Well as the title of this entry suggests, this will be my critique on the Superman films, starting with of course Superman: The Movie. 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. 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.
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 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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