Last weekend, I was turning on the TV, hoping for something decent, something funny...really something in the background while I worked on a New York Times puzzle. Because, quite frankly, there is nothing much on TV that attracts my attention anymore. Vickie will catch a game show, or cooking competition, or home-buying-repairing show, forcing me to leave the room, go on the computer, or do another puzzle. Even the oldies but goodies that occasionally appear are often-repeated and are cut to make ad time.
One of the channels had a Superman marathon going, albeit with ads. In this case, the end of Superman 2 was on. Luckily for me, we have the first two movies on disc, so I pulled it out (the MOVIE you filthy-minded minx!). Actually, we have the original Superman 2 AND the Donner cut, more on that later.
Whenever I watch one of the Christopher Reeve Superman movies, I am reminded of how good those flicks were. It is actually amazing they were made at all given the production history dating back to 1973. So many actors were approached or did approach to audition. The writing also had an interesting history, including a 500+ page draft by Mario Corleone, er Puzo. Christopher Reeve was actually a soap actor before that, not nearly as known as his other contestants for the role.
So the question is, what makes the Reeve Superman films good? Well, for starters, he was a good actor and played the superhero and his alter ego Clark Kent quite well, in fact sometimes too well. Before those movies, the only screen Superman we knew was the 1950s series with George Reeves. George played his Clark Kent with a little more confidence, though his midsection spoke of a few too many cheap Vegas prime rib meals. Christopher Reeve, on the other hand, actually worked out to gain muscle weight for the part. His Clark Kent was quite deliberately clumsy and shy while his Superman was strong, friendly (to the good guys), and confident.
Next, we have the music. Orchestra master John Williams created yet another of his soundtrack masterpieces with the Superman theme as well as the Lois Lane love theme. That man has contributed much to the memorable movie music motifs in the past 40 years!
Add to that the clever casting of Gene Hackman as Lex Luthor. Hackman has generally been known for serious roles for most of his career. His turns as Luthor showed that playing a megalomaniacal villain with a slightly humorous edge was another strength. Then there's Ned Beatty, who usually played opposite Burt Reynolds as a friend or foe in several 70s flicks, as Luthor's bumbling lackey Otis. As for Margot Kidder as Lois Lane, I've been on the fence about her portrayal, to tell the truth. She wasn't so much portrayed as a hard-news reporter as one who couldn't spell well. Of course, we also have Marlon Brando as Jor-El, the Kryptonian scientist whose theories were often refused.
All right, we covered the basics, now let's get to the actual movies so as to discuss plot.
Superman (1978)
The movie starts out with a strange opening of a kid opening a comic book, then a dissolve to the Daily Planet building (looking 30s/40s retro) before the opening credits. We are then introduced to the crystal-laden planet of Krypton where the kangaroo court trial of three criminals takes place, followed by a quick sentencing into a contraption that looks like Satan's Polaroid. We then get to the destruction of Krypton. Luckily, his parents send baby Kal-El away (mother tearful, father stone-facedly trying to forget his legal problems over "Last Tango in Paris") on what looks to be a K-Mart $2 Christmas ornament.
We then see him land on Earth in a Kansas-ish field. He is found and adopted by the Kents , an already middle aged couple, and dubbed Clark.Within a minute, Clark is an awkward teenager ostracized by his peers save for sweet Lana Lang after football practice. Clark immediately hits the general store and buys some feed, a Coke, and an AR 15 to wipe out his tormentors. No, seriously, he decides to practice his super speed and race home. After a fatherly admonition from Pa Kent, Pa Kent has a heart attack and dies. Clark then starts hearing things and discovers a green crystal in the barn. Somehow he can understand it and he travels north, leaving poor Ma Kent in the hands of unsympathetic farm bankers.
As he gets north of the Arctic Circle (we assume), he throws the green crystal, which starts the most incredible and fastest non-union construction project of the time, a huge crystal fortress. Here, Clark learns of his true origins from the image of Don Vito Corleone, who has politely removed the cotton from his mouth in order to be understood. From here, Clark has suddenly donned tights and a cape and flies away. Now, here is where it gets odd. We are supposed to buy that he took a journalism course in high school...that or Vito provided him with college transcripts during that whole time near Santa, for he is now working for the Daily Planet in Manhattan clone Metropolis.
Here he meets his boss, cantankerous Perry White, along with whiny cub reporter Jimmy Olsen and grammatically challenged yet bitchy Lois Lane whose personality resembles Lucy Van Pelt's at first. He foils a mugger as Clark by catching a bullet, but covers by pretending he fainted. Later, as Lois is heading up in a chopper from a rooftop for an interview, there is a malfunction and Lois is left hanging over the building. Clark sees this, then uses a revolving door to change into his tights and cape and rescues Lois. He then foils a burglar, captures armed bandits on a boat, then rescues a cat. He later (in remastered versions) tells Vito all about it, and Vito warns him about people needing him for everything. He then allows Lois to interview him and takes her on a love theme-filled ride in the sky.
Meanwhile, genius yet vain Lex Luthor is planning to destroy rich coastal California so that his buy-up of worthless desert land will become prosperous. He learns of Superman and steals Kryptonite from a display, as well as reprograms missiles to hit California and, just for fun, Hackensack. Lex lures Lois's dub Superman to his lair, hits him with the Kryptonite, and leaves him for dead until his moll Eve Teshmacher rescues him out of kindness. Superman then retrieves the Hackensack missile first because he promised Eve, then sees the destruction from the second missile and races to undo the damage. However, Lois is a victim of the resulting earthquake and dies. Superman in his grief proceeds to use sci fi theory to reverse the Earth's rotation to turn back time to retrieve the second missile and take it to explode in space, saving Lois. He then takes Lex and clumsy henchman Otis to prison...no trial of course, because hey, after 2+ hours, viewers don't want to go through jury selection.
Pros: acting, music, special effects
Con: Character establishment takes too long and we don't meet the main villain until about halfway through.
What I also like here is that Superman is genuinely good, like most superheroes of those times. It wasn't until Tim Burton's 1989 "Batman" that we started to see the dark sides of our favorite heroes. The latest Superman movies turn my stomach and make me want to see the 1978 classic again to remember that it is all writer/director/producer interpretation, and I prefer thew one I just described.
Up up and away...to Superman 2 later!
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