Back to the Future 3
for unspecified reasons.
Reviewed by: Brett Willis
CONTRIBUTOR
| Moral Rating: | Average |
| Moviemaking Quality: |
|
| Primary Audience: | Teens Adults |
| Genre: | Sci-Fi Action Adventure Romance Comedy |
| Length: | 1 hr. 58 min. |
| Year of Release: | 1990 |
| USA Release: |
May 25, 1990 (wide) |
| Featuring |
|---|
| Michael J. Fox, Christopher Lloyd, Lea Thompson, Tom Wilson (Thomas F. Wilson), Mary Steenburgen, Elisabeth Shue |
| Director |
|
Robert Zemeckis |
| Producer |
| Bob Gale, Neil Canton, Amblin Entertainment, Steve Starkey, Kathleen Kennedy, Frank Marshall, Steven Spielberg |
| Distributor |
Since everything was left in an unresolved state at the end of Part II and there was a “To Be Concluded” message followed by built-in previews, we knew this film was coming eventually. Actually Parts II and III were filmed together, and Part II was released on video at the same time that Part III hit theaters. There are problems in Hollywood, but lack of marketing skills isn’t one of them.
Most of the action takes place in the Old West of 1885, where Marty (Michael J. Fox) travels to rescue Doc (Christopher Lloyd) from Buford “Mad Dog” Tannin (Thomas F. Wilson). Marty meets his great-great-grandparents, Seamus and Maggie McFly (Fox and Lea Thompson); and Doc meets, and instantly “falls in love” with, school teacher Clara Clayton (Mary Steenburgen).
The action includes a lot of standard Western scenes (a Cavalry and Indian chase; a rescue from a runaway buckboard before it goes over a ravine; a gunfight in the street; boarding a train from horseback etc.), all given a time-travel twist. Even some simple sub-scenes are “borrowed” material that we’ve seen many times before; the image of someone taking cover while a stampede runs or jumps over him has been used in “Bambi,” “Andy Burnett and the Mountain Men” and “Jurassic Park.”
The barroom scenes include a trio of old geezers (played by veteran cowboy actors Dub Taylor, Harry Carey Jr. and Pat Buttram) just sitting at their special table day and night and talking smart. Many of us older folks can remember each of those three from some favorite film or TV show. All of this “visual identifier” material is mixed with some original humor to create a very enjoyable story.
Content Warnings
Not as offensive as Part II, but requires caution if children are watching. The profanity is milder, and although there’s a lot of violence it seems less realistic and more tongue-in-cheek. it’s refreshing to hear Clara just saying “golly” after almost falling from a train. On the other hand: There’s a scene of Marty in just his long underwear and a gunbelt practicing his draw, and the flap is open so that one buttock is hanging out.
it’s implied that Doc spends a night with Clara after knowing her only a day or two; and when he later tells her he must leave her because he’s going back to the future, she accuses him of having played up to her just so he could “take advantage of” her. Does that mean what it usually means? I suppose. So the level-headed scientist not only mistakes infatuation for love but also sets a bad example. (Also, after loudly demanding that his time machine be destroyed, Doc builds another.)
Even if Part III were squeaky clean, everyone is going to watch Part II also; so the objectionable content level of the series as a whole is dictated by the lowest common denominator episode. And the screwy theology of the backward time-travel element, including bringing people back from the dead, is again a factor in Part III. On the positive side: At least Marty finally learns his lesson about not taking dares.
Conclusion: This episode wraps the story up neatly, and things basically turn out the way we’d want them to. The entire series is a lot of fun; but as in almost any film, there’s a certain amount of overhead. Each viewer, and the parents of younger viewers, must decide whether the fun is worth the price.
This film might be the least entertaining in the Back to the Future trilogy, but the first two movies did set a really high bar. Along with wrapping things up in a satisfying way, Robert Zemeckis still knows how to blend a mind-bending sci-fi concept in an intriguing, fast-paced story. The comedy remains well-timed, there’s plenty of great callbacks to the previous films, and Michael J. Fox and Christopher Lloyd still give their all to the performances. Everything clicks together for this, hopefully, last outing in this saga from the 80s that’s both dated and timeless.
Morality-wise, this is the cleanest in the trilogy. In fact, I’d probably even say you could let a kid watch it, an older kid that is. Obviously, I wouldn’t recommend this movie unless you’re mature enough to see the first two films. Otherwise, there’s no point in watching this one. But if you have seen the first two films or are planning to, know that this is the most retrained in terms of its content. If it were released in the modern day, it would probably be a PG-13 “for some language” bordering on a PG. There is still a bit of language here, but nothing compared to the what’s in the first two films. I counted the amount of profanities to be around 20, including half-a-dozen s-words, two instances of “*sshole,” a few “d*mn’s and “h*ll’s here and there, and a few misuses of God’s name. Besides that, the violence is still mostly slapstick, though there is the threat of death, there is some occasional drinking, and despite this film involving a new romantic relationship, the closest thing to sexual/suggestive content here are a couple kisses.
As for positive messages, Part III continues the trend of not expecting you to take these films seriously. But still, Marty does try to go back and save Doc’s life. He also learns not to let name-calling drive him to irrational actions, , and he does stand up to the town bully for the third time in a row (or fourth depending on how you count). There is something to be said about the ethics of a relationship built between two people when one of them is out of their time and what that could do for the future. But being as this is a time-travel movie, this is clearly meant to be taken as an entertaining thought-experiment and nothing more. That being said, when Doc does reveal to Marty he wants to stay behind with Clara, he says he’s doing it because he needs to follow his heart. I wouldn’t call that kind of message bad overall, especially if you have the Holy Spirit in you, then it’s probably better to listen to emotion rather than reason. But Jeremiah 17:9 does say the heart is deceitful above all things, so I would advise taking Doc’s words with a grain of salt if you take them to the real world.
All in all, while Back to the Future might not be as groundbreaking as the first movie or as dark and complex as the second, it still stands as a good, entertaining, and relatively clean film in its own right. If you’ve seen the first two movies, treat yourself to the finale. You won’t be disappointed.
Moral rating: Average / Moviemaking quality: 4
My Ratings: [Better than Average / 3]