Everything old is new again, so it seems. Clinton and Bush are running for President, everyone is waiting for the release of Star Wars, and Arnold Schwarzenegger is starring in Terminator. People are going crazy for nostalgia and the buzz this month is all about Back To The Future.
On October 21st there will be showings all over the country to celebrate the day Marty McFly traveled to the future from 1985 in Back To The Future II. Pepsi will release a limited edition "Perfect Pepsi" for sale and audiences can view the Jaws 19 trailer. Director Jason Aron will also debut his documentary Back In Time with interviews with the cast and crew of the iconic films.
Back In Time starts off by giving a brief behind-the-scenes look at the making of Back To The Future and what the film has meant to audiences worldwide. The cast discusses their initial thoughts when reading the script and Director and Co-writer Robert Zemeckis takes the audience through the multi-year process of trying to get the movie made. Zemeckis reminisces on the path he took in order to get Executive Producer Steven Spielberg on board and the rejects from various studios along the way.
A third of the way through the documentary, the DeLorean time machine takes over and we spend the next hour watching people recount how the DeLorean was transformed, what it meant to the cast and crew and all the collectors and imitators who now own/have built their own time machines out of the infamous car. The filmmakers interview individuals who have taken on the task of finding and recreating the time machine from the ground up, as well as, speaking with the crew who originally brought the machine to life.
For car enthusiasts and Back To The Future fanatics, the next hour will be a titillating stroll through car design and movie memorabilia. For the rest of us, it is a dry, overindulgent look at a classic piece of movie history. While there are some interesting moments, much of the film is redundant and doesn't necessarily add anything new for the viewer. The movie is also choppy and scattered as there is talk of the car, then the casting and recasting of Marty McFly, then once again back to the DeLorean.
It was interesting to see the culture (or cult) of Back To The Future and the devoted fans, almost to a religious level. There are a few cute moments, like when a time machine devotee and his girlfriend attend their first convention and he proposes to her right in front of many of the original cast members. It should also be mentioned that the filmmaker was able to interview not only Zemeckis but Spielberg, Michael J. Fox, Leah Thompson, and Christopher Lloyd as well.
I wish the continuity had been smoother and the documentary had been more well-rounded rather than almost singularly focused on the time machine DeLorean. There were some terrific facts and antidotes in the film, but they tend to be swallowed up in between stretches of car talk.
Grade: B-
