Back To The Future Part 3
The Back To The Future Trilogy remains to this day one of the finest cinematic franchises ever conceived. The first was an extraordinary one of a kind classic, never to be topped, that placed an emphasis on love of oneâs family over the scientific paradoxes of time travel (with Christopher Lloydâs Doc Brown serving more as being brilliant comic relief with his prattling on). The second managed to kick the possibilities of those paradoxes into overdrive, with an insane series of comings and goings through time in order to correct various wrongs all while boosting Thomas Wilsonâs Biff Tannen into supervillain status and also ironically commenting on the paradox of how sequels in and of themselves are considered by Hollywood to be just so damn necessary as it made its mark as being possibly the best pure sequel ever made. For Part 3, it was obvious that director Robert Zemeckis and co writer Bob Gale wanted to have things be a little more grounded by having the majority of the film be in one central location and also having the story be more about Doc rather than Michael J. Foxâs Marty McFly, who at this point only carries the one ambition of getting himself home. Still in 1955 as the movie starts after Doc in the DeLorean suffers a lightning strike which sends him to 1885 after which Marty immediately received a yellowed Western Union telegram from Doc in that time instructing him to go see his 1955 counterpart so that he can help him go straight home to 1985.  Marty does just that (much to 1955 Docâs shock) but when pulling up some information on 1885 Doc (who explicitly asked him NOT to come back and retrieve him), they discover that he was killed in a gunfight no less than a week after sending the telegram. Both Marty and 1955 Doc agree on sending him back to 1885 to avoid that fate and thatâs where the movie settles down into its Western motif, with Marty meeting his great great grandfather Seamus (played by Fox but originally intended for Crispin Glover before he went off the deep end and demanded final script approval along with a higher salary than either Fox or Lloyd for the sequels) and his wife Maggie McFly (played by the returning Lea Thompson in a casting move that made many suspect incest in the McFly family but was explained away by the writers as being that âall McFly males are attracted to this type of womanâ). But then things get really interesting when Marty heads into town and discovers a plethora of actual Western character actors among the residents along with James Tolkan reprising his Strickland character now taking on the role of the Town Marshall. But surprisingly the best performance here goes to Thomas F. Wilson as the town outlaw (and recorded killer of Doc Brown) Buford âMad Dogâ Tannen (mentioned in Part 2 as being Biffâs grandfather even as that fact is never even referenced by Marty or Doc here for at least the purposes of irony given their antagonistic past with Biff).  What makes the performance so notable on Wilsonâs part is that he plays Buford in such a way that is NOTHING at all like Biff to the point that he is not even recognizable (no surprise given that Wilson is one of those masterful character actors who has been in scores of other films but is almost never recognized by viewers as being the same guy who played Biff) and yet he still manages to find a comedic style and tone for the character that is all his own and even generate laughs out of it. His Buford is not just your average hardcase like Biff is, literally being so stupid that he has to rely on his fellow gang members to remind him of things (including tough guy lines) when his mind suddenly goes blank (which is often) all while adopting a cocky strut that belies the fact that the only thing that he is probably any good at is shooting people. Marty for his part (in a play on the long running âCalvin Kleinâ bit from the first film) has taken on the moniker âClint Eastwoodâ in this dusty old Western town (something which was approved by the real Eastwood who was reportedly tickled pink by it) which leads to us having these Western CHARACTERS (including several of the Western actors who had worked with the real thing) addressing him by the Eastwood name (except for Doc). It isnât long before Marty has inherited from Doc the personal issues with Tannen, setting up the possibility that HE might be killed in the gunfight instead. Of course, the real plan is for him and Doc (who has agreed to return to his own time) to get The DeLorean up and working again (the gas line has blown and the only way to get the vehicle up to 88 MPH is by pushing it with a locomotive) and escape back to their own time before Tannen can shoot either of them. And thatâs where a casting coup so smooth that not just anybody can pull it off is brought into play, as the filmmakers go full fledged into the âDoc falls in loveâ dynamic, with Mary Steenburgen (no stranger to time travel love stories after Time After Time which was probably why she was cast here) playing the schoolteacher who is new in town and comes to know Doc even as heâs planning his escape to the future the whole time. Itâs nice to see Lloyd get to play the romantic lead here (with Fox coming off as being more of the sidekick whoâs always badgering him to hurry up) and the chemistry between the two clicks just fine (although maybe not as well as it did with Malcolm McDowell in Time After Time whom she did marry in real life). The only problem is that after the emotional resonance of Part 1 and the ragtag anything goes nature of Part 2, everything just seems a little more stagnant here (and repetitive, as whole entire jokes are recycled from the earlier movies ala Austin Powers) and the main parts of the story build their laughs on the Eastwood gag but little else as Wilsonâs Buford (who is onscreen not nearly enough) comes off as being the freshest thing about the whole enterprise. Yes, itâs nice to see Doc fall in love, but most of it is almost a rehash of Steenburgenâs relationship with McDowellâs H.G. Wells (even her meltdown after being told the truth about her lover being a time traveler is eerily similar to the exact same scene in the earlier film) save for the fact that Lloydâs time traveler is from the future instead of being from the past.  Also the number of Western character actors on hand here (most of whom probably only got into the film because they were literally the last ones still alive from the old days) including Matt Clark, Dub Taylor, Pat Buttram, Harry Carey Jr., and Blazing Saddlesâ Burton Gilliam only add to the staleness of the proceedings, doing their schtick that made them famous years ago but (outside of laughing at the âEastwoodâ moniker that Marty carries) not really contributing all that much to the film itself.  That leaves things to the main actors in order to carry the film.  Lloyd and Fox are fine and still have the comedic chemistry as the crazy old scientist and his teenage best friend. Steenburgen is sweet and still attractive enough to carry the romance between her and Lloyd. Thompson is saddled with an Irish accent (as is Fox as Seamus) and a bitchy attitude to boot. Elisabeth Shue as Martyâs girlfriend Jennifer is kept offscreen almost until the very end (where we also get an appearance by Flea reprising his role as secondary antagonist Needles). And Wilson as Buford just comes on like an idiotic wrecking ball nearly every time we see him in the movie, with the legendary Biff himself also saved for just about the very end where we see that he is still in groveling shithead mode at the feet of George McFly (Jeffrey Weissman a.k.a the guy who replaced Crispin Glover by never letting us have a clear look at his face in either Parts 2 or 3). Even Marc McClure and Wendie Jo Sperber get some face time with both returning from Part 1 as Martyâs brother and sister. And while the main core cast was indeed just fine here and the âWesternâ concept more than handily separated this one from the other two, the feeling still remains (as is often the case in this kind of a trilogy) that the whole thing has gone just far enough and that there is little more to be mined from this franchise or these characters. Sometimes Part 3 of a given series can crash and burn upon takeoff or at least well before the end, but fortunately this one manages to make it to the finish line while still retaining its dignity and certainly succeeds in not making viewers clamor for an unneeded Part 4 which is the least we can ask in allowing this trilogy to end on a very strong high noteâŚ
8/10