Film Snail

Back to the Future Part III
Back to the Future Part III

7.5

Back to the Future Part III

PG·1990·119m

Summary

The final installment of the Back to the Future trilogy finds Marty digging the trusty DeLorean out of a mineshaft and looking for Doc in the Wild West of 1885. But when their time machine breaks down, the travelers are stranded in a land of spurs. More problems arise when Doc falls for pretty schoolteacher Clara Clayton, and Marty tangles with Buford Tannen.

Crew

Director, Characters, Story

Robert Zemeckis

Characters, Screenplay, Story

Bob Gale

Reviews

John Chard

John Chard

February 10, 2017

7

Oh, I know you did send me back to the future. But I'm back! I'm back from the future.

Doc Brown is back in 1885 in the Old West, soon to be joined by Marty who has found that Doc is in mortal danger from Burford "Mad-Dog" Tannen.

Rounding out what turned out to be a hugely popular trilogy, Back to the Future Part III restored the core essence heart of Part 1, whilst simultaneously tying up all the threads with a fully formed story. More sedate in its telling (not hard following on from the manic pacing of part 2) part 3 fuses science fiction malarkey with, well, Western malarkey. All played out with the usual array of clever jokes and series reprises - only in a Wild Wild West setting. An interesting point to note is how the roles of Doc & Marty have been reversed from the first film, here Marty is the maniacal plot axis, whizzing around getting into scrapes as Doc ambles around in love, courtesy of the delightfully classic looking Mary Steenburgen as Clara Clayton. Thomas F. Wilson returns for villain duties as Tannen, a Western bully villain pulled straight out of many a classic Oater from way back in the day, and Lea Thompson & Elisabeth Shue ensure the "past" is not forgotten.

When Robert Zemeckis and Bob Gale started making Back To The Future in 1985, could they have envisaged that they would make three films and end up with a steam engine time machine in the Wild West? Possibly not, but as part 3 hurtles (literally) towards the suspense laden finale, two things are for certain. One is that they wisely closed the series down with a surefire coda winner. Two is that between them they crafted one of the most entertaining family trilogies to have ever graced the screen. No doubt about the fact that part one is the uniformly class act of the three, but parts two & three themselves reward groups of all ages. Great Scot indeed. 8.5/10

Media

Status:

Released

Original Language:

English

Budget:

$40,000,000.00

Revenue:

$244,527,583.00

Keywords

california
saloon
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horseback riding
indian territory
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time travel
native american
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wild west
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1950s
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