Chronological Back to the Future

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7.6
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8.3(3)
Audio Editing
 
7.3(3)
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8.0(3)
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6.3(3)
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8.0(6)
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(Updated: March 02, 2015)
Overall rating
 
8.6
Audio/Video Quality
 
8.0
Audio Editing
 
8.0
Visual Editing
 
9.0
Narrative
 
9.0
Enjoyment
 
9.0
So I finally got a chance to see this, and it’s every bit as fun as I hoped it would be.

I find many of the negative comments about this edit bewildering – “It doesn’t make sense out of order,” “You should have added context before the earlier scenes,” “It’s too long at six hours,” etc. Looking at these objections one by one:

Of course it doesn’t make sense in this order. It’s not the way the filmmakers originally put it together. It’s not supposed to make sense in this order. It’s supposed to show us what the events would look like when put together in order of Earth history. It does exactly what it says in the title.

The editor, Marty McSuperfly (hereafter MM), doesn’t make any indication that he’s intending to craft a completely different narrative. This edit is for people who already know the material forwards and backwards, and just want to experience it in a slightly different way. If he added context by showing earlier scenes, it would defeat the whole point of the edit.

And naturally an edit that features all three films back to back is going to be six hours long, just as advertised. Especially in a film series so tightly constructed as this one, I can’t think of any scenes that I would want to see cut--especially because cutting is not the goal. This edit just puts all the scenes in order, as it says it will.

I say all of this not to criticize the other reviewers—they have the right to their opinions—so much as I want other potential viewers to seek out this fun edit, and to approach it in the right frame of mind.

I liked the opening titles that MM added to the beginning of the movie, giving us the date that we’re starting with (Sep. 2, 1885). I would have liked to have seen new titles added each time Marty and/or Doc got to a different time period. Perhaps that would have eliminated some of the other viewers’ objections. But I didn’t really mind; it’s a matter of taste, not right or wrong. I’m guessing that for MM, part of the fun is seeing how different the characters look after the jump from what we’ll expect them to look like.

The first sequence, 1885, is the most straightforward of the sequences because only one film takes place there. But since I usually go through the films in order of release, it was fun to start with these scenes. Interestingly, gags pay off in a different order than usual. For instance: Usually, Marty showing up in the Old West and shouting, “Indians!” is the funny part, but in this case, the laugh comes when 1955 Doc tells Marty to drive towards the screen because “those Indians won’t even be there.”

The next sequence, 1955, is where the genius of this edit really starts to happen, as our intrepid editor gets to start interlacing scenes from the first and second movie. I kind of knew where these scenes were supposed to go already, but seeing them put together like this makes for a fresh and exciting viewing experience. Figuring out the exact sequencing and putting everything together like this must have been a painstaking and challenging process. Hats off to MM for all his hard work on this.

As fans know, Crispin Glover asked for too much money for the sequels, so he doesn’t appear in the later footage. With the intercutting, MM is able to use most of the Crispin Glover footage from the first movie in the 1955 segments so that it feels like he’s part of the events of the second movie. There was only once when MM absolutely had to use the voice of Jeffrey Weissman (the replacement actor) – in the scene where Marty is in Strickland’s office – and there’s really no way around that. Every other time, the integration between the two movies is seamless.

The fun continues in the 1985 segments, as we see parts of the first movie before switching over to the alternate timeline in Part II and then back again to the improved timeline from the end of I and III.

Of course, there aren’t really any changes to the 2015 scenes. How could there be? But it’s fun seeing them at the end. And it’s also fun watching them for the first time in the year 2015, and noting what the filmmakers were right about and what ended up being fairly accurate. (In their defense, the filmmakers have always said that they didn’t expect to predict anything.)

