I've been a little slow to adjust to being back in the "high life" again. After a work trip and a not-so-great vacation, it's been a week of jet lag, laziness, and movie/TV watching. I have to watch the finale of Mad Men once more, on the big screen (or at least as big as it gets at home), to make sure I didn't hallucinate the ending, and at that point I'll write something about that.
But I've spent the last two evenings with the very pleasant self-appointed "task" of viewing the new 25th anniversary edition Back to the Future Trilogy on Blu-ray, which debuted on Tuesday. I've seen these films at least a dozen times each, but I never get tired of them. Michael J. Fox's energy and Christopher Lloyd's wacky gravitas are hallmarks of all three films. But I don't think Crispin Glover (who appeared in only the first one), Thomas Wilson, and Lea Thompson get enough credit for their roles in this beloved trilogy of movies. Thompson was all of 22 when she got the role of Marty McFly's mom. And seriously, how twisted is the whole premise of the first film? Mom falls for her son when he goes back in time...hijinks almost ensue.
My favorite film of the three is the second one, aptly named "Part II." It's dark and complicated--you practically need a flow chart to keep track of everything, and luckily Doc Brown (Christopher Lloyd) provides one, about midway through. Time travel is a fickle bitch, and once you settle in and start to think, now waitaminute..."If Marty goes back to 1955 a second time, wouldn't he already know he did this?"...you're doomed. It's better to just go with the flow. And I love the whole thing that director Robert Zemeckis discusses in the excellent series of new documentaries that appear on each disc: The ability to go back and revisit the first film from an entirely different point of view. Bob Gale's original story had a totally different third act to the second film, one that took place in the 1960s, where Lorraine (Marty's mom/Lea Thompson) was a hippie, protesting the Vietnam War. And for me, there's no better ending of a film than the moment Joe Flaherty shows up in the middle of the Hill Valley 1955 rainstorm with a letter for Marty McFly from Doc Brown, safely embedded almost 75 years in the past. Add to that scene the one of Marty running down the street and telling 1955 Doc Brown that he has to send him back--after he just SENT HIM BACK--and it's a classic moment in film history. It's a shame the third film (called--believe it or not--"Part III") didn't quite live up to the first two, although it's still enjoyable.
I can tell you that the Blu-ray versions of these films look absolutely stunning, and the new documentary (about an hour--in three parts--on the first film's disc, about a half-hour on the second--I have yet to watch the third film) are great, featuring new interviews with Fox, Thompson, Lloyd, and even Claudia Wells, who played Jennifer in the first film, along with various production people including director Robert Zemeckis, co-writer/producer Bob Gale, and executive producer Steven Spielberg. There are also trailers, outtakes (sadly very few), deleted scenes, and other vintage documentaries on the films. It's really cool to watch the remastered HD footage cut to original film scenes on the deleted ones, with all the grain and dirt and lighting problems. It really shows how much crisper and clearer the Blu-ray transfer is.
I was amazed at how fast-moving the first film was. It really clips along from beat to beat, much faster than I recalled (and I probably saw these films at least a couple of time within the last 5 years or so, since I had the original DVD release of the Trilogy). Back to the Future is one of those things I can put in the DVD player at any time and it immediately cheers me up. It's funny how the 1985 scenes seem so dated now--all that big hair, down vests, and denim--but the 1950s scenes seem so timeless. BTTF is that, in a word: Timeless.
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