Back to the Future (1985) Film Opening Analysis

We looked at the film opening of back to the future in class, and I liked the way that the opening of the film gives so many hints about the narrative of the film. I decided to explore this further.

The mise-en-scene in the film opening is used to signal characteristics of one of the main characters. It is set in someone’s house, although the audience is unaware of who’s yet. The uses of props are very significant to the character and the storyline. Straight away we see a clock, and then lots and lots of clocks closely packed together and lined up next to each other, all showing the same time, 7:50. There are many different clocks that we see, regular clocks, alarm clocks, kitchen clocks; one clock has a man on whose arm moves with the ticks to drink beer, and one has the Doc – one of the main characters of the film – hanging from the clock hand (although the audience would only know who this was if they had seen this film as this actually occurs later on in the film). Having so many clocks in the same place signifies to the audience that this person has an interest in time, as they are all close together and read exactly the same times. We then see newspaper clippings on a wall, and the headlines read ‘Brown’s Mansion Destroyed’ and ‘Brown Estate Sold to Developers’, showing a potential for this person to be interested in this case, or that they had something to do with it. The camera then shows pictures above a bed, and they appear to be inventors of some sort or people of importance – this indicates that this person thinks highly of these people as they are placed above his bed. Then the camera zooms out and we see that there is a lot of mess next to the bed, drinks, paper rubbish etc. showing that this person is either very lazy, or that they move too quickly to clear this mess up. The bed however is made up, showing that maybe this person hasn’t been there for a while. We get to see what appears to be a breakfast making machine, there is a radio next to the bed with cups and mugs on top of it. The radio turns on and we hear an advert for a car, and then we see a coffee machine pouring out hot water but there’s no cup there. There is then a TV shown to us with a woman presenting on a news channel, stating a case about missing Plutonium. Then, we see extremely burnt toast popping out of a toaster, appearing as if it had been there for a very long time and was being singed. The next part of the machine is a dog food can opener, which pours food into a dog bowl over flowing with dog food, and throws the empty can into a bin full of cans. All of the parts of the machine indicate to the audience that the person is not there, and that they haven’t been for a while as everything has been there a while or has nothing to use to do what it’s supposed to do.

The only character in the film opening, we only see from the feet to the knees, maybe saving their face until a later scene. He is wearing jeans, Nike trainers, and is holding a

skateboard - typical to a teenage boy of that era. We see him put a key under the mat, and the use of this prop and the fact he puts it under the mat instigates that this character and the person whose house he is in are very close. Also, the persons skate board is rolled underneath the bed, and it hits a case of plutonium – instigating that the person who lives there has taken it. The name of the dog that lives in this place is Einstein, furtherly portraying the character/owners interest in inventors.

The colours used are quite bland, all of the clocks are gold, brown, black or silvery colours, and the bed is white and dark red. This is showing that the character doesn’t take much consideration into details like that, and prefer things simple and plain so he can get on with other things. The lighting is also ambient, there is no use of lights so there definitely must be no one home.

The cinematography is very similar throughout the whole of the opening. Straight away the camera is panning slowly from left to right across all of the props. I think this has been done in order for the audience to be able to see everything they are meant to see, and to emphasise every element they have set out for the audience to see, like the different kinds of clocks, the newspaper clippings, the TV, the machine etc. Throughout all of the pans, close ups are being used. This emphasises the point I have made about wanting the audience to take in everything they see properly. The camera also tracks the movement of the boy as he walks through the door, furtherly showing props that are significant to the narrative – the dog bowl over flowing, and then the plutonium under the bed. The camera lingers on a medium shot of the skateboard hitting the plutonium, showing that it is of importance to the story, before it cuts to the next scene.

There is a constant diegetic sound of the clocks ticking in the background. As well as this, there is the diegetic sound of the radio presenting an advert for a car and the woman on the television that is presenting the news. As well as this, the breakfast machine makes alerting noises when it a section of it is about to do its proposed job, and there are also mechanistic noises that the machine makes when its parts are moving, for instance when it moves to pour the dog food in its bowl. This shows that the character never has a quiet life, and also that what they use to put their inventions together are old, rusty and mechanistic.

The editing used is very slow paced. From the second that the film opening begins, the shot doesn’t end until 2:46 minutes. Then following a 2 second shot, the next shot goes from 2:48 to 3:20 when the scene changes. This shows just how slow the editing truly is, as it is trying to allow you to take everything in as previously mentioned.

I really like the way that the opening tries to use as many ways as possible to let the audience into the narrative. I like the use of the long panning shot at the beginning that is giving major hints about the theme of the film – time. I want to portray this into my film, and let the audience know straight away what the theme of my film is, so I want to try and incorporate shots such as the ones used in this extract to try and do that.