolksWagen bus the two terrorists are driving in, this is extremely significant. In 1972, Israeli olympians were taken hostage by a Palestinian terrorist group, Black September, in Munich, Germany during the 1972 olympics. 17 people where killed including five terrorist (CBS news story remembering the anniversary of the attacks in 2002, http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2002/09/05/world/main520865.shtml).


What also may have influenced the terrorist aspect is the 1982 Sabra and Shatila massacre, where over one thousand civilians were murdered in the streets of West Beirut, Lebanon (Journal of Palestine Studies, XXXII, number 1, autumn 2002 pages 36-58), this is where the terrorists in the Back to the Future are from. As well as the Lebanon hostage crisis from 1982-1992 where 96 foreign hostages, most of which were western European and American in nationality, were abducted. This is referenced by the picture Marty keeps with him of himself, his brother, and his sister (see photo here). The overwhelming feeling caused by 'disappearing family members' is paralleled within the movie while in the real world it is actually happening daily.


We can identify Back to the Future as science fiction because it deals with the space time continuum and what happens when people break or mess up the space time continuum. Such as when Marty plays Johnny B Goode on the guitar and the cousin of Chuck Berry calls Chuck Berry to tell him about a song that Marty learned that was originally Chuck Berry's song, but what this means is that Chuck Berry actually learned the song Johnny B Goode from Marty McFly, it is like what came first the chicken or the egg (picture seen here).  In addition we can look at one of the pictures before that I mentioned, the picture of Marty, his brother, and his sister and sees that his brother's head is missing; by getting hit by a car and saving his dad from getting hit it turns out that Marty disrupts the chain of events. The movie makes science fiction references left and right. Referencing Darth Vadar from Star Wars (1978) (picture seen here)

 and speaking of the 1950s as a time of believing anything because there was no one to trust not even the government. (As seen here, a child convincing his father that Marty in his radiation suit is actually an alien who has materialized into human form before their eyes.)

Some of the other films Robert Zemeckis has directed are Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988), Back to the Future Parts II (1989) and III (1990) as well as Forrest Gump (1994), Cast Away (2000), The Polar Express (2004), and Beowulf (2007). While Zemeckis has directed may of these great films they all occurred after Back to the Futur

e (1985). Films that may have influenced Back to the Future was Used Cars (1980) where he was also the writer just as he was for Back to the Future. Separately, he, Joel Silver, and Gilbert Adler created the Dark Castle Entertainment production company, a company whose films are mainly horror and mind-bending terror.