Last weekend I righted a wrong in my film viewing history that has needed addressing for way too long. Ok, so the main motivation behind this was a resounding blight of procrastination, with a dash of depressive tendencies, that led to total head in the sand avoidance of PhD related work for the last few days, but that's not the point.
So, as I was flicking through the channels trying to find something to distract me from my absolute lack of motivation, I stopped on the Sky Action/Adventure channel at Back to the Future. This holds the place as one of those special films that I'd seen bits of but never actually seen all the way through. I knew many of the cultural references and had always bluffed my way through the nostalgic reminisces of friends on the film with a non-committal laugh - a 'I get that reference, but don't feel the need to comment further' type of deal. Well, I have this rule that I need to try and do at least one productive thing a day, and what more productive way to spend a Sunday than to fill an embarrassing gap in your filmic knowledge for the future. Oh, and if by way of a bonus, Part II and Part III (the only one I had seen all the way through, several times, in fact) were on straight after - that's the whole day wasted (productively spent) right?!
As it turns out, this is by far the best way to watch the Back to the Future trilogy as each film starts immediately after the last one finished - you even get a nice little recap of the final scenes just in case you needed a reminder.
It seems a mark of a classic teen movie that it can be viewed almost 3 decades after its release and not feel incredibly dated. And it doesn't. Maybe it's the virtue of this being a piece that transcends different eras in time, so that you feel like the 80s segments aren't 'the present' but the 'present' for the character. Given, the ageing make-up effects don't really stand up to any scrutiny these days, but they have a certain charm (a so bad, they're ok, kind of feel) that you really don't give it much thought.
Perhaps the most jarring segments come in Part II when Marty and the Doc go to the future. A good part of this must be our proximity to the actual date in which they end up - we are, after all, only just over a year away from the 2015 that they visit. And their 2015 world, how much does it resemble our own? Erm, well not really. But then what imagined future that we might have now will we be laughing at in 30 years time? Where we see ourselves and where inevitably will be will always be somewhat at odds. What they did seem to hit quite appropriately on the head was the nostalgia themed cafe - ok, it's probably a plethora of vintage 50s themed places that are currently popular, but who's to say in twelve months time the 80s won't be more en vogue.
So was my time wasted? Do I feel like I missed out on something coming to this trilogy so late? Well, yes, sort of. They are good fun and packed with the kind of quotable lines and pop culture references that I love to bore people with. So maybe I had a great gaping hole in my 80s movie knowledge during my teens, but I've finally righted the wrong. Just need a few more viewings to really get me up to speed with everyone else...
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