News culture For 40 years, one wonders who could take this photo in Back to the future
Forty years after its release, return to the future continues to fascinate moviegoers and feed the debates. If time travel imagined by Robert Zemeckis and Bob Gale marked several generations, a visual enigma still persists: who took the famous family photo of Marty McFly?
Four decades after its release, the cult film returns to the future, directed by Robert Zemeckis and co-written with Bob Gale, continues to arouse questions. This science fiction masterpiece, which propelled Michael J. Fox and Christopher Lloyd in emblematic roles, is notably known for a visual paradox that persists: the family photography of Marty McFly.
For 40 years, one wonders who could take this photo in “Back to the future”
In the 1985 film, Marty McFly was accidentally propelled in 1955 aboard the Delorean. His intervention in the past threatens the meeting of his parents, George and Lorraine, jeopardizing his existence and that of his brothers and sisters. To visualize this danger, the film uses a photo that Marty carries with him: his brothers and sisters, then himself, begin to disappear from the image, leaving only a white background.
This is where the persistent question resides: If Marty and her brothers and sisters had never existed, who could have taken this family photograph originally?. An analysis reveals an inconsistency: if only people fade, the photo should show the background, not a white background. The Industrial Light & Magic team (ILM) has also encountered technical difficulties for this effect of subtle disappearance, especially for Marty’s hand.
But who ??
The paradox of the photo is “resolved” when George and Lorraine kissed in 1955. Marty and her brothers and sisters instantly reappear on the cliché, a sign that their future is secure. Another “inconsistency” is present: although the future is positively altered and Dave and Linda McFly are more prosperous in 1985, their outfits on the photo remain the same. This detail is a film concession to preserve the surprise effect of the final transformation of the McFly family.
The production was strewn with pitfalls. The scenario was refused more than forty times, deemed “too wise”. The success of Zemeckis with the Green Diamond (1984) opened the doors at Universal Pictures. The cast was arduous: Michael J. Fox, the first choice, was replaced by Eric Stoltz, then re-casted, causing an expensive re-turnout and an additional $ 4 million in the budget. The Delorean was envisaged as a refrigerator before adopting its emblematic design, with a speed of 88 MPH chosen for its cool look. Despite these challenges, returning to the future was a resounding critical and commercial success, becoming the most profitable film of 1985 on a global scale. Hailed for his humor and his history, he acquired a mythical status and was preserved in the National Film Registry in 2007.
