‘Back to the Future: Part III’: The Little But Important Details You Might Have Missed
Stuck at home? So is ScreenCrush’s Matt Singer — which is why he’s watching things streaming on Netflix, Hulu, Amazon, Disney+, YouTube, Criterion, Tubi, and elsewhere, and then writing about what he finds. If you want to suggest something for him to watch and write about, find him on Twitter. Previous installments of this column can be found here.
Today’s Film:
Back to the Future Part III (1990)
Director: Robert Zemeckis
Writers: Robert Zemeckis, Bob Gale
Stars: Michael J. Fox, Christopher Lloyd, Mary Steenburgen
Box Office Total: $244.5 million
Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 80 percent
Currently Streaming On: Netflix
Why I Watched It: Back to the Future was back in the news recently when its producer/co-writer Bob Gale publicly commented on a “plot hole” in the original movie that a lot of people, including Guardians of the Galaxy filmmaker James Gunn, were debating on social media. That put the series back in my head — and as it turns out all three Back to the Futures are currently available on Netflix.
Like most kids of my generation, I loved the Back to the Future series, but Part III was always my least favorite by a wide margin. I’ve probably watched Parts I and II more than 15 times each; I’d guess I’ve watched Part III all the way through no more than three or four times. All that made me wonder: Was it me or the movie?
In my opinion circa 2020, it was me. Part III might be the weakest of the three films, but there’s no shame in that, since the first is one of the best science-fiction films of its era and the second is one of the better sequels ever made. Part III is still an extremely entertaining movie, one whose finer points are easily lost on younger audiences for a variety of reasons, that I’ll get into below...
Gallery — Little Details You Might Have Missed in The Conversation: