Right OK its time for another post revisitation but for a change rather than extended the crap out the post beyong belief like I usually do I will try and condense the performance and notable scenes sections of the review as they are by far the most long drawn out parts of my reviews.
But having said that the review should still be fairly big but I will promise to try and reduce them in future as it makes it a bit easier on me typing them too!
Anyway so let's suit up, take to the skies and check this one out and as usual....
PLOT SPOILERS WILL BE AHEAD!!
STORY
So it all 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.
Later as Clark grows and becomes a teenager (played by Jeff East) his 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 (Margot Kidder) 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".
However 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. And its up to Superman to stop Luthor from carrying out his nefarious plan and to save the destruction happening.....
THOUGHTS AND BACKGROUND OF PRODUCTION
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. And it would be hard to find an actor who could have played the part better as Reeve was picked from over 200 actors who were put forward for the role.
The film's production had its fair share of problems as its director, Richard Donner clashed off set with the film's producers, the Salkinds, which eventually lead to his dismissal halfway through shooting Superman II. Donner was later replaced with Richard Lester, whom directed the Musketeers films for the Salkinds and they got on well with. Marlon Brando, cast as Jor-El, Superman's father also proved to be difficult as he later sued the Salkinds for $50 million having felt cheated out of his share of the film's box office profits.
PERFORMANCES (with fairly minimal notable scenes for once but may feature the odd spoiler! :-))
As for the performances well they are all excellent starting with Christopher Reeve who is perfect in the role as Superman/Clark Kent. Reeve nails his character's dual identity to a tee and he shows Superman's righteous heroism as well as Clark's bumbling and comical nature.
Reeve has plenty of memorable moments that include his introduction as Superman to the world where he catches Lois before she falls from the helicopter. And in the scene Superman says to Lois "Easy, miss, I got you" and Lois in sheer disbelief says to him "You've got me?? Who's got you??!!". And as Superman drops Lois off ontop of the roof he says to her "I hope this little incident hasn't put you off flying, miss. Statistically they say its still the safest way to travel!".
Then there are the scenes where Superman has interview with Lois at her apartment and she asks him some personal questions such as how old he is and he candidly says "Over 21!" and also what colour of underwear is she wearing and after not being able to tell because a lead planter she turns and walks away and Superman says instantly "Pink!". And in the scene Superman also tells Lois why he is on Earth and he tells sincerely "I'm here to fight for truth, justice and the American way!".
And later there is of course Supe's confrontation with Luthor where he grabs Luthor and demands him to tell him where the detonator for the missiles are and as Luthor refuses to answer, Superman uses his x-ray vision to scan Luthor's safes and desk. And then Superman notices Luthor sit on the lead box and he says to him "You diseased maniac! You really think you could hide it from me by encasing it in lead?! I'll mould this box into your prison bars!".
Margot Kidder is also great in her role as Superman's love interest, Lois Lane, the feisty Daily planet reporter, who is held in high esteem by her editor, Perry White, yet can't spell to save herself!
Margot also has some great moments that include the scene where Lois interviews Superman and she asks him various questions, but before he turns up Lois thinks she has been let down and she drinks down her glass of wine saying "Another one bites the dust!". And as Superman tells her why he is there to fight for truth, justice and the American way, Lois says to him "You're gonna end up fighting every elected official in this country!".
Then later there is the scene where Superman (SPOILER!!!) rescues Lois from the earthquake by reversing time, flying faster than the speed of light around the Earth. And as Superman puts things back to rights and has saved Lois's life, Superman lands back in the desert as we see Lois desparately try to start her car. And Superman says "Don't bother I think its dead" and Lois says to him "Sure its dead! That's the problem with a man of steel, there's never one around when you want one!".
Gene Hackman is terrific as the villainous Lex Luthor and he too has his fair share of great moments in the film of which there are too many to mention but I will quote one or two.
And to start off there is the scene where Lex in his underground lair, swims in his large swimming pool and listens to the news of Superman's arrival to the world. And in the scene Miss Teschmacher asks him if he's the genuine article and Lex says "If he is, he isn't from this world!" and Miss T asks him why not "and Lex says "Because if anyone was able to perpetuate such a fantastic hoax it would have been me!".
Then there is the scene where Luthor, his incompetent henchman, Otis (Ned Beatty) and Miss Teschmacher try to sabotage the missiles but Otis get's it wrong. And in the scene Luthor angrily barks at Otis for getting the missile trajectory numbers wrong and Otis, who wrote them on his arm says "Oh you see my arm isn't long enough, Mr Luther!" prompting a furious Luthor to say "Otis, would you like see a long arm??!! Would you like to a very, very long arm????!!!" OTIS??!!!" as he makes to punch him!
