6. Back To The Future (1985-1990)
Originally...Back to the Future is a genuine genre curiosity, given that it's probably the only movie in existence that manages to be about 10 genres at once and make it work perfectly. Trying to define its "original" genre is a fairly difficult task, then, but for our money,
Back to the Future is probably best-described as a "sci-fi rom-com," a tag that nicely suits its (relatively darker) sequel, too.
So What Changed? By the third installment, the filmmakers had already stepped on the events of the original movie, albiet in a way that at least seemed fresh and clever, so re-treading on that plot-line seemed like a bit of a no-go. Luckily, director Robert Zemeckis had always had dreams of making a western and saw the opportunity to do so in a clever way with characters he liked: he sent Doc Brown back to 1885 and had Marty McFly going back to rescue him.
Did It Pay Off?Back to the Future Part III received a luke-warm reception upon release, though the film has succumbed to a kind of critical reevaluation in recent years and is considered a worthy sequel and a genuinely excellent mediation/deconstruction on the western genre in general. Oh, and that Clint Eastwood joke kills every time: "What kind of stoopid name is
that?"