bttf3_08

In Back to the Future Marty McFly (Michael J. Fox) travelled back in time 30 years from 1985 to 1955, using a time machine invented by the eccentric scientist Emmett “Doc” Brown (Christopher Lloyd). In Back to the Future Part II Doc took Marty 30 years into the future, before events forced them to return back to 1955 to stop history from being changed by the villainous Biff Tannen (Thomas F. Wilson). Finally, in Back to the Future Part III, Marty travels back in time once more to rescue Doc from being murdered in the year 1885.

This third film is an unusual sequel in many respects. Most film trilogies follow a fairly clear pattern: an initial adventure, followed by a darker instalment where everything goes wrong, and finally a climactic third part in which the crisis is resolved and everything ends happily. The pattern duplicates the standard three-act structure that dominates most fiction. Back to the Future does not easily fit this model. While the original film presented a wonderfully entertaining initial adventure, Part II doesn’t just complicate the situation – it resolves it as well. Part III is left not to resolve an overall storyline but simply to tidy up its loose ends: Doc finishes Part II trapped 100 years into the past, and Part III sees Marty go back to retrieve him.

bttf3_10

‘In trying to figure out Part III,’ said writer/producer Bob Gale, ‘we decided that we’d done everything we could with Marty’s family, let’s concentrate on Doc and let’s do the most insane thing anyone could imagine — Doc Brown in love.’[i]

Director Robert Zemeckis said: ‘I think it’s amazing that as eccentric as he is in parts I and II, he evolves to the point where he can fall in love. But that’s what Part III is. It’s about the growth of the characters. In a way, he and Marty McFly exchange roles. Marty becomes a man, and Doc Brown becomes a boy – he gets in touch with that boyish, romantic, innocent part of himself.’[ii]

‘The film I had the most fun in was Back to the Future Part III,’ said Christopher Lloyd. ‘It had horseback riding, and all that work, all that training, was quite an experience. And Doc Brown has a romance with Clara, the schoolteacher, and I’ve worked with Mary Steenburgen and it was great to work with her again. It was also kind of a western, and westerns are always fun.’[iii]

This shift in focus is what makes Part III such a strangely detached sequel. The first two films are closely inter-related. The third feels oddly separate. The setting is wildly different – effectively a Wild West pastiche – and the character focus has changed. At the time of its original release I find it to be a rather disappointing film. With the benefit of hindsight, and a few more viewing over the years, I now find it to be a much better film that I had first assumed. It is still the least effective of the Back to the Future trilogy, but it is less a case of being the worst than it is of being the least-best. Taken upon its own merits and it is still an entertaining science fiction western hybrid with much to recommend.

bttf3_15

Part III commenced shooting in Monument Valley in September 1989, only three weeks after principal photography had ended on Part II. Director Robert Zemeckis divided his time between directing the second sequel and supervising post-production of the first. The exhausting production schedule took its toll on an already-tired cast and crew. ‘Are we sick and tired of Back to the Future at this point?’ said Bob Gale. ‘In a way, yes. But every time we look at the dailies or some cut-together sequences, it gets everybody excited again. That’s something we all really need because, physically and emotionally, we’re all pretty tired.’[iv]

Moving from the visual effects-heavy sequences of Part II to a relatively simple western pastiche was a relief for much of the crew, although the new setting did bring some fresh challenges. ‘Horses aren’t always cooperative,’ said director of photography Dean Cundey, ‘and, when you’ve gotten used to doing contemporary films, it’s difficult to go back and pick up on things that haven’t been used in years because Westerns aren’t being made any more. So, this film has had its easy and tough moments.’[v]

bttf3_19

Almost the entire principal cast of Part II returned for Part III, and all of the actors had been contracted to appear in both films at the same time.