And lastly there are the scenes where Superman arrives at Luthor's lair and tells him real estate plan involving the missiles but exposes Supe to the kryptonite. And in the scene Luthor says to Superman "That's Kryptonite, Superman. I spared no expense to make you feel at home. You were great in your day, Superman, but when it came time to cash in your chips, this old...diseased maniac would be your banker!".
Marlon Brando even though he only appears for maybe 20-30 minutes or so in the film is also pretty good in his role as Jor-El, Superman (or Kal-El) and he plays him with a strong nobility.
Brando's good scenes include when Kal-El prepares to send off his young baby son, Jor-El, and he tells his wife, Lara, as he intends to send him to Earth that "His dense molecular structure will make him strong". And as Lara, concerned says "He'll be odd. Different" Kal-El says "He'll be fast. Virtually invulnerable" and Lara says "Isolated. Alone" but Kal-El says to her "He will not be alone" and he holds up a clear crystal and continues "He will never be alone" and he places it gently on the spaceship.
And lastly there is the scene where Clark uses the green crystal to create the Fortress of Solitude and when he arrives he uses a crystal to talk with his father. And in the sequence Jor-El tells Clark all about their history and who he really is and he finishes off by telling him about the Earth and the humans. And Jor-El's last words are "They can be a great people, Kal-El, they wish to be. They only lack the light to show the way. For this reason above all, their capacity for good, I have sent them you... my only son".
Ned Beatty is also great as Otis, Luthor's inept henchman and he shares a good comedic chemistry with Gene Hackman.
Beatty also has some fun moments but to keep things brief I will mention just the odd one or two that include when Otis at Luthor's lair, gives Luthor his robe as he steps to the shallow edge of the pool but neglects to notice that his robe is wet! And Otis tries to convince Luthor that Superman "Listen, Mr. Luthor, maybe this guy that flies is just sort of passing through, you know?!" and Luthor dismisses the notion saying "Not on your life, Otis, which I would gladly sacrifice by the way!". And Luthor finishes by saying to Otis "And, Otis, by the way, next time put my robe on *after* I'm out of the pool!" and Otis notices that the robe is wet and goes "Ooooohhhh!!".
And later there is the scene where Otis tries to make his mark on Luthor's real estate scheme by naming his own place in Luthor's prospective land calling it "Otisburg" and this angers Luthor no end. And in the scene Luthor absent mindedly reads it out and stops and says "Oitsburg?!" and Otis nervously says "Miss Teschmacher's got her own place" and Luthor again says "Otisburg???" and Otis tries to reason "Its an itty bitty town!" prompting a final "OTISBURG???" from Luthor, causing Otis to wipe the name off saying "Okay, I'll wipe it off. Just a little town, that's all!".
Valerie Perrine also does fine in her role as Miss Teschmacher, Luthor's sultry accomplice and girlfriend.
Val has some fun moments that include her first scene where Luthor kills one of the cops following Otis in the subway tunnels. And in the scene after Luthor makes the kill, Miss T berates him for it saying in disgust "Sick! Sick! You're really sick!". And as Luthor protests and bigs himself up by saying "How do you choose to congratulate the greatest criminal mind of our time? Huh? Huh? You tell me than I'm brilliant? Oh, no, no, that would be too obvious, I grant you. Charismatic. Fiendishly gifted, uh..." and Miss T cuts him off saying "Try "twisted!".
Then later there is the scene where Luthor tells Miss T and Otis about the kryptonite in Adis Ababa and Luthor smugly says "Doesn't it give you a shudder of electricity to be in the same room as me?". And Miss T says "Not like the shudder *you're* gonna get when you try to lay that rock on him. He can see you coming for miles with those super-peepers of his!". And Luthor reminds Miss T how Superman can't see through lead and that kryptonite will kill him and then "Any questions class?" leading Miss T ask "I wonder what they wear in Adis Ababa?!" leaving Luthor to shake his head in disbelief.
And lastly there is the scene where Miss T saves Superman from drowning and before she takes off the chain of containing the chunk of kryptonite, she kisses him and then tosses it down the drain. And after Superman asks why she kissed him first and she says "I didn't think you would let me after. Why is it I can't get it on with the good guys?".
Jackie Cooper is also great in his role as Perry White and he's soon good in the role that its hard to imagine anyone else play the part aswell.
I will only mention one of the Cooper's scenes and that is the one where the day after Superman reveals himself to the world, Perry addresses his staff at the Daily Planet he wants a full story on Supe. And Perry says to them all in the scene "Now listen to me, I tell you boys and girls - whichever one of you gets it out... is going to wind up with the single most important interview since... God talked to Moses!".
