Back to the Future Part III

One of the delights of the first two “Back to the Future” movies was the way the story moved dizzyingly through time. Paradoxes piled on top of paradoxes, until we had to abandon any attempt to follow the plot on a rational level, and go with the temporal flow.It’s wonderful to see Steenburgen get this kind of comic showcase. Her presence has a leavening effect; she gives the movie a touch of twitterpated elegance. Also quite good are Lea Thompson, convincing as an Irish immigrant ancestor of Marty’s; Thomas F. Wilson, who has a great time as evil Mad Dog; and veteran character actors Matt Clark as the philosophical bartender and Burton Gilliam as a gun salesman.
It is Lloyd and Steenburgen’s lovely romance that gives the movie a core it might not otherwise have, and they are both excellent. And a sort of bittersweet, elegiac quality involving romance and time is the one thing that remains constant in all of the “Back to the Future” movies. In the first movie, McFly went back in time to be certain his parents had their first date. The second involved his own romance. The third involves Doc Brown and Clara. In all of these stories, there is the realization that love depends entirely on time.
“Back to the Future III” has the expansiveness of a classic fantasy; it’s a big, sprawling adventure, full of wonderments and rich surprises. Not only is it junk transformed, it’s junk redeemed.