Back in Time

Any documentary covering such a great franchise automatically has lots of potential, especially since they were able to interview most of the greats behind the trilogy. While I felt it opened strong, about halfway through it felt unfinished. I attribute this to editing that could have been improved. Of course you're going to have mounds of interview footage, but it's the job of the editor to prioritize, summarize, and excite for the sake of telling a well-defined story. It could have been about 30 minutes shorter than it was, and certain tangents (like the hoverboard and Delorean restorations) could have been summarized more concisely. It was also a bit distracting that interviews with the stars was interspersed with fans and others whom the audience has never heard of. I'm glad fans were interviewed, but their footage could have been more separate and not given equal screen time with the celebrity interviews. I mean if you have these exclusive big-name interviews that are hard to get that people want to see, why spend less time on them? Oh, and the part where Dan Harmon said parts II and III sucked could have been taken out altogether. On that note, Harmon's screen time should have been severely cut. Most of his comments were either sexual or overly negative in nature and didn't really fit with the tone of any of the other interviews.

I was also surprised that nothing was mentioned about the amazing score Alan Silvestri wrote for the trilogy, considered by many to be the best film score ever written, especially after all the fuss they made about Huey Lewis's role with the first film. It was also quite strange that all the interviews they included about Alan Silvestri had nothing to do with his role with BTTF. As a musician I felt this was a huge missed opportunity to hear about his composing process for the trilogy. And I have to agree that the guitar cover of Silvestri's score that was featured was too somber in tone and was overused.

I was looking forward to an interesting and in-depth celebration of this great movie trilogy but this has one of the weakest plays from a strong hand I've ever seen. Boy did it drag and dwell on uninteresting aspects. It felt like it was 6 hours long. So some guy bought one of the deloreans and proud of it, cool, but does it really need that much screen time when you've got Doc and Zemeckis, and Michael J Fox and crew. What a wasted opportunity. What a waste of the viewers time. Instead of invigorating my love for the movies it made me wary of watching things like this again. Who do we blame for this? Directors mistake?

'Back in Time' is a documentary about 'Back to the Future' and the everlasting imprint it has left on society in the last 30 years. Going into this documentary, I was really looking forward to gaining a lot of new information about what went into making this trilogy of films, but there wasn't really much there of interest, for a Back to the Future fan. They did go into the pre-production of the first film for about 20 minutes, speaking to Steven Spielberg, Robert Zemeckis, and Bob Gale and providing some somewhat interesting information about the complications they had with getting the film made. They also spoke a little about the second film and its representation of the future but not enough to really give us any insight into why they decided to show the future in the way they did. And when it came to talking about the third film, i think Christopher Lloyd mentioned it once and that was pretty much it. So in terms of going in depth about the making of the films and providing any new information that was previously unknown, it was a bit of a let down.

I would have to also say that the overall structure of the documentary was a little off. It wasn't really broken into sections and instead it kind of began talking about something and going off on a tangent before then bringing it back to what it was initially talking about and certain portions felt out of place. A better and more organised structure would have really helped to maintain interest. The tone of the film was something that i was unsure of what i was going to get. And i have to say i liked the tone they were going for, it definitely wasn't a fun and exciting tone but it worked as more of a slower, slightly more emotional tone. I'm not sure if they were actually trying to evoke those emotions or if it was just my reaction to seeing things that i recognise from the film and thus my childhood. But either way it was a nicely paced documentary that had a few moments where they were able to crack a quick joke to lighten the mood a little which was nice.

But where the documentary really excelled and where i was really loving what it was showing was when it began talking about the fans, and the imprint 'Back to the Future' has had on society and our culture over the last 30 years. Getting an insight into the many types of events that are aimed at bringing together fans of BTTF from all around the world was endlessly fascinating. Seeing people interact at BTTF fan conventions, and things like the DeLoreon Car Show really shows the love for this series even today. They even go into a few more personal stories talking about how BTTF inspired people to fight through their illnesses and how they found connections between the characters and were able to learn from the film to be stronger and help others. These were very heartwarming stories that i was happy to see the documentary put quite a bit of focus on.

