Back to the Future Part III
Back to the Future Part III
Stranded in 1955, Marty McFly learns about the death of Doc Brown in 1885 and must travel back in time to save him. With no fuel readily available for the DeLorean, the two must figure how to escape the Old West before Emmett is murdered.
Tubeman72 reviewedMarch 29, 2025
For the third time, we accompany Marty McFly and Doc Emmet Brown into the past and back to the future in this final incarnation of "Back to the Future." Although almost all familiar elements are in it, this film has a very own tone compared to parts one and two. The emphasis is less on parallel timelines than on the previous parts, where encounters with family members and other versions of yourself could have drastic consequences. There seemed to be more at stake and the alienating effect of another world, or rather: another time, was greater. This part looks more like an amusing, romantic holiday in the Wild West, topped with a "Back to the Future" sauce.
This other angle and background was actually a requirement since the futuristic time travel problems, in which various adverse future scenarios should be avoided, were quite exhausted. Part one was magical, amusing and fascinating, with Marty taking a nostalgic look into the fifties and having to bring his own father and mother together. Part two was more complex with even more intertwined timelines, and grim, because of the depressing, dystopian world with depraved and lower-level characters. Continuing this would probably no longer have worked: the novelty of the time travel concept was now finished, as well as the additional complications. The time was ripe for a lighter shape, and a return to a simpler time.
At the beginning of the film we see in a literal way the figurative journey that the audience makes when watching a film: Marty drives his DeLorean time machine into the cinema screen and thus into the other world. He is now in the Wild West and is immediately chased by a bunch of Indians. However, it is not yet clear whether after breaking the cinema screen he is already part of this new world or (still) only spectator: the Indians are involved in their own plot, in which they are chased by a (white) cavalry. This spectator metaphor actually applies to the entire "Back to the Future" series: Marty witnesses an unfolding storyline that has already been written, and which he tries to influence (or not) with all his might.
The humor, which was already so important in part one, is prominent here again and is one of the driving forces of this film. That's how Marty calls himself Clint Eastwood, wears a laughable pink cowboy suit, and does a moonwalk when shooting on his feet. And, even though meeting family members in another time is anything but new anymore, when Marty has his great-grandfather in his hands as a baby, who then pees him underneath, a smile cannot be suppressed. Sometimes funny, but at least nice as recognition are the many winks to other movies, especially westerns. Eastwood and his films are referred to more than once: Marty who uses the famous words "go ahead," "make my day"; Doc who, like Eastwood in "The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly," shoots through the rope on which Marty is hung; and Marty who, like Clint in "A Fistful of Dollars," uses an oven cover as a bulletproof vest.
This film is distinguished from the previous parts by the somewhat calmer tone and showing the sensitive side of Doc Emmet Brown. Doc has settled in the Wild West and seems to have found the ideal place to spend his last days here. He is then completely delighted when he falls in love with Clara at first sight, something he would not have thought possible as a rational scientist. It is nice to see the Doc from a different side, which gives it a bit more color. Together with the well-cast Mary Steenburgen he forms the heart of this film.
Although it is now essentially a romantic comedy, the familiar elements are still present. This is also a victory as a limitation. On the one hand it gives a nice twist to the simple and straightforward story and it is occasionally a wonderful flurry of recognition, but on the other hand it is tiring to always encounter the same story elements. Doc must be saved from his future death again; again a woman in love comes to visit the workshop and the time machine must be covered; again bad guy Biff comes up; and again the DeLorean must be driven in an original way during the climax (although it happens here again in a fascinating way).
The sets are not particularly impressive. The western town is adequate but small-scale and not really memorable. The music of Alan Silvestri is again very effective, and makes the events seem bigger and more important than they actually are.
You get a bit of an ambiguous feeling when watching the film. The new angle and calm tone are both welcome and somewhat uninteresting changes, and the familiar structure is both a feast of recognition and a somewhat dull repetition exercise. However, the effect is excellent. All in all an entertaining and reasonably satisfying conclusion to the trilogy.