Denim on Film: Michael J. Fox in Back to the Future

Michael J. Fox in “Back to the Future”, 1985, directed by Robert Zemeckis. Universal Pictures, Amblin Entertainment

When the stars align, or, more realistically speaking, when the many moving parts that create a film work in perfect harmony, a movie reaches the public’s imagination on a whole new level than the rest and is burnt forever in their collective memory. And sometimes they continue to reach the hearts of the next generation and the next. Back to the Future was one such film. And part of what made it memorable were the costumes. They were very much of the times, and yet they became iconic, they became those characters. Christopher Lloyd is the eccentric inventor Emmett “Doc” Brown in his HazMat suit… And Michael J. Fox is the 1980s teenage guitar player with his own band Marty McFly…

Marty is a seventeen year old who spends most of his time with Doc, whose latest homemade invention is a time-travel machine in the shape of a DeLorean car – “If I am going to build a time travel machine, why not make it in style?” – that accidentally sends Marty 30 years back in time, back to his hometown when his parents were themselves teenagers and had barely met. And so he interferes with the course of history ad his whole existence is put into question.

What probably best belies the timeless status of the film’s costumes is that Marty, having just traveled 30 years back in time, easily fits in, give or take his red puffer vest that does render a couple of ironic “Are you afraid of drowning?” comments. The rest of his look, blue jeans, a checkered shirt with a red t-shirt underneath, a two-toned denim jacket with patterned lining and popped collar, and a pair of white low top Nike Bruin sneakers, the teenagers of the 1950s are ready for. They are ready for newness. It is the brink of the teen generation, which the 50s brought along and which is exactly one of the elements that Robert Zemeckis and co-screenwriter Bob Gale wanted to be part of the film. The first blue jeans generation mediated through the image of film stars – 1955 was the year Rebel without a Cause came out and James Dean, dressed in blue jeans, white t-shirt and red windbreaker, gave the rebellious, disaffected youth an identity and launched a new revolution by dressing down. The teenagers of the ‘50s are ready for embracing a new look, ready to be aligned with their jeans, just as they are ready for embracing new music – when Marty has to take the place of a 1950s band member to perform at a high school dance where his parents kissed for the first time (thus later enabling his own future existence) and plays rock and roll before the birth of rock and roll to the enthusiasm of everyone, one of the musicians calls his cousin, Chuck Berry, saying: “Listen to this, it’s the sound you’ve been looking for!”

Michael J. Fox and Christopher Lloyd in “Back to the Future”, 1985. Universal Pictures, Amblin Entertainment

“Back to the Future is a comedy-adventure-science-speculation-coming-of-age-rock-and-roll-timetravel-period-film,” director Robert Zemeckis told Films and Filmmaking. It’s the blend of all those things that appealed to the imagination of moviegoers generations apart. It is a film that is witty in portraying two epochs and two generations with humorous, intelligent and ironic references to popular culture and American history and with a fantastic soundtrack that goes from the edgy 80s music (Huey Lewis and the News, Eric Clapton, Phil Collins, Fleetwood Mac) back to the early classic rock of Etta James, Johnny Otis, Chuck Berry. The contrast between the 1950s and the 1980s provides a good deal of humour for the film’s main characters, as Bob Gale explains, “I think one of the great time travel fantasies is the idea of going back and being superior because you have prior knowledge in so many areas.” Rock and roll didn’t happen and the rebel uniform did not happen until society was ready for them to happen.

But Marty’s denim look is ultimately very ‘80s and is very much his own. A denim look, when done right, will always be timeless, but what places this one firmly in the eighties is the denim jacket. Fashion was practical yet fun in the ‘80s, they wore what they felt like, and they felt strongly about it. Everyone was an individual, the clothes became your trademark. His clothes are Marty’s trademark, too, just as his music is, just as his Sony Walkman is.

“A film costume only becomes iconic when many things come together,” costume designer Deborah L. Scott told me in our interview. “A film that captures the imagination of the public, a character performed by a brilliant actor, a great script that informs us all, and then the right costume to accent all these things. All of the creative and brilliant people that I had the good fortune to work with on this project were amazing. To create this world, everyone was on board. When I watch it now, I can’t believe how kooky Chris Lloyd is, in performance and look… but they go together! And Michael became as iconic as it gets… maybe not as beautiful as Audrey Hepburn’s black dress but still memorable. And the looks don’t seem too dated either. Such kismet!”