And lastly I will mention a few more of the cast, Glenn Ford does well in his role as Clark's Earth father, Jonathan Kent and he tells Clark as a teenager that "And one thing I do know, son, and that is you are here for a reason. I don't know whose reason, or whatever the reason is... Maybe it's because... uh... I don't know. But I do know one thing. It's NOT to score touchdowns!".
Marc McClure also does a fine job as the young Jimmy Olsen, the photographer at the Daily planet, even if his role is pretty brief. Jeff East too does a good job as Clark Kent as a teenager, although his dialogue was actually dubbed over by Christopher Reeve instead given East sounded nothing like Reeve himself.
And last of all is Terence Stamp who makes a brief appearance in the film at the start as the villainous General Zod, who is imprisoned in the Phantom zone along with his underlings, Ursa and Non.
And in Stamp's scene, Zod stands trial along with Ursa and Non as a guilty vote is called in, Jor-El is the last to make his verdict and Zod tries to reason with him but Jor-El simply walks away. And in the scene Zod yells "You have been known to disagree with the council before. Yours could become an important voice in the new order, second only to my own! I offer you a chance for greatness, Jor-El! Take it! Join us! You will bow down before me, Jor-El! I swear it! No matter if it takes an eternity, YOU WILL BOW DOWN BEFORE ME! BOTH YOU AND, ONE DAY, YOUR HEIRS!!".
DIRECTOR AND MUSIC
As for the director, Richard Donner does a terrific job with the film and he confidently handles the film's action and perfectly balances out the drama and the comedy. And Donner despite is troubles during the production of the film brought together the film aswell as he possibly could and succeeds in making Superman feel like an epic film with a real sense of scale behind it. Its just a pity that Donner had the production troubles with the Salkinds that lead to his dismissal which happened during the shooting of Superman II as both films were shot back-to-back.
Music wise the film has a terrific score by none other than John Williams and its simply one of his best and most memorable and the theme tune is so instantly recognisible and catchy. The other tracks in the film also really stand out well and Williams composes the perfect mix of drama, suspense and humour into his score. The only slight blemish to the score however is the inclusion of that crappy spoken word song "Can you read my mind?" that is spoken by Margot Kidder, which remains one of the film's weakest points. But that aside this is still a great score from Hollywood's greatest composer.
FLAWS
As for the flaws....yes Superman does have some.
And to kick off it would safe to say as a film that it does take its time to get going as the film begins with quite a big prologue of Superman's early life before it really picks up the pace when we get to the Daily Planet.
In fact the changes in tone between the early scenes and later ones are quite seismic, from incredibly serious to quite comedic, and it definitely feels like we are 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, which is pretty heavy stuff.
Also regarding a couple of the film's plot holes there is a major one involving the high council of Krypton who 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! Yep that is real common sense right there! You think the Kryptonians would at least try and err on the side of caution rather than just make the colossally stupid decision to sit and wait for their deaths. What a bunch of dicks!
And lastly there is the film's biggest plot hole which is to do with Superman saving Lois after her death in the earthquake by flying at super fast speed around the Earth to make it go in reverse in order to turn back time before the earthquake happened. OK now this does not even begin to make any sense because for starters if Superman is reversing time then surely all he is doing is putting the actions back in time BEFORE the earthquake and surely the earthquake is still inevitably going to happen! So I don't understand that at all!
And secondly if Superman is flying mega fast around the Earth and reversing it, surely all he is really doing is reversing its rotation and NOT reversing time itself and again I don't see corralation between either of these in this instance. Not only that how does Superman even known when to actually stop reversing the Earth's rotation??!! I mean he is at least thousands upon thousands of miles away from the surface of the Earth and even from California for that matter so how can he see and know when he's done enough to reverse the effects of the earthquake?!! Again it makes no sense at all and clearly the writers weren't interested in providing any kind of logical reasoning for Superman's time reversal trick so this one had to do!
Anyway that's it for the flaws.
SUM UP
So to finally sum up, Superman is still a terrific superhero film to this day and it has a great deal going for it, especially with its excellent cast lead superbly by Christopher Reeve in the lead role, which he was surely born to play. The film also has some great optical effects and stunning photography (by the late Geoffrey Unsworth who died not long after shooting was complete) and visually its a film that has aged very well.
It does of course have some drawbacks as highlighted above such as its lengthy opening prologue of Superman's early life which drags the pacing down and one or two plot holes as already mentioned. But if you can forgive all that then Superman is still a great movie that stands the test of time and its worth repeated viewing time and time again.
And that's it for now (that wasn't that shorter after all!!!) and I will be back with yet another review sometime soon.
Till the next un, bye for now!
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