Thank you for your support in 2023 as I launched this newsletter, and I am grateful to have it moving forward in 2024. For those who are waiting on word about availability of books, I will have an update next week.
Not long ago I was watching "Back to the Future" with my kids. I think it's in the category of near-perfect movies. A near-perfect movie does not necessarily imply that it's one of the greatest movies ever made (though you could make the case). A near-perfect movie is a film that does everything it sets out to do and has no significant artistic flaws. It has a tight script and the highest quality acting and execution. There isn’t much to criticize about it. Is Back to the Future as monumental as The Godfather or Citizen Kane? Of course not—but you could argue it’s more “perfect.”
I never really thought about the moral values in Back to the Future, but in this recent rewatch, I picked up on a few things. Among them is the climactic moment where Marty's dad, the nerdy George McFly, sends the school bully, Biff Tannen, to the pavement with a right hook after Biff gets too handsy with Lorraine (Marty's future mother).
It's a cathartic, climactic scene that is set up brilliantly throughout the movie: Will George McFly find the nerve to slay the dragon and rescue the princess?
A scene like that would not exist in modern Hollywood movies. It would be deemed too problematic.