BACK TO THE FUTURE PART III (1990)

BACK TO THE FUTURE PART III (1990)

Tagline: They've saved the best trip for last... But this time they may have gone too far.

(Adventure, SciFi, Western) [PG]

Well, I suppose if you had a straight stretch of track with a level grade, and you weren't haulin' no cars behind you, and if you can get the fire hot enough, and I'm talkin' about hotter than the blazes of hell and damnation itself... then yes, it might be possible to get her up that fast.

After being stuck in 1955, Doc (played by Christopher Lloyd) gets a letter to Marty McFly (played by Michael J Fox) letting him know where he is in time. He basically tells Marty to leave him alone in the letter, but Marty discovers something terrible that leads him to decide to go to the old west and meet up with Doc anyway. Can Marty prevent this terrible event and how has Doc adjusted to life in 1885? 

The direction, pace, and cinematography are completely solid in this flick. I absolutely loved the first 2 films in this series, and this one for me was a step up from BACK TO THE FUTURE PART II. This movie does a bunch of things that I love in movies, but some of the strong points are…

1. I love westerns in general. Even bad westerns I find myself liking to a degree, just because they are westerns. One thing I found out about this film is that Ronald Regan almost returned to the screen after his Presidency and 30 years off the acting camera. He was going to be the mayor but reluctantly turned it down. 

2. This movie isn’t nearly as complicated and jumpy as BACK TO THE FUTURE PART II in the sense that we end up in the actual west and 1885 for most of this movie. It gives you a chance to really embrace this world, the scenery, setting, and fashion. 

3. Even though we don’t get a ton of interaction between Marty and his girlfriend, we do finally get to see what Doc’s life would have been like with a love interest. Mary Steenburgen is pretty perfect in the role of Clara Clayton. Steenburgen is probably best known for her roles in ELF and on the TV series Joan of Arcadia. 

4. Almost more interesting than some of the future things we get in BACK TO THE FUTURE PART II, are the steam-punk-ish ideas Doc comes up with in this thing. The final time machine is pretty freakin epic as well. 

5. Freakin ZZTOP, you can never go wrong getting ZZTOP involved in your movie. 

Overall this movie felt like it had more heart in the last installment, having said that, when I was younger I actually didn’t like this movie much at all. I wanted to see more cool future stuff and was still upset about the fact that Claudia Wells was still missing in action. In re-watching it recently, I was able to see it with a more mature set of eyes and really appreciated what they were able to accomplish. There is almost nothing I didn’t like about this movie. I will say the only thing that feels a bit odd is that in 1885, Michael J Fox actually plays the character Seamus McFly. Seamus is married to Maggie McFly played by Lea Thompson. I felt this was an odd choice given that in the first movie the actor and actress play mother and son, but I realize that Crispin Glover (who played Marty’s dad in the first movie) was done with this series by the time this installment rolled around. 

Overall BACK TO THE FUTURE PART III gets a 6 out of 7 from me. It’s a solid classic that doesn’t quite live up to the original but outdoes PART II. 

GRAPHICS ARE THE PROPERTY OF UNIVERSAL PICTURES AND ARE USED FOR REVIEW PURPOSES ONLY. 

A look around the series...

BACK TO THE FUTURE
BACK TO THE FUTURE PART II