Back to the Future

1985
Amblin Entertainment
Director: Robert Zemeckis
Length: 111 min.
Format: 35mm
Date Viewed: 28 January

Fun Film Experiment!

Watching this fun and inventive film at the Egyptian theater this weekend for the first time since I was a young lad, I noticed that the great Dean Cundey (Escape From New York, The Fog) was the director of photography. I was disappointed for most of the film at what I initially perceived as somewhat standard framing. Then it hit me: he shot it like a film from 1955! This renewed my faith in Cundey and led me to devise an as-of-yet untested theory that I want you to try with me. During the 1985 sequences of the film, keep everything as usual on your TV, but the second Marty goes back to 1955, turn off the TV's color, and watch it in black-and-white. My hypothesis is that the film will look like it was produced in 1955, just with really good special effects, and will perhaps enhance the fun of the film. Give it a try. What have you got to lose?