In the end, for BTTF fans, a lot of the information about the films themselves and what went into the making of them is stuff that has already been featured in past interviews and DVD behind the scenes that you have probably already checked out. So if that is what you are looking to get out of this you may be disappointed. But for new BTTF fans, i think you can get a good kick of info that you might not have previously known. If there was a better overall structure and more of a focus on all 3 BTTF films this would have been very worthwhile, but apart from the fan stories and witnessing the films legacy over the last 30 years there's not much else to really pick out. - 6/10

Greetings again from the darkness. Thirty years is an eternity in the filmmaking world. Only a few dozen movies even get a cable run in year two. So, it's worth noting, and maybe even magical, when a movie is beloved and worshiped by a rabid fan base some three decades after release. Such is the case with Back to the Future, the story of Marty McFly and Dr. Emmett Brown and their time-traveling escapades. First time director Jason Aron offers up a look at the BTTF community of fans, and some behind-the-scenes scoop from those involved.

Talking heads abound in the first part of the movie, as we see and hear from the masterminds of the classic: Robert Zemekis and Bob Gale, as well as Michael J Fox, Lea Thompson, Steven Spielberg, Huey Lewis, Christopher Lloyd, Claudia Wells, Alan Silvestri, Dean Cundey, Dan Harmon, Frank Price and others. Very little new information is served up, and in fact Mr. Zemekis doesn't seem especially excited to be involved, whereas Mr. Gale seems quite pleased and comfortable with his role in film history. The best "making of" anecdotes come from Michael J Fox, though it is interesting to note just how difficult it was for the film to get studio backing – "time travel" movies didn't have a successful box office track record.

The middle third of the movie is dedicated to the iconic Delorean car, and all that entails. This sequence would have been effective were it completed in 10 minutes, but instead it brings the film's flow to a dead stop. Sure, it's amazing that this many have a hobby related to this obscure car and its role in a classic film, but enough already!

Fan-based clubs and the accuracy of the film's "future" predictions for 2015 make up the final third of the run time, as we get a glimpse of how close we are to real hover boards and flying cars. The question that seems unanswered is just who is this film aimed at? Most of the insight has been long ago discussed in DVD "bonus" coverage or previous interviews with the key players. The fan communities are certainly of interest if one is part of it, but the vast majority of those who have held the film close to their heart for 30 years care little for the obsessive fringes, and only for the emotions and imagination delivered by the film that needs no roads.

As a die hard BTTF fan I was pretty excited for this. I contributed to the Kickstarter campaign based off the trailer, which looked amazing. With all the coverage the trilogy was getting this year and especially in October, I thought finally viewing this would be a great way to cap it all off. Unfortunately, it left me pretty disappointed.

The marquee names involved are obviously great, but way too much time is spent on random fans and contributors. It's hard to believe that what we see in the final piece is the best they got out of the interviews with Fox, Lloyd, and Thompson; all of which appear on screen for a total of maybe 10 minutes total.

There are a few nice anecdotes and facts sprinkled throughout but overall the surface barely gets scratched on the depth of not only the movies themselves, but also the incredibly devoted subculture that has been generated over the years. To be fair, I am an above average fan so I know or am at least aware of the more behind the scenes stories and facts. However, even for the regular person with just basic knowledge of the films the documentary leaves a lot of holes.

Storywise the editing is not good at all and very fragmented. For example, the first part (it's split into 2 very unequal parts for some unclear reason. Part 1 is about the move getting made) ends on the topic of the iconic delorean. Then we see a title card for "Part 2: The Fans", and for a minute or 2 they talk to some people, but then somehow the topic gets back to the delorean and into a pretty long exposition about people replicating the cars etc. Now sure, technically this is fans who build the cars, but there is so much of it there really should have been an entire section just about the car. Then, another part about the subculture of fans. I really saw no point at the attempt to segment the film into actual parts, of which there are only 2.

There are some really nice nuggets and stories in there—like the private owner who actually owns the delorean from part 3 and 4x4 from part 1. But overall this really fell flat for me which is a big shame. I contributed because of my love for the movies. And although I'm sure the director is a passionate fan, it may have been better left in the hands of experienced story tellers.