Back To The Future Trilogy (Box Set) (DVD)

...the box set of the Back to the Future trilogy on DVD. It has been quite a few years since I’ve seen these films, but it didn’t take much watching to remind me of just why I enjoyed them so much. These three films formed such a major part of my childhood (along with Indiana Jones, another favourite of mine) and it has been wonderful to spend a couple of days reliving that with complete, unashamed nostalgia. And how could I resist writing a review ...
.../> · Disc 1 – Back to the Future (1985)
Originally conceived as an idea back in 1980, it took several years before a studio could be persuaded to turn the script into the classic film that became the highest earning movie of 1985. BTTF centres around a small American town called Hill Valley, and takes two people as its central characters: a 17 year old student named Marty McFly (Michael J Fox), and local mad scientist “Doc” Emmett Brown (Christopher ... more

I have been spending my New Year break indulging myself with a fantastic present that I got for Christmas – the box set of the Back to the Future trilogy on DVD. It has been quite a few years since I’ve seen these films, but it didn’t take much watching to remind me of just why I enjoyed them so much. These three films formed such a major part of my childhood (along with Indiana Jones, another favourite of mine) and it has been wonderful to spend a couple of days reliving that with complete, unashamed nostalgia. And how could I resist writing a review after all that? ;-)

· Design
The box set comes as a neat package, enclosed in a black cardboard sleeve with the familiar film logo emblazoned across the cover and a dramatic shot of the DeLorean about to jump through time. The inside is actually barely bigger than for a standard one disc DVD package, but instead folds open into three sections, each containing one of the three DVDs in the set. Each DVD (with the film poster pictured on the upper surface) contains the film and a series of extras relating to the film – as well as this, you get a little booklet containing production notes and a little background to the trilogy. The whole set costs around £28 (a bargain for three films plus extras as far as I am concerned) and is awarded a PG certificate throughout.

· Disc 1 – Back to the Future (1985)
Originally conceived as an idea back in 1980, it took several years before a studio could be persuaded to turn the script into the classic film that became the highest earning movie of 1985. BTTF centres around a small American town called Hill Valley, and takes two people as its central characters: a 17 year old student named Marty McFly (Michael J Fox), and local mad scientist “Doc” Emmett Brown (Christopher Lloyd). The viewer firsts encounters the pair after they have become friends, firstly Marty as he is late for school yet again, and shortly afterwards Doc, when Marty agrees to help him out with an experiment he is planning to conduct in a mall car park in the middle of the night.

This is the point where we see the prop that has now become movie legend – the time machine that the Doc has built into a DeLorean car (as he says, if you are going to travel through time, you might as well do it in style). The car is a work of purest imagination: built into it is the flux capacitor (which makes time travel possible), a device for programming the exact time and date of your destination, and an electronic display to show the viewer very clearly the speed the car is travelling. The importance of this last device becomes apparent as we learn the car can only leap through time when it hits a speed of 88mph. Unlike many time travel stories, the basis of the DeLorean machine is the same as for the HG Wells book “The Time Machine” – that when you travel through time you do not move through space, so you end up at the same point geographically as the one you left. This allows the whole film to be set around locations and people that are familiar to the central characters, and which become familiar to us over the course of the trilogy.

The time setting for the first film involves a leap from the starting point of 1985 back to November 1955, which Marty takes alone and unintentionally. Trapped back in the past – he does not have another dose of the plutonium that is vital to fuelling the time circuits – Marty’s only chance to get back to his own time is to find the 1955 Doc and persuade him of his story. Unfortunately, in doing this Marty also manages to meet his parents when they were 17, and interferes with history as it originally happened by accidentally preventing them from falling in love. As well as fixing the DeLorean and finding a way to get back to the future, Marty is now also faced with having to repair the space-time continuum – because if his parents fail to fall in love and share their first kiss at an upcoming school dance, he will cease to exist in 1985.

Details:
Running time – 111 minutes
Marty – Michael J Fox
Doc – Christopher Lloyd
George (Marty’s father) – Crispin Glover
Lorraine (Marty’s mother) – Lea Thompson
Biff – Thomas F Wilson
Writers – Robert Zemeckis and Bob Gale
Producer – Steven Spielberg
Director – Robert Zemeckis

Disc 1 extras:
The making of BTTF – a short (20 minute) behind the scenes look at the film made at the time of shooting in 1985. Features short interviews with the writers, Michael J Fox and lea Thompson.

