Back from the past

Rating: 7/10 (11 July 2009)

After the much darker part two things lighten up for the concluding part of the story. Here there are plenty of jokes and some nice references to other films, in particular "A Fist Full of Dollars".
When the film opens Marty is still trapped in 1955 but the letter he received that the end of part two tells him that Doc is alive and well living in 1885. The letter also informs Marty where the DeLorean has been hidden and how, with the help of 1955-Doc he can get it running and return to 1985. However before Marty can do that he learns that Doc died a few days after sending his letter to instead of returning to 1985 he dresses up a rather camp 1950s cowboy costume and goes to 1885. Here he meets his great-great-grandparents who he tells he is called Clint Eastwood. When he head goes into town he ends up making an enemy of the local gunman Buford 'Mad Dog' Tannen, an ancestor of Biff. This is also the person who had been destined to kill Doc. When Marty saves Doc at the party to celebrate the construction of the new town clock he is challenged to a duel. Now he has two days to either prepare to fight or to get the DeLorean up to 88MPH without any suitable fuel. There is also a subplot involving Doc and the town's new teacher Clara Clayton.
While I think this is probably the weakest of the trilogy it is still a pretty good film and it wraps the story up nicely. As well as being fun science fiction it also works as a decent comedy western, especially if you are a fan of Clint Eastwood's spaghetti westerns. As in the first two parts Micael J. Fox and Christopher Lloyd were great in the leading roles.