Superman (1978 film)
For the franchise, see Superman film series.
| Superman: The Movie | |
|---|---|
| File:Superman ver1.jpg Original movie poster | |
| Directed by | Richard Donner |
| Written by | Comic Book: Jerry Siegel Joe Shuster Story: Mario Puzo Screenplay: David Newman Leslie Newman Robert Benton Mario Puzo Creative Consultant: Tom Mankiewicz |
| Produced by | Ilya Salkind Pierre Spengler |
| Starring | Christopher Reeve Gene Hackman Marlon Brando Margot Kidder |
| Cinematography | Geoffrey Unsworth |
| Edited by | Stuart Baird |
| Distributed by | Warner Bros. |
Release dates | December 15, 1978 |
Running time | 143 min. |
| Countries |  United Kingdom United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $55,000,000 |
Superman (also known as Superman: The Movie, as it was called in pre-release advertising), is a popular and critically acclaimed superhero film. It was the first major motion picture to feature the popular DC Comics character of Superman, who had previously appeared throughout the 1940s and 1950s in a radio program, two movie serials, and a television series. It was also the first blockbuster film adaptation of a comic book superhero. The film was released by Warner Bros. in 1978. It was directed by Richard Donner and executive produced by Ilya Salkind, with music by John Williams. It starred top-billed Marlon Brando as Jor-El, and Christopher Reeve as Superman.
The movie was filmed and produced at the same time as its sequel, Superman II (1980), although this arrangement was beset by production difficulties, and the sequel was not completed until two years later. There were two further installments in the series: Superman III (1983) and Superman IV: The Quest for Peace (1987), as well as several canceled sequel attempts after 1987. Superman and Superman II are treated as a loose backstory for the 2006 film Superman Returns.
Plot
The movie begins when the planet Krypton is in danger of imminent destruction. Subsequent to the trial and sentencing of a group of Kryptonian criminals, scientist Jor-El tries to persuade the planetary high council that the planet is about to explode. They refuse to believe it and forbid him to speak of it. With his wife, Lara, he arranges to send their infant son Kal-El, along with a green crystal containing the sum of all Kryptonian knowledge, to Earth to ensure his survival. Kal-El's spaceship crash-lands on Earth near the town of Smallville, Kansas, three years after Krypton has been destroyed. The boy is found and adopted by a couple, Jonathan and Martha Kent, who name him Clark Kent.
Clark has incredible superhuman powers on Earth, but he keeps his abilities hidden. Maintaining a shy disposition and avoiding sports lest he give himself away, he is ridiculed and scorned by his peers. Jonathan Kent has a fatal heart attack one day and dies, after which a grieving Clark expresses helplessness about having "all [these] powers and I couldn't even save him".
One night, Clark hears the green crystal making a peculiar sound only he can hear, and is drawn to find it. He realizes that it is time to discover his purpose on Earth and bids farewell to his Earth mother. He departs on a journey to the Arctic and uses the crystal to build the Fortress of Solitude, a majestic crystal palace in the architectural style of his home planet. Inside, Kal-El learns the reason he was transported to Earth from holographic recordings of Jor-El. After twelve years of education and training within the Fortress of Solitude, he emerges garbed in a red cape and blue suit with the El family symbol on the chest and flies off.
Clark arrives in the city of Metropolis and is hired as a reporter for Daily Planet newspaper by its editor-in-chief, Perry White. While there, he meets the paper's star journalist, Lois Lane. Clark becomes infatuated with Lois, but the sentiment is not returned. Clark's true nature is unveiled when, in his blue suit and red cape, he publicly rescues Lois from a spectacular helicopter accident atop the Daily Planet building. But not only that, but Clark's alter ego, Superman, also stops a heist from a jewelery crook, stops a gang at a waterfront, rescues an airplane from crashing and rescues a cat from a tree, delivering it back to the pet's owner.
Perry White directs all his reporters to find out as much information as possible about this mysterious hero. Superman grants Lois an interview. After the interview, Lois joins him on a flight over Metropolis. After their romantic flight, the costumed hero flies off and Lois says to herself, "What a super man", thus giving the mysterious rescuer his name, Superman. Clark shows up moments later to take Lois out. He takes his glasses off and is about to tell Lois the truth, but doesn't.