Making the Trilogy Chapter 1 – a modern documentary explaining the background to the film, looking at the original ideas, casting and special effects. Also includes recently done interviews with Michael J Fox and Robert Zemeckis.

Commentary – The entire film run with commentary, insights and explanations from the writers and producers.

Outtakes – half a dozen or so “hilarious” mistakes and on set jokes that have for whatever reason been preserved over the past 20 years. Not the best bonus material I’ve seen, but I’m not going to complain when the makers have gone to so much trouble to give us loads of extra bits on this DVD.

Deleted scenes – a few shots and bits of dialogue that never made it into the finished film. Nothing major or earth shattering, but it is always interesting to see the bits that the editors left out!

Original make up tests – now here is something a bit more unusual. Because of all the bouncing about in time that Marty does, he sees his parents aged both 17 and 30 years older, and both age points are played by the same actors. This means that the youngsters who played the 1955 characters had to be aged 30 years with make up, and this shows us the original tests. Pointless, but amusing anyway!

Production archives – photographs, storyboards and props used in making the film.

Trailer – the original cinematic hype for BTTF.

· Disc 2 – Back to the Future part 2 (1989)
BTTF was originally conceived as a single film, but was so successful that the writers decided to turn it into the basis of a trilogy of films. It was actually made back to back with part three and then released just a year apart (in much the same fashion that was later to be done with the LOTR films). The fascinating thing about part 2 though is that it was made as a new kind of sequel that is unique in cinematic history. Zemeckis didn’t want to simply reassemble the same cast and have another adventure merely for the sake of it – so, taking the presumption that Doc has invented a viable method of time travel, he was able to something really rather clever and totally original. He was able to take the characters back to the time and place of the first film and have a second plotline going on with scenes from the original film playing out all around Marty as he goes.

In this second outing, the film starts from where it left off – Doc has just returned from a solo trip into the future, where a hover conversion has been fitted to the DeLorean (allowing it to fly), as well as a new unit that powers the time circuits through garbage rather than plutonium. On his visit to 2015, Doc has found out that Marty’s future children have screwed up their lives, and plans a trip for Marty to this year to sort out their lives for them. While this mission turns out to be successful, further problems arise when Marty buys an antique sports almanac containing the result of every major sporting event from 1950 to 2000. While this creates no problem in the year 2015, it accidentally gets into the hands of local bully Biff Tannen – who manages to steal the DeLorean and go back to 1955, where he passes it to his younger self. This changes to course of history once again, creating an alternate 1985 where Hill Valley is in the control of Biff, and he has murdered George McFly. This of course sets up the second trip to November 1955, and the really clever scenes of the film take place as Marty tries to right the timeline once more.

This film runs for 104 minutes and features the same cast and crew as for the original film.

Disc 2 extras:
BTTF part 2 featurette – the short “making of” film shot at the same time as the film, showing how the original film sets for the 1955 sequences were recreated, and the futuristic ones designed. There are also short cast and crew interviews.

Making the Trilogy Chapter 2 – the second part of the modern documentary shown on disc one, this time featuring the making of this second movie. Further interviews and behind the scenes information is given.

Outtakes – more of the “hilarious” mistakes made when filming.

Deleted scenes – this is the shortest of the three films and some pretty severe editing went on here. I think a bit more of the deleted bits could have been included (particularly the bit where Marty meets his brother in the alternate 1985 that Biff created – I think it was a really telling sequence that shows just how much damage could have been done on a personal level if time could be messed about with like this).

Hover board test – the hover boards are 2015’s answer to the skateboards of 1985, and an excellent little touch to the film. This is a short and rather grainy test sequence showing you how the wiring and trick shots were used to create the desired effects.

Production archives – more photos, storyboards and props.

Trailer – how the film was advertised in cinemas.

· Disc 3 – Back to the Future part 3 (1990)
The third and final film of the trilogy was shot on location in northern California, where Hill Valley has once again been recreated, this time in the year 1885. At the end of the second film, the DeLorean (containing Doc Brown) was hit by lightening, sending back to this point time – where he is quite happy to live, fulfilling a boyhood fantasy of his to be in the old west. Leaving a letter with Western Union with instructions to deliver it to Marty in 1955, Doc manages to tell him that he survived the lightening strike and his happy where (or should I say when) he is. Doc also has the foresight to hide the DeLorean inside a mine, where Marty can recover it in 1955 and use it to get back to his own time in 1985. All seems straightforward enough (at least as far as these films are concerned!) until Marty discovers that the 1885 Doc meets an untimely end shortly after sending the letter to him. Naturally, Marty then heads back to 1885 himself, to warn the Doc.

