the list of 9 for may 15, 2006:
MY NINE FAVORITE TIME TRAVEL MOVIES
I recently made my first short film since college, a 60-second entry for Getty Images' "The NextBig Idea" competition. I titled it The Closest Thing to Time Travel as I, like manyfilmmakers before me, have long been fascinated by the concept. (You can watch my short here.) The irony isthat there is no real time travel in my film; I think it's impossible, and so for my story I triedto come up with, as the title suggests, the closest one could plausibly come to it. The followingnine films, however, all used the magic of time travel as a key plot device. The cinematic medium,with its inherently subjective use of time, really is perfect for these kinds of stories.

  1. BACK TO THE FUTURE (1985, Robert Zemeckis). One of themost entertaining movies to ever come out of Hollywood (or anywhere else), this action-comedycovers all the time travel bases you can think of, in a perfectly plotted script. Its two sequelspale in comparison.

  2. TERMINATOR 2: JUDGMENT DAY (1991, James Cameron). The filmthat set the standard for modern-day special effects. Cameron the screenwriter is ham-handed asusual, and the time travel element takes a back seat to the action, but it's a non-stop thrillride and easily the best installment of this, Hollywood's other great time travel trilogy.

  3. PRIMER (2004, Shane Carruth). Now we get as far away fromstudio blockbusters as we can (while still staying within the U.S.) for Carruth's brainy, bafflingindie drama about two friends who create a time machine of sorts, then use it and abuse it. Aperfect example of what a filmmaker can accomplish with less than $10,000, and also a terrificexploration of the "paradox" problem inherent in time travel scenarios. Carruth set out to tell asrealistic a story as possible about the concept, and succeeds - even if viewers are left totallyconfused by the end.

  4. TIME AFTER TIME (1979, Nicholas Meyer). This fancifulplot suggests that H.G. Wells not only wrote about a time machine, he actually built one - thenused it to chase Jack the Ripper into 1979 San Francisco! A delightful picture that gives yoususpense, romance, comedy and social commentary, with three strong performances by Malcolm McDowellas Wells (who knew he would be such a funny leading man?), David Warner as the Ripper, andespecially Mary Steenburgen who is irresistable as the contemporary woman who falls for Wells. Onlydownsides are a weak ending and cheesy (even for their time) special effects.

  5. HAPPY ACCIDENTS (2000, Brad Anderson). Sort of a bookendto Time After Time, only minus the villain, with a strange man coming to the present notfrom a semi-distant past but from over four hundred years into the future - or so he says. As the"back traveler," Vincent D'Onofrio is fine as usual, and writer/director Brad Anderson - who Ithink is one of the most interesting American filmmakers working today - shows that it's possibleto deliver a rich, complex science fiction story with nary a special effect. Geeks beware,however: this is primarily a romantic comedy.

  6. TWELVE MONKEYS (1995, Terry Gilliam). An underrated gemfrom Gilliam (whose fans may prefer his other time travel movie Time Bandits over this one),this adaptation of Chris Marker's haunting short La Jetee is, in my opinion, Gilliam's bestwork after Brazil, full of rich detail and a sad, disturbing, ultimately fatalistic finale. And did I mention that I designed the official web site for it, many moons ago?

  7. PEGGY SUE GOT MARRIED (1986, Francis Ford Coppola). Yetanother underrated film from a great filmmaker, this wistful story about a middle-aged woman(Kathleen Turner) who returns to the 1950's of her teenage years with her older and wiserworldview was written off as a Back to the Future copycat, but there's something lovely andspecial about it. I haven't seen it in twenty years, though, but even if it doesn't hold up, it'sstill worth a look, if only to see so many movie stars in their pre-fame days (such as NicolasCage, Jim Carrey, Helen Hunt and Joan Allen).

  8. PLANET OF THE APES (1968, Franklin J. Schaffner). Althoughit wasn't until the later, stupider sequels to this classic that back-and-forth time traveling wasreally incorporated into this saga of man vs. monkey, the original Planet of the Apesremains one of the best examples of the genre, even if I'm sort of giving away the twist ending(to the three people on earth who don't know it) by citing this as a time travel picture.

  9. HARRY POTTER AND THE PRISONER OF AZKABAN (2004, AlfonsoCuaron). Most people don't think of this when they think of time travel films, but of course it counts! Now, perhaps if I'd seen some of the other notable timetraveling movies - Somewhere in Time, The Philadelphia Experiment, even Bill & Ted'sExcellent Adventure - I'd include one of them in this slot. But this third Harry Potter movie is still pretty cool. (I also have to give a nod to other decent time travelmovies: Star Trek IV, The Navigator, the aforementioned Time Bandits and naturally George Pal's original The Time Machine, corny as it is.)

Copyright © Mark Tapio Kines 2011