Back To The Future Ultimate Visual History - quick book review

The book in question

Are you a fan of Back To The Future. If no, then why not?! If yes, you need to have this book in your life. It’s as simple as that. Michael Klastorian and Randal Atamaniuk have done an incredible job of pulling all this together for us. I will point out I have had this book for several months but only just had time to have a proper look.

It’s quite a large and heavy book, as you would expect seeing as they have 3 movies worth to cram in.  It’s a coffee table book, and would look great on anybody’s coffee table but I don’t keep mine there. There are too many little grubby hands that can get hold of it and spoil it........ So mine stays upstairs safely out of the way.

I’m going to let you know at this point that there is a foreword by Michael J Fox, a preface by Chris Lloyd, and introduction from Bob Gale and a afterword from Robert Zemeckis. there are also exclusive interviews with Kathleen Kennedy, Steven Spielberg, Lea Thompson and more. So that is great to have contributions from all the big hitters.

So where to start? As mentioned before the book looks at all three movies but it also explores the animated series and the ride at Universal Orlando. As a side note I never got to experience the ride. I live in Scotland. And I am devastated about that.....oh well. Maybe one day I will be able to travel back in time and have a go...... I’m actually going to Orlando for the first time later this year, 11 years too late. This book is crammed with stuff you will greedily digest. I think it’s important (and pretty cool) to point out that the books main author, Michael Klastorian, was the production publicist for both sequels so has extensive knowledge and contacts to pull all this together. And you can tell that a lot of love and care has gone into this, and he has really thought about the fans here. Some of the extras and special surprises in this book are a BTTF geeks dream. More about that later.

The books strength lies in its many many many impressive photos from the movies and from behind the scenes. In addition there are lots of examples of casting calls, concept drawings, communications, storyboards and memos. After the foreword, preface and introduction the book is predominantly split into 4 main parts. One part for each of the movies and a final part for the ride, the animated series and what the future holds for BTTF. Then there is an afterword by Zemeckis and acknowledgements by the author. The three main parts for each movie is then largely split into pre production and what happened in each week during the shoot. I think this is a great way of pulling this all together. It really paints a fascinating picture.

While leafing through the book there are lots of surprises slotted into some of the pages. Finding these as I went through was one of the best things about this book so I wont spoil it but here are a couple of the things you can expect to find.

There are lots more. It was a thrill finding them. My only complaint is that some of them are gummed onto some of the pages and if they come away it takes some of the page with it. So be careful!

I really love this book. It’s essential if you are a fan. Would I recommend it? Absolutely.

Adam