Back to the Future - General Discussion

[Moviefan2k4]

Hey, all.

I know there's several threads dedicated to the various home video formats and theatrical re-releases of this beloved film series, but in doing an on-site search I couldn't find a thread where folks could discuss everything related to the trilogy in general. So, I've decided to start one, and this first post is about my own history with the franchise. Its fairly-long-winded, so please bear with me. Here goes...

My "Back to the Future" Story

I first became aware of "Back to the Future" in 1988, when my folks recorded it off an NBC television broadcast dubbed "Back to the Future Night", hosted by late comedian and actor Leslie Nielsen. The program mostly consisted of the entire movie, albeit edited for language and commercials (concepts an 8-year-old child neither understood or even cared about at the time). But other than the film itself, the next best thing was that most of the station breaks contained footage from the making of the second film. I was mesmerized, having no idea how movies were made and just being enamored by everything I saw. This was also when Robert Zemeckis gave that cheeky interview where he said hoverboards were real, so naturally in my youth I believed him, and harped on my mother to get me one that Christmas (needless to say, that went nowhere). When "Part II" was finally released though, my excitement skyrocketed, and seeing the trailer at the end for "Part III" probably had me thinking, "Hold up - they're doing another one so soon? AWESOME!!!"

I eventually wore out that initially-recorded VHS tape, but then owned multiple official releases of the trilogy on that format over the next few years. The first DVD release came out when I was in college, and I'd learned the basics of Photoshop by then so I made custom covers for them. I loved listening to the commentaries by Bob Gale & Niel Canton, and watching all the documentaries and interviews I could find. When Michael Klastorin released his "Ultimate Visual History" book for the series, I immediately went nuts and bought a copy. In 2010, the Blu-Rays came out, so it was cool to see the films again in an even better video quality. I was fairly disappointed though, that Universal didn't make any more new bonus material for that release (they still ported over almost everything from the DVDs, though).

Around that same time, I got to meet Christopher Lloyd at a convention in Plano, TX, and it took everything I had will-wise not to fully geek out in front of him. I've always identified with Doc as a character, seeing a lot of myself in Chris' performance. He signed an 8x10 of Emmett in the brain helmet for me, but sadly I didn't have a camera so I wasn't able to take a picture with him. Three years later, at another convention, I met Lea Thompson, James Tolkan, and Claudia Wells. They were all super sweet, and I got autographs from all of them. I had my own camera this time, but due to the contracted rules of the convention they weren't allowed to do any free photo-ops, which I still think sucks. Last year, I bought a 1/6th scaled figure of Doc from Sideshow Collectibles - its still in the box though, since I don't have enough shelf space to display it properly.

I did recently buy the whole trilogy on the 4K format, but so far I've only watched the original. While it looked amazing, I did notice something which honestly puzzled me a fair bit. During the movie's first act, most of the outdoor daytime exteriors seem to be fairly de-saturated apart from the flesh tones. Indoor scenes like the McFly family home and Hill Valley High are fine, along with the night shots at Twin Pines Mall. By comparison, everything set in 1955 pops like crazy, almost as if it was actually filmed during that era. This new color grading doesn't really bother me, but I was curious as to whether Robert Zemeckis did this for the original release almost 40 years ago, and the 4K resolution just made it more obvious. I didn't find any direct way to contact him or Bob Gale online, so instead I sent two emails to Universal's home video department; I'm still waiting to hear back from them.

Anyway, that's my story as a somewhat-obsessed fan thus far. Thanks for patiently reading, and to quote our favorite mad scientist himself, "See you in the future!"