There was an epic buzz inside the walls of Hamer Hall when Back to the Future came back to the big screen last week, this time with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra providing a multi-layered evening of immersion with a fun new take on the iconic film.
Attendees, both young and old, and some even dressed up as Marty McFly, enjoyed a blast from the past with Conductor Benjamin Northey melding the beloved film with Alan Silvestri’s iconic film score. The night felt like a collision of decades of the 1950s, 1980s, and 2000s and beyond.
Northey kicked off the evening bearing a skateboard in a playful nod and homage to McFly – his wink to the film’s spirit setting off the beginning of an interactive event, with Northey encouraging participation throughout the film as he led the audience and his co-pilots through Hill Valley.
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It felt as though we were sitting inside Doc’s DeLorean as it dipped through the decades, with a joyful hall-wide communal collaboration from the audience that further amplified the experience of the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra.
The crowd erupted to every climatic moment during the most iconic scenes making the evening a true 4-dimensional affair. Biff, the film’s antagonist and bully received an applause after getting a rightly-deserved serve in one scene, while Marty’s parents and Marty and his girl Jennifer saw the crowd erupt when they copped a smooch.
At times it was hard to tell if the film’s sound effects were the orchestra versus film foley, but the orchestra’s performance was impeccably tight, hitting each cue with such precision it was easy to become re-surprised that the delicate orchestra was in front of you.
The night wrapped up with fans buzzing like we’d just hopped out of the time machine. The MSO’s merging of live music and film will continue this year with Home Alone in December, and January with Raiders of the Lost Ark, and not to be missed for both music and film lovers looking for something a little more captivating for an evening watch.
See what’s coming up for the MSO here.
