Back to the Future, Part III

In many ways, 1990's BACK TO THE FUTURE PART III is like the antidote to PART II, which for all its ingenuity ultimately rang hollow and dissatisfying.  I felt it diluted the joy of the original by trying to one up the spectacle and overcomplicate the storyline.  It was wise for director/co-writer Robert Zemeckis to dial things down for the finale and give fans a good ol' fashioned ringer.  To me, this movie is a signature of cinematic restraint.  Amazing what can happen when you reign in every crazy notion (inventive as they may be) and focus on what made the first movie so magical.   Plus, doesn't every director have a burning desire to do a Western? 

PART II ended with Marty (Michael J. Fox) stuck in 1955 after Doc (Christopher Lloyd) accidentally (due to an electrical storm) journeying to 1885 in the DeLorean.   A predicament, but he always did want to visit the Old West.  Marty will discover Doc's when-abouts via a seventy year-old letter from a Western Union courier, but will also learn that his old friend was shot and killed by Buford "Mad Dog" Tannen (Thomas F. Wilson), Biff's great-grandfather, a few days after the letter was written.  Thus, Marty has to find 1955 Doc and figure out how to get back to 1855 and save his life.  Don't think about that too hard.

And the BACK TO THE FUTURE films never let hard science get in the way of the fun.  How many endless discussions I recall having with friends (and later, anonymous users on the Internet) about the holes in these films.  When the details are really considered, time travel can be a real mind melter.  Zemeckis and Bob Gale often supply (via Doc) some breathless explanations of the continuum and such, but quantum physicists and wormhole students likely always chuckled at this series' logic.  

Once in 1885, the film settles into a cozy, lighthearted adventure that has less edge than either previous installment (both of which have foreshadowing for this entry), though danger is always lurking.  Biff and his posse aim to kill, but the showdowns (and the entire film, really) are amusing riffs on old Hollywood backlot sagebrush sagas.  There are appropriate cameos by the likes of Pat Buttram and Harry Carey, Jr. (no, not the late Cubs announcer).  ZZ Top, who perform the film's theme song, also appear briefly.  A sweet romance blossoms between Doc and school teacher Clara Clayton (Mary Steenburgen), complicating his plans to join Marty in traveling back to the future.  And in nineteenth century Hill Valley, how the heck can they get that DeLorean up to eighty-eight MPH anyway with no gasoline?

PART III manages to still be ingenious while taking a more leisurely and decidedly less dark approach, and aside from an awkwardly delivered line late in the film by Fox ("It's great, Doc!") every moment is on the mark.  The climax is again quite the nailbiter.  By the big finale it's a safe bet you will be smiling and satisfied.  If these films are ever remade, I hope it will be in a future far beyond my own timeline.