In this film, we get to see the origins of Hill Valley and the monuments that have become so familiar to us by now – the clocktower and central square amongst them. All of the familiar characters are here (with Fox playing his own great grandfather Seamus McFly, and Lea Thomson back as his wife Maggie), along with the sequences we have come to recognise from parts 1 and 2. There is also a reference to part 1, where Marty has a gunfight in the same style as Clint Eastwood in a film clip shown then! The film builds up to a memorable ending to the trilogy – Marty returns to 1985 for the last time, the DeLorean is destroyed and both leads head off for happy futures with the women they love. Awwwww!

Part 3 runs for 113 minutes, same cast and crew as before – with the addition of Mary Steenburgen as Clara Clayton.

Disc 3 extras:
Making the Trilogy Chapter 3 – there is not featurette with this film, so all of the behind the scenes stuff and interviews are in this third part of the up to date “making of” documentary. It seems that getting the chance to do a western was something of a wet dream to many of the stunt men working on it!

Outtakes – funnier than the previous two. If you find images of people falling off horses funny, that is. Still, the number of stunts this film called for makes for the possibility of more mistakes so this section is a little fuller than it was on the other two movies.

Deleted scenes – not a great deal of material here. As this is the longest film of the trilogy they seemed to leaves virtually everything they shot in the film, so this part is a little poor to watch.

Music Video – part of the soundtrack for this film features Doubleback by ZZ Top, and the video for this (featuring clips from the film) is included.

Production archives – more photos, storyboards and props.

Trailer – original promotional teaser from the cinema.

· My opinion
Hmmm, this is turning into a bit of a long review – and I haven’t even got around to saying what I think yet. Sorry, but then I have had three films and 10 hours of bonus material to cover and that is not an easy thing to do succinctly!

Overall, this was an excellent present to receive and I thoroughly enjoyed being able to sit down and devour the whole lot of it over two days, and really take in all the little details you only really pick up on when seen back to back. The BTTF trilogy is great viewing, suitable for both sci-fi nerds and those wanting good family entertainment at the same time. The films are both funny and clever and give you some interesting things to think about regarding the make-up of history and how nothing ever really changes that much through time – but at the same time you do not have to concentrate intently or be a scientific genius to appreciate and enjoy them. An excellent balance has been achieved between comedy, fantasy, science fiction and action – and there is nothing offensive in a single one of them. And the best thing? Unlike so many other blockbusters, this does not rely on huge special effects and big name actors (a cast of largely unknown actors was used) to carry it, but rather manages this through spot-on casting, superb acting and a bloody good script.

Mind you, this was helped along by the musical score – a combination of both contemporary music (notably by Huey Lewis and ZZ Top) and a classical score done with full orchestra. The writers were aware that the lack of huge special effects made this a comparatively small film on screen, so Alan Silvestri was hired to compensate for this by composing a very big and dramatic score to help “enlarge” the film. I am quite sure anyone who has ever heard the BTTF theme music will not fail to recognise it!

As to the bonus material for these DVDs – not brilliant in my opinion, but then it must be difficult trying to find suitable extras for a film that is nearly 20 years old. In all fairness, they have tried to compensate for this by shooting a more modern “making of” documentary and sticking in all sorts of minor bits and trivia to pad things out a bit. They are quite interesting to flick through if you have the time, but it would have been nice to have perhaps fuller interviews or PC material such as a screensaver. This is only a minor niggle though, as you are still getting an awful lot for your £28.

Highly recommended for all ages.

· And Finally…
Did you know that….?
- Marty McFly was originally going to be played by Eric Stolz; Fox only got the part after he was fired
- A whole new type of camera had to be invented in order to shoot the scenes where a character is seen talking to his older/younger self, in order for the same actor to be able to have a seamless interaction with himself
- The original idea for the films came from one of the writers wondering what it would be like to meet his parents when they were in high school
- One of the jokes in the original film surrounds the unlikely future from a 1955 perspective for actor Ronald Reagan: President in 1985. If you look closely when Marty is walking around the central square in Hill Valley, you will see the cinema is playing a Reagan film

 

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