Let’s say I was able to go back in time to 1955, with a reel of “Back to the Future”, and play it before a theater audience without giving any explanation. They just assume it’s a contemporary movie and that the 1985 portion is a prediction.
What do you think this audience’s reaction would be? Will this vision of 1985 seem tame to them, without all robots or flying cars? I imagine they likely won’t care for the “Power of Love” song, but I could be wrong.
Will the 1955 part seem to be ‘off’ to them, or was it accurate enough? Not having lived in that era, I’m not one to judge, but I can imagine there could be some ‘WTF?’ moments. Maybe some Dopers who grew up in that era can shed some light on how well done it was.
1955 was back in the mists of my childhood, but even so, I’m pretty sure a lot of the movie would have been ridculous back then. For one thing, the jokes were clearly aimed at a 1985 audience (there wouldn’t be the slightest funny thing about a Negro boy wanting to grow up to be mayor, and even though the gas station attendant would clean your windshield and check your oil, four of them would not come flying out like a pit crew.)
Also, no high school in the U.S. would have let Lorraine into a dance wearing that dress, unless she was wearing a wrap or covered her bodice with multiple corsages.
Why would you only show one reel instead of the whole film?
Anyway, there are a lot of things that would look odd to a 50s audience, such as using an actual TV show as the show the family is watching. Sure, it sets up the “This is a classic” line, but the point is that it was pretty unusual for a movie to use a real film or show for an in-film reference. When some kind of footage was needed, stock footage was used, or something entirely new was filmed, and it was given a fictional title. It was just the way things were done then, kind of like the way brands in commercials were compared to “brand-X” and not a real brand-- commercials were Pepsi mentioned Coke, and McDonald’s mentioned Burger King were a product of the 1980s.
Product placement is another thing. Marty probably wouldn’t have ordered a Pepsi. I can think of only one movie before the 1970s where a brand name is mentioned, and that’s when Blanche DuBois asks for a Coke (it’s either a lemon or a cherry Coke, I don’t remember which), and I think this is supposed to emphasize to her sister that she isn’t drinking. In the 1967 movie Wait Until Dark, the prominently featured refrigerator contains lots of products with all their labels carefully turned to the inside, so we can’t know what any of them are.
Also, minor films were often still in B&W in the 50s. Since this would be perceived as a kids’ film, and it would be full of special effects, people might think it odd that it was in color.
Although, on the kids’ film note-- people might be more squicky about the near occasion of incest-- that I don’t really know-- but it might be a real distraction.
Now, obviously, these giveaways aren’t going to make people leap to the idea “time traveler,” but they are going to be distracting enough on the whole that people may not follow the plot. They may be too busy wondering about some minor point, and miss something major.
However, that doesn’t mean with some minor rewriting, you couldn’t get a script off the ground in the 50s.
