Customer Reviews

Back to the Future Part III

5 star:		(29)
4 star:		(19)
3 star:		(14)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Stranded in 1955, Marty McFly receives written word from his friend, Doctor Emmett Brown, as to where can be found the DeLorean time machine. However, an unfortunate discovery prompts Marty to go to his friend's aid. Using the time machine, Marty travels to the old west where his friend has run afoul of a gang of thugs and has fallen in love with a local schoolteacher. Using the technology from the time, Marty and Emmett devise one last chance to send the two of them back to the future. Back to the Future 3 is a well-written, well-directed, well-balanced piece. With an incredible musical score, brilliant acting and excellent composition, the movie reminded me that Back to the Future was never about action. It is truly about the characters we came to know and love in the first movie. The perfect finale to a wonderful trilogy

Excellent! Almost as good as the first Back To The Future! Brings all the installments into focus and finishes the trilogy in fine fashion.

A film by Robert Zemeckis

"Back to the Future Part III" is the third and concluding chapter to the "Back to the Future" trilogy. For many years this was my least favorite film in the trilogy, but watching it again for the first time in years I have new appreciation for it. "Back to the Future Part III" is a satisfying and worthy end to this trilogy.

At the end of the second movie the DeLorean is struck by lightening (which we already know provides the necessary 1.21 gigawatts of energy required for time travel) and Doc Brown (Christopher Lloyd) is sent somewhen in time. Marty (Michael J Fox) is stuck in 1955 Hill Valley, but just after Doc and the DeLorean disappears a letter arrives for Marty. The letter is from Doc and was written in 1885. It was left as the post office with the instructions to be delivered on that particular date at that particular time. The letter says that Doc is alive and well in 1885 and under no circumstances is Marty to try to go back and rescue him.

Marty returns to the 1955 Doc Brown and enlists his help to recover the DeLorean which was left in a cave for 70 years. While recovering the DeLorean Marty discovers a tombstone with Doc's name on it...and the date that Doc died was only a week after he wrote the letter! The tombstone reads "shot in the back by Buford Tannen (Thomas F Wilson) over a matter of $80". There is no way Marty is going to let this happen, so he puts gas in the DeLorean and travels back in time to 1885 to help Doc. Of course, if it was that simple, we wouldn't have much of a movie, so complications evolve. The DeLorean ruptures its gas line, so that it leaks gas and can no longer be driven under its own power. Part of the movie is Doc and Marty trying to get the DeLorean back up to 88 miles per hour, but there is also the matter of Buford "Mad Dog" Tannen who still intends to shoot Doc over that matter of eighty dollars...or will history change and will Marty's name on that tombstone? This final installment also introduces a love interest for Doc Brown in the person of Clara Clayton (Mary Steenburgen), the new school teacher with an interest in science.

This movie is much more of a straight forward action/adventure/comedy (whatever) movie. The time travel serves to get Marty in the past and back to the present, but there isn't as much playing around with time travel as there is in the second movie. I still think this might be the weakest of the movies, but it is a very fun ride. While this movie will never reach the "classic" status that I feel the first one will, this is a very enjoyable movie and is a fitting end to the trilogy. Good stuff.

I'm a huge BTTF fan, owning all dvd box sets and cd soundtracks and now i will have the chance to own all three upgraded dvd BTTF individual releases which will have brand new features NOT available in the previous box sets so for me this is A MUST BUY.
BTTF is one of my top 10 films/trilogies of all time and i will buy all available dvd versions and blue ray and i really wanted a new trilogy with original cast happen some day...(if michael was not sick...damn...it could happen).

Well, there are five reasons. The first four are found in the review of the DVD set of all five; here is the last one:

5. Gestalt. Call it what you want, but consider the conceptual continuity of these three movies. 1985 remained the "present" for all the films, right? Even this one and BTTF3, made some years later, preserved 1985 as the fulcrum. Quick quiz: of all the eras depicted, which one was the best: 1885, 1955, 1985 or 2015? Tough question, given that there were at least three distinct 1985s, etc.

But look: even the "best" 1985 was, in significant ways, not as good as 2015. Our predicates, then, are that obstacles can be overcome, the past reinvented as needed, and, most importantly, "the future is what you make it."

I've found no clearer demonstration of a fundamentally optimistic philosophy in any movie I ever saw. Even though these films intentionally avoid sentimentality (all right, you could argue that), they express a relentless optimism that enables characters and, derivately, ourselves, to take charge of our situations, invent new solutions and fulfill Doc Brown's mandate. Make mistakes, learn from them, experiment, and then move forward. The past does not have to trap you; it is only a platform for a better future.

You cannot leave the movies without feeling more empowered about your own life. And it does not get any better than that.

If there's any movie series I really love, it's the "Back to the Future" trilogy. In the original film, Marty McFly travels thirty years into the past (1955) where he tries to warn Doc of being murdered in the future, but his teenage mother-to-be falls in love with him instead of his father. In the first sequel, Marty and Doc went into Marty's future. And in the final episode, Marty travels back to the Wild West to prevent western cowboy Biff from murdering Doc. The series takes on a new charm with the romance between Doc and a schoolteacher he saves the life of, played by Mary Steenburgen. Michael J. Fox and Christopher Lloyd star.