Mary Steenburgen was the sole key cast member cast for the final film, playing the awkward 1880s school teacher Clara Clayton. At the time Steenburgen was an acclaimed dramatic actress – she won the 1981 Best Supporting Actress Academy Award for Melvin and Howard – but had not appeared in a major Hollywood studio feature. When speaking of her time making Back to the Future, she recalled finding it an enjoyable experience. ‘They didn’t phone it in, at all,’ said Steenburgen, ‘they really thought about it. They made the film essentially for nine year-old boys; that’s their target audience. And they really think about what nine year-old boys like, and address that. And nothing was cheap. My costumes were totally researched, and the colour of the purple in the train was a colour that had been introduced from Paris that very year. The quality of the people that worked on that film was a good as anything I’ve ever done. It didn’t feel like I was just doing this commercial movie where nobody really cared; they cared very much.’[vi]

Pretty much the first thing worth noticing about the film is the Universal Pictures logo at the beginning. Back to the Future Part III was the first film to use the studio’s revamped corporate logo, presented in a special 75th anniversary version with music composed by James Horner. Robert Zemeckis requested that the film use the previous logo, simply to make all three films in the trilogy look consistent, but Universal pressed on to showcase the new sequence in what they assumed would be the studio’s highest-grossing film that year.

bttf3_06

Let us take a deep breath, because this is all about to become a little complicated. Part III picks up at precisely the point where Part II ended: with the Doc Brown of 1955 sending Marty McFly back in the time-travelling Delorean to 1985. This is the third time audiences have seen this exact footage, having been originally shot back in early 1985 for the original film. When Doc is suddenly confronted by a different Marty – this one trapped in 1955 again after the Doc of 1985 got thrown back in time to 1885, and shot four years later in late 1989 – he faints unconscious. The story picks up the following morning in the Brown residence, as Marty shows the young Doc the old Doc’s letter, explaining his situation and revealing that the Delorean has been hidden in a disused mine just outside of town. It has been sitting there for 70 years. While recovering the Delorean, Marty stumbles upon Doc’s grave – shortly after writing his letter, he was shot dead by Buford “Mad Dog” Tannen. Marty resolves to travel back in time and save Doc’s life.

It’s a slightly mind-boggling moment to realise that, for a brief period in 1955 there were four copies of same time-travelling Delorean in Hill Valley: the one that Marty used to travel back from 1985 in the original film, the one that the Biff Tannen of 2015 stole to give his younger self the sports almanac, a third version that Marty and Doc use to travel back and retrieve that almanac, and this fourth version that Doc buries in a mine shaft in 1885 until his younger self and Marty can retrieve it in 1955.

bttf3_01

With the Delorean repaired using 1955 components, Marty and Doc take it to a local drive-in movie theatre to send it back to 1885. The location was chosen by Doc because it the desert terrain would be identical in the past, and reduce the likelihood of the Delorean smashing into a tree upon arrival. Doc gives Marty a cowboy outfit to wear, which is garishly pink and covered in atomic symbols – a joke reference to the Delorean’s nuclear power system.

The drive-in theatre was constructed from scratch in Monument Valley, so as to seamlessly match the scenery when Marty went back in time. Numerous in-jokes were inserted into the set dressings: signage at the theatre advertised a string of features, all of which were Universal Pictures sequels, and a movie poster advertised Revenge of the Creature, the film debut of actor Clint Eastwood – whose name Marty assumes once back in the 19th century.

It is here that the Back to the Future trilogy finally leaves 1955 for good. These opening scenes have a remarkable warmth to them, with the relationship between Marty and the young Doc feeling quite different to the one between Marty and Doc’s post-1985 self. In many respects it’s the final time in the trilogy that actually feels like the trilogy as a whole: as soon as Marty goes back to the 19th century the story focus shifts away from him and doesn’t really return until he is back in 1985.

bttf3_02

The Delorean accelerates to 88 miles per hour, and immediately jumps back to 2 September 1885 – and into the middle of a horse chase between local Native Americans and the United States Cavalry. A panicked Marty reverses the Delorean into a small cave until the chase passes, only to discover a fuel line has been broken and the Delorean is leaking fuel. He is then interrupted by a disgruntled bear and runs for his life.

The chase sequence was shot on a Navajo Indian Reservation in Monument Valley, with local Navajo portraying the fleeing tribe. A group of historical re-enactors were hired to portray the pursuing cavalry. The sequence was mostly co-ordinated by second unit director Max Kleven before principal photography and while Robert Zemeckis was still directing Part II. The cave was constructed on location.

bttf3_27

Marty slips and falls down a hillside, knocking himself unconscious on the side of a fence. A farmer comes to his aid: Marty’s great-great-grandfather Seamus McFly. Original plans to have Crispin Glover play Seamus fell through when Glover and the production failed to come to terms over his salary for Part II. As a result Michael J. Fox stepped in to play the role instead. Jeffrey Weissman, who stood in for Crispin Glover in key scenes of Part II, later claimed he had been told he would be playing the role of Seamus but according to Bob Gale this was never the case.