Meanwhile, super criminal mastermind Lex Luthor is intent on committing "the greatest real-estate swindle of all time". To accomplish this, Luthor hopes to cause a major earthquake in California by using the U.S. government's test launching of two missiles, one of which he has programmed to hit the San Andreas Fault. The other missile is to be used as a diversion and targets Hackensack, New Jersey. The California quake will cause all of California to slide into the ocean, making the vast tracts of desert land that he had quietly purchased skyrocket in value when it becomes the new West Coast of the United States.
Luthor perceives Superman to be a serious threat, luring him to his lair with a threat to gas the population of Metropolis. He traps the superhero with kryptonite — the only thing to which he is vulnerable to. However, Superman escapes with the help of Luthor's assistant, Eve Teschmacher, who is frightened for the fate of her mother, who happens to live in Hackensack.
Superman diverts the path of the Hackensack missile, forcing it into space. In the meantime, the California missile hits the San Andreas Fault, triggering the massive earthquake along the length of the fault. Superman plunges deep into the earth to shore up the fault line, preventing the loss of the West Coast. However, the quake's violent aftershocks still cause the breaching of the Hoover Dam and other disasters. Conveniently, Lois Lane happens to be in California covering another story. During the quake, Lois' car falls into a crevasse, and is buried by tons of dirt, trapping her inside and crushing her to death.
After dealing with all the disasters, Superman discovers Lois' lifeless body. Overcome with grief, Superman hears Jor El's voice forbidding him to interfere in human history, but also hears Jonathan Kent's last words to him telling him that "you are here for a reason." Disobeying his real father, Superman then flies around the Earth backwards until the world travels back in time.
By reversing the timeline, he fixes the fault line in such a way that the crevasse doesn’t reach Lois’ car. The reversal stops at the point where the earthquake began. He then flies back to Lois, who is alive and well. Superman bids farewell and flies off, with a task to finish. Superman captures Luthor and Otis and delivers them to prison.
Cast
Production
It was decided early in the process to shoot two films simultaneously. During the production of The Three Musketeers (1973), the Salkinds had realized that there was enough footage for two films and split the film in two, releasing The Four Musketeers a year later. The joint production of Superman and Superman II would mark the first time this process was used intentionally. All SAG actors' contracts have what is now known as the "Salkind clause", which stipulates how many films are being made. All performers on Superman were contractually obligated to Superman II as well. However, in this case, most of the simultaneously-shot footage was reportedly scrapped when Richard Lester was brought in to finish Superman II.
The Salkinds' original choice for director, veteran British helmer Guy Hamilton, had to amicably leave the project, as the film, originally intended to have been shot at Cinecittà studios in Rome, Italy, would now be shot at Pinewood Studios in Iver Heath, Buckinghamshire, England. However, due to director Hamilton's status as a tax exile, he could not be involved in the filming. In the end, Alexander Salkind made a personal phone call to Richard Donner and offered him the film, promising to pay him a fee of $1 million. Although the filming dates for both Brando and Hackman had already been set, Donner was unhappy with the existing screenplay, feeling that it was too campy. One of his first acts as director was to hire Tom Mankiewicz to substantially rewrite the script. In the opening titles Mankiewicz is listed as a 'Creative Consultant' because the WGA did not want more than four people to receive screenplay credit (final screenplay credit is given to Puzo, the Newmans and Benton, with story credit for Puzo; the end credits also list "additional script material by Norman Enfield"). With the delay in production, Nolte also left the project.
