Back to the Future Part 3

So its time I finally finish a trilogy of movies in a timely manner. I've rewatched all the Back to the Future movies and its time to talk about the one that at one point when I was very young, was actually my favorite of the three. Here are my thoughts on Back to the Future Part 3.

Back to the Future Part 3 starts where Back to the Future Part 2 ended. This time though it is totally on purpose as Robert Zemeckis and Bob Gale filmed Part 2 and 3 back to back. In fact in many ways, you could probably see this movie as one full movie and it would probably work. But I'll talk more about that later.

At the end of Part 2, Marty (played by Michael J Fox) is stranded in 1955 when the Delorean with Doc (played by Christopher Lloyd) in it is zapped by lightning and sent back to 1885. The one person Marty can trust to help him get home is Doc Brown himself, but the Doc Brown from 1955. At the end of Part 2, Marty received a letter from Doc in 1885 with instructions to fix the Delorean that he had left in a cave throughout time so Marty could repair it and get back to 1985. I'm not gonna lie, when I was a kid this was a little too confusing for me, but watching it now, you gotta appreciate Robert Zemeckis and Bob Gale's utilization of the passage of time in their stories and the way they guide the characters through it to make a smooth story arc.

Everything is about to go according to plan but Marty and Doc from 1955 find a gravestone marked 7 days after Doc sent the letter to Marty saying the he had been murdered in 1955. So it becomes Marty's mission to go back in time and save Doc from being killed by the hands of Buford "Mad Dog" Tannen, the great great grandfather of Biff (played again by Thomas F Wilson).

So Marty and Doc are stuck in the Old West in 1885 and need to find a way to get themselves home before they are murdered by Old Western bandits.

Right off the bat, Part 3 is a much different movie than Part 1 and 2. Obviously because it is set in the Old West, its going to have a very different dynamic than the previous movies that were either set in the future or in 1955. You still have cars and its not drastically different than the neutral setting that is 1985. In the Old West, they have totally different costumes and interactions that make a totally different change of pace than the rest of the films in the trilogy.

On top of that, this movie is actually less about Marty and more about Doc. While Marty is still a main character and I think a lot of his character is flushed out better in this movie than in the previous one, especially the parts where people call him chicken, the real story rests with Doc Brown and his relationship with Clara Clayton (played by Mary Steenburgen).

The funny thing about the way this movie starts is that Doc is not initially trying to get back to 1985. He's pretty content living out his days in the Old West until he realizes that he's destined to die unless they do something about it.

But the more interesting part is that Doc is more of the center of this film because you've got his relationship with a woman who, if he hadn't been in the past, was originally going to die and have a ravine named after her, which I always thought was pretty funny.

Marty is still there and he's still fighting his way through to get back home while having his own development. I really like this movie because Marty continues to have that charm and likability that he had in the first two films but it fits the tone and environment this movie is set in. For example, he goes by the name Clint Eastwood instead of Marty Mcfly. That's just as perfect, if not even more perfect than his alias in the first movie, Calvin Kline.

This movie would not be complete without Marty and this movie wouldn't be complete without Christopher Lloyd as Doc Brown. He continues to be the wacky scientist but in a way, the tables turn a little bit and he has a personal stake in this adventure. He must choose between the life he's always known as a scientist, working with what's in his mind, versus a life with Clara where he's acting with what's in his heart. This is great development that was well needed. Its not that Doc was ever boring, but by the third movie if he had just done the same schtick it would have felt worn out, but the third movie took its own turn and it worked out really well.

And while it may seem odd, Mary Steenburgen creates a really great completion of a trio between the three of them and I really enjoyed her in the film.

Now, I won't say that this is Steenburgen's best performance ever. Even as a kid Clara kind of annoyed me on how wishy washy and melodramatic she was, but if anybody was going to be the woman for Doc Brown, I really can't imagine anyone else.

But the melodramatics are really what make this movie work at the end of the day and that over the top feeling could not be overstated when you're talking about Thomas F Wilson as Buford "Mad Dog" Tannen.

There's no doubt that the stakes were raised in Back to the Future 2 and 3. In the first film, the worst thing that could happen to these characters (putting aside the Libyan terrorists) was that they would fail their mission and disappear from existence if they didn't get Marty's parents back together. But in the second and third film they are at risk of getting murdered by Biff. Now Donald Trump alternate timeline Biff was good but a little bit too over the top and just a little too dark.