Scenes of Seamus and Marty sharing a meal in the McFly farm were filmed using the Vistaglide compositing process, in which a computer-controlled camera could replicate identical tracking shots and enable two shots of Michael J. Fox in different costume and make-up to be seamlessly joined together.

Lea Thompson played the role of Maggie McFly, Marty’s great-great-grandmother. Thompson was cast in the role to enable the film to repeat the running gag of Marty being knocked unconscious and waking up to his mother’s voice revealing his time-displaced location. An unintended side-effect of the casting was to make it seem that the McFly and Baines families had inter-married generations prior to George and Lorraine becoming romantically involved in 1955. It is a small price to pay for a well-placed joke.

bttf3_03

Following his encounter with the McFlys of 1885, and gifted with a proper pair of boots and a hat, Marty heads into Hill Valley to locate Doc Brown. Once again the audience is treated to a repeated gag: Marty’s wide-eyed exploration of a radically different Courthouse Square.

It was impossible to re-use the same Universal Studios town square to represent Hill Valley, since it would have been too hard to mask off signs of 20th century buildings in the background. Instead the Hill Valley of 1885 was constructed from scratch near Sonora, California. Producer designer Rick Carter said: ‘By building our own town over several acres, we were able to leave a lot of spaces between the buildings, give it some depth and get a glimpse of life beyond the storefronts.’[vii]

25 separate building facades were erected, including the half-constructed town courthouse. A full saloon set was built on location, to enables actors to perform both inside and outside of the building in the same shot. The scene includes deliberate references to the earlier films: the courthouse is still being constructed, with the iconic clock yet to be installed, while the local car dealership currently sells horses.

Marty’s walk into town along the railroad tracks was filmed in Jamestown in northern California, where a pre-existing steam locomotive attraction known as Railtown 1897 had been erected. This was far from Railtown’s first appearance on screen, having previously been used in Clint Eastwood’s 1985 western Pale Rider, as well as the television series Little House on the Prairie.

bttf3_26

Marty heads into the Palace Saloon bar to ask after Doc’s whereabouts. Chester the bartender was played by Matt Clark. After making his debut in In the Heat of the Night (1967), Clark performed in a wide variety of films and television episodes, including numerous westerns: Jeremiah Johnson (1972), Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid (1973), The Outlaw Josey Wales (1976), and several others. A trio of elderly men in the Palace Saloon were played by Harry Carey Jr, Dub Taylor and Pat Buttram – all three of them veterans of movie westerns.

While in the saloon Marty is confronted by Buford Tannen (Thomas F. Wilson), who initially confuses him for Seamus. When asked his name, Marty assumes the alias “Clint Eastwood”. The real Eastwood happily granted permission for his name to be used in the film, reportedly flattered that he had been asked at all.

bttf3_11

Thomas F. Wilson is particularly good in this film. He has been given a starkly different character to Biff, and plays it with visible relish. Wilson reportedly based his performance in part on Lee Marvin’s in The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962), and trained extensively in riding a horse and using a lasso. Buford Tannen had already appeared in a documentary briefly seen by Marty back in Back to the Future Part II, but at that point the character’s costume and make-up had not been established so he appears quite different here.

Marty’s encounter with Tannen and his gang takes a predictable turn for the worse, and he soon finds himself running for his life through the Courthouse Square with Tannen in pursuit on horseback. During the shooting of the chase and Tannen’s attempted lynching of Marty, the rope used to suspend Michael J. Fox slipped and choked him. Loss of oxygen caused the actor to black out for several minutes.

As with Part II much of the humour of Part III comes from repetition. Marty meeting Tannen in the saloon deliberately reflects encounters with Biff in the 1955 diner and Griff in the 2015 Café 80s. Once again that encounter is followed by a chase through the middle of town. How much one enjoys seeing variations of the same events played out for a third time will likely dictate how much one enjoys this third and final film.

Marty is saved at the last minute by the arrival of Doc, already well-established in town as a blacksmith and wielding a formidable and improvised sniper rifle. There’s a nice small detail in Doc’s arrival that generally goes unnoticed: his brightly-coloured bandana has been made from the shirt he was wearing when he was transported back from 1955.

