Back to the Future, Part III (1990)

“My horse broke down...”

There’s a difference between our favourite films ever and the ones we objectively think are best, and it’s the second list that is likely to feature all those intellectual films that we may regard highly but tend not to use as comfort food. Back to the Future, Part III is my favourite film of all time. And no, it isn’t as “good” as cleverer films with more to say; it’s a blockbuster. It just happens to be the most perfect blockbuster that has ever been made or ever will be.

This is the third and final film in a series that starts as excellent and just gets better with every film, and which is so uber-familiar that we forget how good it is. But we have the timey-wimey plot, with an opening scene that manages to recap both of the previous film, along with a superbly constructed Western pastiche that gives us yet more versions of the McFlys and a villainous Tannen, along with lots of adventure, thrills and even romance. And comedy. Lots of that. And yet again the great Christopher Lloyd is superlatively good. In fact, Doc is the real hero of the trilogy, isn’t he? Marty is just this kid who isn’t that bright and is a bit bland. Well, until you call him a chicken, that is. It’s Doc who invents the time machine, acts the hero and even, this time, gets the girl. Marty is just the Boswell to his Johnson, the Hans Castorp to his Settembrini, the person through whose eyes we see it all and with a heroic arc of his own, but very much a sidekick.

So why is this third film my favourite? I think it’s because we know the drill by now, we can have more fun with this 1885 Hill Valley as we know the later ones so very well by now- we get by far the best version of Strickland, too. It doesn’t have to be extremely timey-wimey- it’s done that- so can explore the fun of the Western setting more. And it has a kickass conclusion, with Marty learning a lesson that helps him to avert his bleak future, and us getting to see Doc’s new family (let’s just not think about his age here) and a time travelling train.

And there are great touches- Doc in 1955 hasn’t heard of Clint Eastwood and is amazed to hear that Japanese parts in 1985 are considered the best. Doc gets utterly bladdered after one shot of whiskey. But this film works because it has heart, it has plot, it has humour and it has characters, all combined perfectly. Sod it, this is one of the greatest films of all time.