I was wondering how MM would handle the ending credit sequence. He just rolls the first, then fades into the second, and then the third. It might have been fun to see what it would look like to recreate the credits from scratch to reflect all the films (for instance, listing Michael J. Fox in the credits as Marty McFly, Marty Jr., Marlene and Seamus all at once). But I realize that it would have been a huge pain in the butt (who wants to itemize all the gaffers and key grips for each movie?) for very little payoff (most people wouldn’t even bother to watch). So I give him a free pass on this one.

There is one technical problem that I must acknowledge. While watching the films, the sound quality kept varying wildly. The volume seemed to go up or down each time the footage switched between movies. Strangely, none of the other reviewers have commented on this, so I wonder if the problem might be with our equipment instead of the edit. This warrants further investigation.

Overall, this is a fun edit that allows us to watch the movies in a brand new way that bring a new freshness to otherwise very familiar movies. Great job!

User Review

Do you recommend this edit?
Yes
Format Watched?
Blu-Ray
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(Updated: August 28, 2012)
Enjoyment
 
9.0
I watched the whole thing in one go, yesterday (DVD Version)

Picture and soundquality are quite good. It seems that the scenes from part 1 are a little bit darker then the others, part 3 quality is the best.

1885: As the original movie this is a straight part, I couldn’t spot any changes
1955: This is the best part IMHO. The clock-tower and “Enchantment under the Sea”-sequences are just amazingly cut. Looks like it was planned by Mr.Zemeckis (or whoever was involved in writing the whole thing) from the beginning.
1985 & A-1985: The passage from one 1985 to the other works out fine, also the cutting of the part 1 and 2 scenes. The part3-scenes with the flying locomotive appeared a little strange to me.
2015: A little of a rough ending here, and watching all end credits from all parts is a little bit tiring, but what else could have be done?

I was surprised how short the last three parts are. In the original parts 1 and 2 it never came out so clear, that most of the scenes were in playing in 1955.

Thanks for that unique experience.

9/10
M
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(Updated: August 28, 2012)
Enjoyment
 
9.0
*This rating was given before reviews were required*
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(Updated: August 28, 2012)
Enjoyment
 
9.0
This was a lot of fun. I’m not sure why people’re bitching about the length; I edited together the 3 movies years ago into one long movie by chopping out the closing credits and the “To be continueds” (and keeping the version of “Roads? Where we’re going….” that we all prefer).

I watch it probably once or twice a year.

That said, what you lose in this experiment is that you don’t have anything vested in the characters going in, b/c all the setup is gone as we start in 1885 (the “Indians!” scene). However, what it DOES do is highlight the parallels between BTTF 1 and 3, which is what I’ve always enjoyed about #3.

We then get to 1955. At first I thought the scene we open with, Marty & Doc in the flying DeLorean arriving very early in the a.m. (from BTTF2, in search of the almanac), was out of order. It turns out it’s an error in the movies: The dialogue in BTTF1 implies that the Enchantment Under the Sea dance is the same night as the scene in George’s backyard when he’s hanging laundry and talking to Marty about the “Get your damned hands off” plan. But it looks like BTTF2 has made it so that the backyard talk is one day earlier than the dance. It could be that the error is even in the first movie, but I will have to pay closer attention when next I watch the originals.

That said, the way the editor did NOT rely on the screen magic of BTTF2 to make the original and its sequel intermingle was truly spectacular. (And if you’ve read other reviews by me [see: the Quantum of Solace review], you know I do NOT say that often.) He did a great job of utilizing both the original cut of 1955 and the new take as seen in BTTF2. Bravo!

The editing and music is particularly strong by our FanEditor in the intermingling of BTTF 1 & 2 in the ‘50s — there’re only two bad cuts by my count (1. from Marty on the guitar at the dance to Doc on the Walkie and 2. The cut right after Biff finds Marty-2 peeking in through the door at himself and his parents), but everything else was perfect. And very impressive.

The other thing this edit highlights is how superior BTTF1 is to the other 2 — as much as I enjoy the other two, it’s just a far superior film.

What I think could help this FanEdit is to open with a 2-minute character-building montage that sets the stage for 1885; as mentioned (by myself and others), 1885 is bland when you’ve nothing vested in it. And then, what it needs is a longer montage (perhaps 5-6 mins) at the end that takes us through the ENTIRE trilogy (perhaps in the order of the actual movies as opposed to this fan-edit) as a sort-of finale, b/c this edit lacks both a setup and a climax. Nevertheless, it’s a great deal of fun, a new way to watch these movies — and it’s technically impressive.
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(Updated: September 09, 2014)
Overall rating
 
8.2
Audio/Video Quality
 
9.0
Audio Editing
 
8.0
Visual Editing
 
9.0
Narrative
 
7.0
Enjoyment
 
8.0
Video/Audio – 9/10

Looks and sounds great. The version I downloaded had the issue with that stray frame, but the editor has said this has been fixed and updated links have been sent to the admins.

Editing – 8/10

Very good editing as a whole. There were one or two issues I had (nothing too major). At the Enchantment Under the Sea Dance, when Biff’s lackeys see Marty on stage you overdubbed one or two lines of dialog on top of Marty playing guitar from Part 1 that I felt was a little awkward. The voices could have been a bit quieter. Also, in a later scene intercutting between Marty and his parents in the stairwell and Marty2 and Biff outside, the audio cutting a bit obvious. The music from the stairwell scenes cut in and out. Like I said, nothing major. I heard them and said “Oh well.”

Positive notes about the editing:

The Enchantment Under the Sea Dance is a SUPERB segment. Even though I’ve seen those movies dozens of times, while watching your edit it all blended together nicely and I had to stop and think sometimes “Which movie was that shot from?”

Also the cuts during the clock tower finales and Doc’s fake-out death scene came off without a hitch.

Presentation – N/A

I downloaded the MKV file so I can’t comment on the DVDs.

UPDATE:

Presentation: 10/10

The 2-disc DVD is great. You can either play the movie straight through or select which year you want to watch. Nicely done. And there’s a cool little easter egg as well.

The only disadvantage of the DVD is the picture quality is not as good as the MKV version.

Note: Disc 1 contains 1885 and 1955. Disc 2 contains 1985, Alternate 1985 and 2015.

Entertainment – 7/10

This was definitely a unique experience. I was easily hooked and once I got about 3 hours into it I couldn’t stop watching. Especially since having the Old West segment first you get all the slow stuff out of the way.

The coolest things (to me) about the sequence of events were call backs to things that hadn’t happened yet. Marty using a bullet proof vest in the Old West, calling back (forward) to Biff watching Fistful of Dollars in Alternate 1985. And Old Biff telling Young Biff (in 1955) that if an old man or some kid comes to find him and the dialog fading away, then Biff later revealing the gun was fantastic. Those are two small things, but this edit is full of references that pay off later.

I do have to bring up something. I wouldn’t call it a plot hole, because your intention with this edit was “Ever wonder how the adventures in Back To The Future would appear in the history books?” You weren’t trying to create a movie with a three-act structure, you were presenting it all in one timeline. So the tonal shifts throughout aren’t important IMO.

Let’s say there are a few paradoxical issues here. (And I don’t want to spend too much time on this because it may just be me who thinks of this.)

Technically, once the 1955 segment ends there should be no alternate 1985. Doc and Marty fixed it. It’s gone after that point. Also, once George knocked out Biff in 1955, then the first 1985 timeline (before going back in time) shouldn’t exist either. And, once Marty and Doc prevented Buford Tannen from killing Doc, then Marty would have never found the headstone in 1955. Not to mention, at the end of the 1985 segment Marty doesn’t crash into the Rolls Royce, so the entire 2015 segment doesn’t happen either. I’m sure I’m overthinking it, but there you go.

Thankfully all the above didn’t bring the movie down. It’s still great BTTF fun!

Overall rating:

8/10

User Review

Do you recommend this edit?
Yes
Format Watched?
Digital
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