It is noticeable throughout the film that Doc, Marty and Clara are all costumed in relatively bright colours, to contrast with the muted, dusty colours of the supporting cast and extras. The technique helps to make the characters be more of a point of focus on the screen.

bttf3_24

Marty and Doc begin their plans to return in the Delorean to 1955 – only with the fuel line broken there’s no fuel to actually get the car to move. It’s a rather clever reversal of the original film’s dilemma. Back then the Delorean could easily reach 88 miles per hour, but lacked plutonium to power its time circuits. This time around the time circuits run on fusion from everyday garbage, but it lacks the ability to reach 88 miles per hour. A plan is set in place to push the Delorean using a hijacked steam train: the route will send the vehicle straight into Shonash Ravine – which Marty and Doc know as Clayton Ravine – where, in 1985, there will be a rail bridge to take them safely across. This lavish plan to push the Delorean provides the film with yet another chance to engage in repetition, with Doc once again constructing an elaborate scale model to demonstrate his scheme.

bttf3_09

Doc is asked by the town mayor to escort a new school teacher, Clara Clayton, into town. When he and Marty ride out to find her, they discover her about to head over the edge of Shonash Ravine in a carriage. After saving Clara’s life, Doc realises that she was the Clayton whose death led to the ravine being renamed – he has unwittingly changed history and saved a woman fated to die.

There is a growing melancholy about the time machine over the course of Back to the Future’s two sequels: Doc grows increasingly convinced that all the machine does is cause misfortune and misery. It’s a well-placed bit of contrast to all of the comedy and action that fills the films.

It’s worth considering Clara in a bit of depth, since she is the film’s only real additional cast member. She is an oddly exaggerated character, played in a remarkably broad fashion. While it’s essentially true that all of the characters in the trilogy are fairly heightened in their tones and personalities Clara appears to be a marked step even further into caricature. Mary Steenburgen cannot be faulted for her part; she’s simply performing as the character is written and as her acting is directed. She does feel slightly out of place throughout, however, as if she’s walked onto location from an adjacent movie.

bttf3_16

It does not take long for Doc to become romantically smitten with Clara, and to embark on an ill-advised and tentative romance. He escorts her to the town festival, where the courthouse tower clock will be turned on. They dance; their dance is interrupted by Buford Tannen, and Marty’s attempt to intervene results in Buford challenging him to a duel the following morning.

Cameoing as part of the dance band was the popular rock band ZZ Top, performing a country version of their song “Doubleback”. The song, which appeared on the band’s 1990 album Recycler, was also used over the film’s closing credits. While Part III was being developed, there was consideration given to re-using the same band that played the Enchantment Under the Sea dance in the first two films – yet another repeated reference – but it was ultimately felt an African-American band would look out of place in a historical setting. In retrospect it feels like a missed opportunity.

bttf3_17

That night Doc, who wants to remain in 1885 and marry Clara, confesses the truth to her. She does not believe him and, upset by his apparent mockery, tells him to leave. He heads to the saloon to drown his sorrows while she prepares to take the train out of Hill Valley for book. The following morning Marty finds Doc still nursing a glass of whisky. Before he can stop him, Doc downs the glass and – notoriously unable to hold his liquor – collapses unconscious. Tannen then arrives to have his duel with Marty.

A scene had been written and shot for immediately prior to Tannen’s arrival outside the saloon, which depicted him shooting and killing U.S. Marshal Strickland (James Tolkan) in front of his son. The use of Tolkan as the grandfather of Hill Valley High’s deputy principal was a nice casting touch, and acts as another link back to the original film. Marshal Strickland’s final words before dying – ‘Remember, son: discipline!’ – was intended to link back directly to the grandson, whose obsession with discipline and hatred for ‘slackers’ formed a running joke in the first two films. Zemeckis cut the scene because it felt too dark and mature for what was intended to be a family-friendly movie. It was, however, retained in Craig Shaw Gardner’s novelization.

bttf3_21

Marty’s duel with Tannen is an odd one, because its resolution – Marty using an identical trick to Clint Eastwood in A Fistful of Dollars – relies on foreshadowing undertaken back in the alternative 1985 sequence of Back to the Future Part II. It’s a rare case where the set-up of a joke and its punchline are separated by an entire movie. The scene also falls back on repetition again: when punched in the face by Marty, Tannen spins back face-first into a cartload of manure.

It’s rather satisfying, given this is the final part of the trilogy, that Marty finally gets to have a face-to-face victory with Tannen. All he manages in the earlier films is to escape from Biff and Griff; this is the only time he gets an unqualified victory against the Tannen family.

bttf3_25

With Doc awakened and Tannen defeated, Marty and Doc ride off to hijack the train and take the Delorean back to 1985.

The nearby Sierra Railroad stood in for the Hill Valley equivalent. The 92 kilometre-long track was constructed in 1897 to freight lumber from the mountains down to Oakdale. Despite being discontinued the railway continued to operate as a tourist attraction. The Sierra’s Engine No. 3, commissioned in 1891, was repainted and used as the train that Doc and Marty hijack. The engine had previously appeared in numerous films and television episodes, including High Noon (1952).

Once the train is running towards the ravine there is a complication. Clara, overhearing a story of Doc’s remorse in the saloon, has chased after and boarded the hijacked train. In order to save her from falling into the ravine, Doc abandons the Delorean to rescue her and remain in the past. He is successful, and it’s Marty alone who drives the Delorean back to 1985 (across what is humorously now known as “Eastwood Ravine”).

This is the most traditional of the Back to the Future climaxes, and feels a little unsatisfactory compared to its predecessors. The events seems rather contrived, and while plot contrivances are practically part-and-parcel of the Back to the Future trilogy, they usually are conducted in such a fast and energetic manner that the viewer initially doesn’t notice. By comparison this sequence simply feels sedate.

bttf3_22

What follows is a slightly protracted epilogue. The Delorean is immediately smashed to pieces by an oncoming train, Marty runs to Jennifer’s house and is reunited. While driving his truck they almost get into a major car crash drag-racing Marty’s classmate Needles (Red Hot Chilli Peppers guitarist Flea, returning from his cameo in Part II).

Among Needles’ gang is actor Ricky Dean Logan, who played Griff’s sidekick Data in Part II. The film never makes it clear whether Logan is playing Data’s father here, but given the rest of the franchise it seems likely.

When visiting the remains of the Delorean by the railroad tracks, Marty and Jennifer and surprised by the arrival of Doc, Clara and their sons Jules and Verne onboard a steam-powered, time-travelling locomotive. Doc gives Marty a gift – a framed photograph of them together in 1885 – before activating the train’s hover-engine and flying off into times future or past.

It is a weird scene. It is weird because the time-travelling, hovering, steam-powered train looks bizarre and ridiculous compared to anything else seen in the entire movie trilogy. It is also weird because it seems to run counter to the entire growing plot thread of Doc’s dissatisfaction with the risks of time travel. It is particularly weird because while Doc and Marty are having a heart to heart conversation you can visibly see one of Doc’s young sons stare down the barrel of the camera lens, beckon the viewer with a finger and point to his crotch.

It is possible that this final scene was introduced to give the film an uplifting, happy ending, but to be honest it does not require it. There was much satisfaction in knowing Doc lived a full and happy life in love with a woman in 19th century California, and the idea of a flying train travelling through history simply seems a step too far in stretching credulity. Ultimately the biggest problem with the scene is that it feels artificially saccharine in a manner that the entire trilogy up to this point had avoided. It is slightly irritating that such a brilliant set of films concludes on such a jarring and false note.

bttf3_20

Back to the Future Part III opened in American cinemas on 25 May 1990 at the top of the box office, supplanting the previous week’s top release: John Badham’s action-comedy Bird on a Wire. It grossed US$23.7 million dollars over its opening weekend, less than the US$27.8 million grossed by Part II but still more than double that of the original film. In its second week of release Part III dropped into second place behind the widely-promoted Arnold Schwarzenegger vehicle Total Recall. The release of Another 48 Hours the following week pushed it to third place, and then the following week the release of Dick Tracy and Gremlins 2 pushed it to fifth. By the end of its theatrical run Part III had grossed US$87.7 million dollars, significantly less than the original (US$210.6m) or the sequel (US$118.5m). Box office returns painted a similar picture internationally: while Part II had managed to generate global revenue in excess of US$331 million dollars, Part III finished up at a shade under US$245 million – enough to make it the world’s sixth-biggest hit of the year, but a clear drop down from the popularity of the earlier instalments.

A number of reasons for Part III’s comparatively disappointing performance come to mind, but the two main ones would be audience fatigue and disappointment over the end of Part II. When the earlier film was released in 1989 Universal Pictures did little to inform viewers that it would end with a cliffhanger leading into a third film six months later. Many moviegoers complained of feeling cheated at the time, and simply stayed away from the third film having already had an unsatisfactory experience. As for fatigue, it had only been a few months since the last part. It is arguable there simply was not enough time to rebuild viewer demand.