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A talent search was made for an actress to play Lois Lane, with most of the leading young names of the time being considered. Screen tests included with subsequent DVD releases of the film included Lesley Ann Warren, Deborah Raffin, and Stockard Channing. An unknown stage actor named Christopher Reeve was hired after a tireless search for the ideal actor to play Superman. The producers had originally thought a bodybuilder or athlete would be the first choice. In fact, people such as James Caan, Burt Reynolds, Charles Bronson, Kris Kristofferson, Paul Newman, Robert Redford, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Neil Diamond, and even Ilya Salkind's then-wife's dentist, were among those tested for the role. Sylvester Stallone, coming off the success of his Rocky Balboa character, was a contender for the role, only to be turned down as believable for Superman but unrealistic to play Clark Kent. In the end, Donner kept coming back to Reeve, who had only one other cinematic role (a supporting role in the 1978 disaster film Gray Lady Down) and a two-year run as Ben Harper in the soap opera Love of Life to his credit. Reeve was then hired to play the superhero. One problem cropped up immediately: Reeve's lack of musculature. Reeve steadfastly refused to wear a padded suit and undertook a strenuous exercise regimen under British bodybuilder David Prowse, who would soon become famous for playing the physical form of Darth Vader in Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope. By the time filming began in March, 1977, Reeve had bulked up his 6'4" frame considerably and looked the part of Superman.
Reaction
The reaction was largely enthusiastic, with Christopher Reeve singled out for particular praise for his sincere performance as both Superman and the bumbling Clark Kent. The visual effects, state of the art for the times, were also praised for their believability in contrast to those of previous low-budget productions of a similar genre. Meanwhile, John Williams added to his string of kudos for his score, which critics noted helped give an essential mythic grandeur to the story and character. (As with "Superman" scores past, the main theme centers on a musical triad that suggests the three syllables of the character's name). While the critics were divided over their preference for the reverent origin sequence in the first part, or the more lively later sequence of Superman beginning his career, it has been considered one of the best superhero movies ever made. Its financial side was also very successful, grossing $134,218,018 in the U.S., while grossing $166,000,000 in foreign tolls. Altogether it grossed U.S.$300,218,018.
The movie's legacy includes numerous television series, notably Superboy (produced, like the movie, by Alexander Salkind), Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman, Superman: The Animated Series and the current prequel series, Smallville, which have all been influenced by the movie to some extent. A particular example of this influence is John Williams' main title composition, which is often played and parodied in movies and other popular media referring to superheroes or superstar athletes.
In addition, the success of the film, which cost an enormous $55 million — at the time, big-budget movies usually cost about $20–$30 million — set a new standard for superhero movies which demanded similar production values and respect for their source material. That respect became especially influential after the failure of the farcical Batman & Robin by Joel Schumacher suggested to many that the Donner film's spirit was the proper tone to use for the genre.
Due to its high regard, the film's continuity is maintained in the 2006 film Superman Returns, whose production design is heavily influenced by its forerunner. This is especially evident with the opening credits, Fortress of Solitude, musical references and even the use of Marlon Brando as Jor-El.
Tom Mankiewicz has described Superman as a three-act play, referring to Krypton as being "Shakespearean", comparing Smallville to the works of Andrew Wyeth, and likening Metropolis to the pages of a comic book.
Superman received a "Special Achievement" Academy Award for Best Visual Effects, in one of the years when there was no such competition for the award. It was nominated for Best Film Editing, Best Music, Original Score and Best Sound.
Different versions
Superman was originally released to theatres in December 1978 with a running time of 143 minutes, edited from Richard Donner's original three-hour director's rough cut. In 1981, the rights to the movie reverted from Warner Bros. to Alexander Salkind, which allowed him to re-edit the film for international television distribution, including over 45 minutes of previously deleted footage and even some of John Williams' original score that had been left out of the theatrical cut, both elements restored to the film. This so-called "Salkind International Edit" runs 188 minutes. Due to a clause in the director's contract, Donner was excluded from the re-editing process. It was expanded in an attempt by the Salkinds to charge by the minute for television rights. ABC, which had U.S. broadcast rights to the Salkinds' library, first aired Superman domestically in February, 1982 as a two-night event. ABC's 182-minute edit, which deleted a few short scenes deemed inappropriate for television, aired again in November of 1982. The ABC version was derived from the Salkind edit. Subsequently, both the theatrical and television versions were distributed in syndication by Warner Bros., which regained control of the film in 1985, but only the theatrical version was issued on home video until 2001, when the special edition DVD featured a 151-minute cut.
