OK in order to stuff this blog up that bit more I've decided to do a bit more blog robbery from my tennis blog. So the next four posts will be on the Superman films, starring Christopher Reeve and the latterly Brandon Routh. The
first film in the Supe cannon is generally regarded the best and I have
to agree, as Richard Donner brilliantly brought the superhero to our
screens, and found the perfect mix of seriousness and humour. So here's
a bit about the plot.
The film starts on the planet
Krypton where Jor-El (Marlon Brando), one of the esteemed scientists of
their civilisation, states that the planet will explode within a short
space of time (30 days or less), however the high council of Krypton
refuse to believe him and insist he keep quiet on his findings.
Regardless of this though, Jor-El is proved to be right as the planet
does indeed start to destroy itself, but before doing so, Jor-El
arranges for his son to be evacuated in a spaceship. The baby Kal-El
(Superman of course as a wee yin) travels in the spaceship for three
years before it gets to Earth. On crash landing on Earth, in a small
mining town Smallville, a middle aged couple, Johnathan (Glenn Ford) and
Martha Kent (Phyllis Thaxter), come across the young Kal-El and adopt
him as their own son, and he later is named as Clark Kent. As a
teenager however, Clark's father Jonathan dies from a heart attack,
after this happens, Clark is awoken one night and goes into the house
barn and he finds a glowing green crystal. On finding this, Clark
decides to leave Smallville and head North where he throws the crystal
into the icy waters, and it soons causes the creation of the Frotress of
Solitutde. On entering the Fortress, Clark finds a crystal which
allows him to talk to a holographic projection of his father, who tells
him who he really is and informs of his powers. 12 years later, Clark
leaves the Fortress for Metropolis (New York City in real life) where he
gets a job as a reporter, and befriends Lois Lane, an esteemed reporter
with the Daily Planet.
However after their first night
of work, Lois who is scheduled to do an interview, sets out to make the
trip in a helicopter, however there is an accident, which causes the
helicopter to crash land on the edge of the Daily planet roof. Clark
emerges from the building and looks up, and then decides this as his
moment to unveil his identity (although at this point he's not named as
Superman), as he changes into Superman and rescues Lois. Later that
night Superman makes his presence known in Metropolis as he does a
number of good deeds, such as foil robberies, prevent a plane from
crashing, and of course helping a cat stuck up a tree. Soon after he is
made public, the newspapers and television go wild, and soon enough
Lois gets an exclusive interview with Superman, whereafter she names him
in the press as "Superman". But as things get going for Superman, the
villanous Lex Luthor (Gene Hackman), schemes to destroy him, as he
locates a piece of debris from Krypton. Luthor lures Superman with the
threat of killing the popluation of Metropolis with poisonous gas, which
turns out to be just a trick. However Luthor's real aim is to destroy
California by having changed the trajectory of newly launched test
missiles, and use the barren lands he has bought as the new West Coast
which he will own. From here Superman is deceived into opening a lead
box (he can't see through lead of course) holding the kryptonite, which
Lex puts on Superman, and throws him in his swimming pool leaving him to
die. However Lex's girlfriend Eve Tessmacher (Valerie Perrine) out of
guilt rescues Superman, who then proceeds to try and thwart Luthor's
plan and stop the rockets from hitting their targets.
Superman:
The Movie, is without a doubt something of a landmark in Superhero
films, as the film itself was a massive undertaking, with an incredible
budget (55 million dollars) and covering alot of ground in Superman's
background, civilian life and being a superhero. And one of the film's
main triumphs is of course the casting of Christopher Reeve as Superman,
who makes the character so believable. Reeve also beautifully balances
Superman's heroic righteouness and Clark Kent's bumbling awkwardness,
and it would be hard to find an actor who could have played the part
better. The other cast members are perfect in their roles as well,
particularly Margot Kidder as Lois Lane, as she plays Lois as being
feisty, headstrong as well as being head over heels in love with
Superman. Gene Hackman, who up to that point in time was a serious
actor, made a wonderul transition into comedy in this film as Lex
Luthor, as he plays him so brilliantly, with just the right amount of
malice, egotism and intelligence.
Marlon Brando of course also makes a firm impression as Jor-El, Superman's father, who is a respected scientist and member of the Krypton council, and he plays him with an almost English tint in his accent. Brando however did later sue Warner Brothers and Salkind for 50 million dollars, as he felt cheated out of his share of the box office profits (let's not say he didn't have a penny or two after that!). Other roles are nicely filled such as
Jackie Cooper as Perry White, Marc McClure as Jimmy Olsen, Valerie
Perrine as Eve Tessmacher (nicely filled out too!) and Ned Beatty as
Otis, Lex Luthor's incompetent henchman.
Plot wise
the film as I said does cover a lot of ground, and if you could aim a
criticism at it, then it would that it does take its time to get going,
but once it does its great to watch. In fact the changes in tone
between the early scenes and later ones are quite seismic, from
incredibly serious to quite comedic, it definitely feels like watching
two different films. The early sequences on Krypton are quite lengthy,
and it has to be said that the depiction of the destruction of planet
Krypton is actually quite harrowing, as you see the planet collapse, and
people screaming and falling to their deaths, heavy stuff. Later on
with Clark Kent as a teenager, the film lightens a little in tone, and
features a charming scene between Clark and his adopted father Jonathan,
played nicely by Glenn Ford, who dies from a heart attack shortly
after. And from there, the film really does fly (sorry about the pun)
as Clark Kent goes to Metropolis and unveils himself as Superman. You could also argue that the high council of Krypton are also a bunch of idiots as they simply refuse to listen to Jor-El's theory on how Krypton will explode in 30 days. And instead of taking him at his word, especially given he is a respected scientist, they decide to ignore his theory or his warnings, and they don't even think to set a contingency plan in place to evacuate just in case he is right, but instead they just sit around until the place blows up!
Of
course alot of credit in the film really does go to Richard Donner (who
later on directed the Lethal Weapon films) as he had a massive task on
his hands in bringing the film to the screen. Donner also later
revealed that he had a fallout with the producer Alexander Salykynd, and
during the filming of Superman II, was fired from the project, and then
replaced with Richard Lester. This was an unfortunate decision as
Donner had such a great rapport with the cast and crew, and if he had
completed work on Superman II, it would have been very interesting to
see how it would have turned out. Donner himself later issued his own
director's cut of Supe II, but I'll say more about that in my next post.
Another
highlight of the film undoubtedly is the music by John Williams, who
did a terrific job in creating a highly memorable score for the movie.
Donner himself was stunned at how Williams orchestrated the word
"Superman" in the title theme as its almost as if the music is singing
the word. Its definitely one to remember and no doubt as a kid it was
one of my favourites too.
Technically the film is also
quite superb as the model effects by Derek Meddings are quite stunning
at times (even if you can tell a mile away that for example the houses
at the end during the damn breaking are miniatures!). And above all the
flying scenes are superbly realised, it also is helped by the fact that
Christopher Reeve makes Superman in flight seem so real and
believable. So you can easily forget that while he is held up by wires,
you can also believe the man can fly!!
Soooo that's it for Part 1 and Supe 1 the Movie. Now onto Part 2......
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