Critically speaking the film was the least well-received of the trilogy as well. Some critics started to tire with the franchise’s deliberate repetition of story beats. ‘Doc says: “I can’t believe this is happening,” wrote Julie Salamon in the Wall Street Journal. ‘That sentence may be the only one uttered in the entire film that contains an ounce of true feeling. Certainly that was the thought on my mind as I watched this depressing rehash of material that seemed original just five years ago, when it was.’[viii]

In the New York Times, resident critic Vincent Canby simply seemed tired of the film in general, writing that ‘the film is so sweet-natured and bland that it is almost instantly forgettable’.[ix] The Los Angeles Times’ Peter Rainer seemed to feel much the same, calling the film ‘sprightly and inoffensive’.[x] In Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman wrote: ‘This last instalment in the series is also the first dud.’[xi]

In the end, for both critics and audiences alike, Back to the Future Part III seemed less of a bang and more of a whimper.

bttf3_13

Why does Part III fail to deliver quite the emotional punch of its predecessors? A big reason is likely that it simply doesn’t find precisely into their shadow. Back to the Future is a near-perfectly constructed feature film, with a tightly plotted screenplay and incredibly energetic and enjoyable performances. Part II revisits the original film by literally revisiting it: characters running around behind the scenes of the original’s events. Part III deliberately steps away. It is significantly less complicated than the earlier films – particularly in comparison to Part III – and it refocuses its attention from Marty McFly to Doc Brown. On top of that it lacks a particularly engaging hook. The original film is based around the idea of going back in time and meeting your own parents as teenagers. The second film is a complicated play with the potential for time travel. The third is essentially a light-hearted comedy western. There simply is not as much in the film with which to grapple and enjoy.

It is important to note that Back to the Future Part III is by no stretch of the imagination a bad film, or even an average one. It is funny, enjoyable and reasonably well paced. As a conclusion to a three-film storyline, however, it feels less like a triumphant climax and more like an odd addendum.

bttf3_12

The film concluded the franchise, save for a subsequent spin-off Saturday morning cartoon. At no point was there a plan drafted to produce Part IV, and with the passage of time and Michael J. Fox’s 1991 diagnosis of Parkinson’s disease any such sequel only becomes less likely.

‘Let’s face it,’ said Bob Gale in 2014, ‘we’ve seen a lot of sequels that are made years and years later and I don’t think I can name one that’s any good, that lives up to the originals. I don’t think you can recapture it.’[xii]

Of course a fourth film is hardly needed. Given the 30th anniversary, and the plot relevance of the 2015 date, Back to the Future has spent much of the last year on people’s minds and they have reminisced, re-watched and re-appreciated the trilogy. All three films remains hugely popular and a keystone of late 20th century American popular culture. That seems unlikely to change. They remain an exceptional trilogy, about time and – it seems – for all time.

 

bttf3_14

 

Reference List

[i] Ian Nathan, “Back to the Future: the oral history”, Empire, April 2010.

[ii] Laurie Halpern Smith, “After 15 years, a kiss for Christopher Lloyd”, New York Times, 20 May 1990.

[iii] Vi-an Nguyen, “Christopher Lloyd reveals his favourite Back to the Future memory”, Parade, 11 October 2012.

[iv] Marc Shapiro, “Future days of western past”, Starlog 155, June 1990.

[v] Marc Shapiro, “Future days of western past”, Starlog 155, June 1990.

[vi] Carole Zucker, Figures of Light: Actors and directors illuminate the art of film acting, Plenum Press, 1995.

[vii] Quoted in Back to the Future Part III production notes, Universal Pictures, 1990.

[viii] Julie Salamon, “Back to the Future Part III”, Wall Street Journal, 31 May 1990.

[ix] Vincent Canby, “Back to the Future Part III”, New York Times, 25 May 1990.

[x] Peter Rainer, “Back to the Future Part III”, Los Angeles Times, 25 May 1990.

[xi] Owen Gleiberman, “Back to the Future Part III”, Entertainment Weekly, 1 June 1990.

[xii] Ben Falk, “Writer explains why Back to the Future 4 will never happen”. Yahoo Movies UK, 17 October 2014.

2 responses to ““It’s a science experiment” | Back to the Future Part III (1990)”

Leave a comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Trending