Week 4: A film with time travel

Film: Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure (1989)

Genre: Comedy/Sci-fi

Watched on: Kanopy 

After Atlantics, I figured that I was in the mood for something light and silly. Upon looking for a time travel film that I’d never seen before, I was pleasantly surprised to learn that I had watched most of them. Some highlights include the Back to the Future trilogy, Midnight in Paris, Groundhog Day, and Pleasantville. 

That's when I stumbled upon Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure on Kanopy. The premise seemed promising: Bill and Ted are two wannabe rock stars who are on the verge of failing their history class, a disaster that would send Ted to military school and break up their band. A traveler from the future, where their music is foundational to society, intervenes by gifting them a time machine. In the hopes of acing their final presentation, they travel to various historically significant moments and return to the present day with important figures, such as Napoleon, Joan of Arc, and Socrates. 

This is one of those “purely for the vibes and nostalgia” films. It’s low stakes, ridiculous, and at times nonsensical. The fact that they’re bringing historical figures into the present day with no consequence astounds me, because there’s no consideration for how that may trigger the butterfly effect. In the Back to the Future trilogy, Marty McFly had to be extra careful about every move he made to prevent catastrophic or life-altering events in the future. In Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure, they not only take these people out of their time, but also introduce them to the 1980s and parade them in front of their entire school. 

Aside from the time travel fallacy, there’s no elaboration or contextualisation of why the future hinges on their band. The assumption is that their music is so iconic that it creates a utopia that centers around their friendship, personality, and band. The lack of context makes everything feel like a joke, and there’s no emotional investment in this whole adventure to begin with. 

This movie did not age well in terms of the derogatory language used and some misogynistic portrayals. It did not pass the Bechdel test, but the worst part was that women were objectified, overly sexualized, and had no purpose in the film except as fantasies.

I should have been skeptical when I saw the reviews on Letterboxd before deciding to watch it. Quite a number of people loved this, mainly for the ridiculousness, nostalgia for 80s culture, and the hints of homoeroticism. I wasn’t a fan, and for that, I gave it 1 star.