In 1979, WCI Home Video (now Warner Home Video) issued Superman on VHS, Betamax and Laserdisc. However, only for the VHS and Betamax releases, the film was truncated to a length of 127 minutes by way of time compression, as most scenes without dialogue were sped up, and a majority of the film's closing credits were deleted, instead replacing them with a truncated version consisting of the copyright notice, and a chyron of the credits taken from an 8mm release of selected scenes from the film. This time compression was necessary because of the technological limitations of videocassettes at the time and the unavailability of long-playing cassettes. The film would not be available in an uncompressed form until 1983, when Warner Bros. finally issued such a version on home video. This version was re-released to video in 1986. Another Laserdisc set of the film was released in 1990, which was color-corrected and in widescreen format, and in its original theatrical version.
In 1994, Los Angeles television station KCOP (at the time an independent station) aired the first U.S. broadcast of the complete Salkind edit (it has been believed to have been broadcast outside of the U.S. prior to 1994, since this cut was originally prepared in 1981 before ABC's original telecast). The full expanded cut has unofficially been circulated on video among fans throughout the bootleg community, at conventions and, most recently, via Internet forums.
The restoration
In 2000, director Richard Donner and film restoration producer Michael Thau prepared a new 151-minute "Special Edition" designed for theatrical re-release. Working from original film elements (which were beginning to deteriorate), the film went through a nine-month restoration, with both picture and sound rejuvenated (with many new audio effects added, such as a different-sounding "whooshes" used for the opening credits). The restoration also involved thorough dirt cleaning, reassembling many optical effects from original negative and a new, modern color timing. Also, Donner selected eight of the 45-plus minutes that had been used for the television release to be incorporated into this new cut. This version was considered for theatrical re-issue, but was only released to video and, for the first time ever, on DVD, in the summer of 2001. This version has been seen on cable television and in revival film houses.
The audio for this presentation of the movie is not a simple restoration, but a complete re-mix. When inspecting materials for the restoration the original multi-channel soundtrack was deemed unusable for either theatrical or DVD release. The sound crew took on the job of re-creating or re-recording almost every sound effect. Re-recording mixers used these new effects, together with the recently found, original 1978 John Williams 6-track music recording, and cleaned up dialog tracks to created the new 5.1 channel mix.
Consequently, the soundtrack used for the DVD is an entirely new soundtrack. This caused a minor controversy in the DVD community as none of the original soundtrack mixes were made available until the 2006 4-disc DVD release (which utilized the original theatrical dolby 2.0 stereo mix). However, the initial pressing of the 2006 DVD accidentally omitted this audio track (and had a downmixed version of the 5.1 audio from the 2000 version in its place), but Warner Home Video offered replacement discs featuring the original audio track shortly after the DVD's release.
On November 28, 2006, Warner Home Video released The Christopher Reeve Superman Collection, an 8-disc box set featuring the DVD debut of the original 1978 theatrical version of this film, the 2000 restored edition, the original theatrical Superman II, and deluxe versions of Superman III and Superman IV: The Quest for Peace. Superman II: The Richard Donner Cut was not included in this set. In the UK this was released as a 9-disc box set additionally containing Superman II: The Richard Donner Cut.
A remastered version of the 143-minute theatrical cut was also prepared in 2000, and although this version had not been released on DVD, it had been seen on cable television. However, WB issued the theatrical cut for the first time on DVD as part of the studio's 14-disc box set, The Ultimate Superman Collection, on November 28 2006. There was also a "stand-alone" four-DVD set of the first film, which included all the material carried over from the 2001 disc (see below) in addition to the theatrical cut and new supplements.
Score
External links
- Superman at IMDb
- Superman: The Movie at RottenTomatoes.com
- The Superman Sourcebook, at The Thunder Child
- Family Movie Review for Superman
- Superman Cinema, a comprehensive authority for all the Superman movies
- Movie Reviews Superman: The Movie on the Christopher Reeve Homepage
- Why You Should Respect Christopher Reeve - an essay by Alan Kistler.
- MovieTourGuide.com - Maps and Directions to Superman: The Movie Filming Locations
- Special Edition Superman DVDs on the Way
- Superman Homepage: Superman: The Movie - Synopsis/Review/Critique
- Essay: The Themes of Superman (1978)
- Complete list of actors who were considered for roles
- Fanlisting for the film
- Deleted scenes from Superman (1978) not restored in the 2000 DVD restoration