This 1990 sequel was shot back to back with Back To The Future 2. Again, it was directed by Robert Zemeckis, and starred Michael J. Fox and Christopher Lloyd. In this, the third and final chapter in the series, Marty McFly(Fox)is transported, thanks to the delorean, to the year 1885. The Old West. There, he tries to save Doc Brown(Lloyd)who is to be shot and killed by a mad gunmen. Is it any surprise that the guy who is supposed to kill Doc Brown is a relation to Biff?. No, it isn't. But there are a few other problems as well. On his trip to 1885, the delorean gets a hole punctured in the fuel tank. They are trapped there. The other, is that Doc has fallen in love with a sweet school marm(played by Mary Steenburgen). Doc is conflicted between leaving and saving his life, or staying and being with the woman he truly loves, and face the chance of getting shot. The two find a way to gain enough speed to get the delorean in motion and send them back to 1985. If you haven't seen it, I won't say how. This chapter in the brilliant series is a real fun, crowd pleaser. However, it lacks a lot of the punch the first two had. The effects and everything are mild and tame in this one. Not as exciting as the previous ones. Still, it is a wonderfully made and put together film. It is thoroughly entertaining and enjoyable. A very satisfying end to the whole saga. Fox and Lloyd are, as always, top notch. Thomas Wilson as Biff's ancestor is, well, he's still Biff. Would we want him any other way?. Probably not. Steenburgen does the best with what she's given. It's too bad that Lea Thompson, who had such an important and prominent role in the first and second, was relegated to almost 'cameo' status in this one. Oh well. In the end, a good romp for the whole family. Watch and enjoy!!!.

Marty goes back to the Old West to stop his friend Doc( who was accidentally sent back there) from being shot by Biff's ansestor and after that finding them a way to get Back to the Future. This film is fantastic. I don't care what any other people say it is. Its not nearly as good as the original, thats true, but what sequel is? I think any one eho gives this movie less than one star is expecting to much.

Well, here we come to the 3rd and (sniff) final chapter. I bought the trilogy for my mother, and while she did enjoy parts 1 and 2, she felt this 3rd one was the best. And we could easily argue that the 3rd is the best. Going through my mother's TAXI DVDs, it seems that Christopher Lloyd brings the most qualities of his famous character Jim Ignatowski into play here. (Example: reading a letter he wrote and crying: 'I never knew I could write anything so touching.')

Marty finds that Doc Brown will be murdered back in 1885 (where he ended up at the end of Part 2 when the lightning struck the time machine). So the 1955 Doc Brown helps Marty get the time machine working again.

There is somewhat of a sad winding down as we see that when we first saw the time machine in Part 1, it could only be driven. Then by the end of part 1 the time machine could fly; now in Part 3, it can no longer fly and can only be driven; and soon after Marty arrives in 1885, he has an accident, and it can no longer move and must be pushed or pulled somehow. (SIGH) With some sad symbolism, we know that this is going to be the last chapter.

Moving on, Marty runs across his great great grandfather (played also by Michael J. Fox). This is interesting in that he finally has a blood relative 'father figure' on his adventures. And he spends a fair amount of time explaining to Marty that if he keeps jumping everytime someone calls him 'chicken' he's going to eventually plague himself with disastrous and possibly irreversible consequences. (We already heard his parents speak about this in Part 2. So we know something is going to possibly happen because of this.)

Without going on too long, Doc Brown realizes that he has fallen in love with a school teacher named Clara. So, this of course complicates things. Escaping into the future could mean breaking his own heart as well as hers.

In all honesty, this 3rd chapter has the most suspense as well as the most value in the ways of characters growing. Marty (with the help of his great great grandfather and Doc Brown too) realizes that it's stupid to jump everytime someone calls you a name. And after all the time he thought about the future, Doc finds that he is most happy in the past.

Lloyd brought REAL comedy to the role when he portrays himself as a depressed drinker talking about the future in the old west. (Another Jim Ignatowski moment.)

It's probably also right to take amoment to talk about the antagonist Thomas Wilson. He could be a convincing bully, a tough mafia type, an evil cowboy, and even a nice redeemable guy as we have seen in the end of Part 1, and again in Part 3.

Robert Englund was not so likable as the principal in Parts 1 and 2. BUT, he is really likable and admirable as the ancestor of his Prinicpal Strickland character Marshal Strickland. This is Englund's best moment in the trilogy. He knows he can't just kill Maddog Tannenn, but he isn't blinded by the 'law abiding citizen act' either. "Maddog, the only party I'll be celebrating is the one that ends with you hanging at the end of a rope."

Overall, it's a great trilogy. And we could easily argue that Part 3 is the best.

The first Back to the Future movie was a funny set piece exploring a modern teenager at large in the 50s. The second explored a dark alternate present. So what do they do for a third? Go back to the old west, of course! LOL

This time though, we have a time traveling Doc trapped in the past, and once again his younger self must come to the rescue to get the DeLarien fixed up and ready to go time traveling. In the process Michael J Fox will encounter Indians, ancestors, old time western bullies, and of course help the modern Doc in the old west to find a way to get the time machine up to 88 miles per hour so that they can return to their real time.

The movie is light, funny, and fully lives up to its two predecessors. In fact, it might be my favorite of the three. The Doc's latest time machine at the end of the movie is a wonder to behold ... surprising and delightful. Michael J Fox, Christopher Lloyd, and the entire cast of supporting actors are spot on. Mary Steenburgen almost seemed to be typecast back in those days as the love interest of time travelers! LOL (Time after Time)