While Buford Tannen is dark and will straight up murder Doc and Marty if he gets the chance, there's still a goofiness about him that makes him a more entertaining character than evil alternate timeline Biff. That Biff was never fun and you never got the satisfaction that you get when Biff got his kumuppins in the first film and how Bufford got his in the third.

Buford was gross and a lot more dangerous than Biff from the first film, but at the same time I laughed at some of the jokes that Thomas F Wilson got to do with this role. I thought Buford was a fun villain, especially in this environment. I think Part 2 went a little bit too far to an extreme and Part 3 was able to hone their villain back to a point where the stakes were still raised, but at the same time you still get a lot of jokes from the character.

The last characters worth mentioning are the McFlys from 1885.

And don't get me wrong, I understand why these characters were in this movie. I know they had to have one more callback to the McFly family so Marty didn't feel like there was no personal connection to this 1885 world and I do think its funny that Michael J Fox once again plays one of his relatives, but the truth is, this couple would have been a lot funnier and meaningful if it had been Crispin Glover as Seamus McFly.

Yes I know that Crispin Glover had his legal disputes and wasn't in the later films but without him this couple just seems like they're banking on the funny McFly family scene from Part 2 and in the end, they really have very little to do with the plot besides being a funny jokes about Marty's Great Great grandfather, the first McFly born in America peeing on him.

Despite any problems with the movie, and like the second part there are issues, the movie still hits those notes that just make it a classic and the trilogy wouldn't feel complete without it. And I think I know what Back to the Future did to make itself such an iconic time travel film.

I've said in my previous reviews that these movies worked because they were personal stories whereas other time travel movies are huge world ending events. While Doc says the time space continuum could end, there's never a feeling like the world is going to end, we're more concerned with the survival of characters that we love and have seen grown in all three movies.

But something that Back to the Future does really well is not only the personal stories and the great characters, but also the environment. I think I've noticed that the Back to the Future movies that did well had Marty and Doc interacting and immersing themselves in the world that they are in. In the first film, Marty uses a highschool educations worth to finagle his way through 1955 and you see the differences in generations. In Part 3, they have to blend in and live in 1885 for a short time and that's actually pretty interesting.

I'm currently reading the book 11/22/63 by Stephen King and I plan on watching the Hulu series, but in that the main character has to blend in and become accustomed to a life in the 1950s and 60s when he lives in 2012.

I think that's what made Back to the Future so good is that it was able to have this fun but relatable story that utilized the time it was set in and time travel itself as a character instead of just a prop.

Is Back to the Future 3 still my favorite of the three? No. Especially looking at it with the lens I do now, I see the issues, I see the clunky acting of Mary Steenburgen and I see how the magic of the original can never truly be lived up to. However, I do still see the classic notes that the movie hits, the clever use of time, the callbacks to the other two films.

Something that can't be truly realized until you watch these movies a hundred times over is the callbacks they have to the previous movies and the foreshadowing set in the prior movies.

There are so many lines and references in the second movie that make it incredibly obvious that eventually these movies are headed to the Old West. The scene from the movie Biff is watching in the alternate timeline is recreated the third film. Doc at one point says that destroying the time machine will give him the opportunity to explore the other mystery of the universe... women, obviously foreshadowing a romantic relationship in the third outing.

And the callbacks to the previous films from the probably overused scene of Marty waking up thinking everything he's experienced has been a dream only to realize he's in a different time. There are so many callbacks and I think that's what makes these movies masterpieces. They play off of each other so well and there are so many hidden gems in them that you get something new out of it every time you watch it.

Part 3 might not be my favorite of the three, but it is a great way to finish off the trilogy and makes Back to the Future one of the best trilogies out there. While they had a couple of missteps with the sequels, its still very strong and classic from beginning to end.

But what do you think of Back to the Future Part 3? How does it compare to the previous films? Which do you think is better, 2 or 3? Let me know in the comments. You can also send me your thoughts on Twitter @cmhaugen24 as well as send me your requests for films I should review in the future. If you follow me on Twitter you can get updates on future movie news and reviews coming out of this blog.

I'll leave you with this. Here's a couple of fun facts about the trilogy. You may or may not know these things already but I think its fun to have these little tid bits of trivia about the film because I'm the kind of person that likes behind the scenes knowledge about films I love. Enjoy!