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Superman: The Movie (1978)
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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Sun May 17, 2015 11:08 pm    Post subject: Superman: The Movie (1978) Reply with quote

________________


Director Richard Donner decided to present his story of America's greatest hero smack in the middle of total sincerity and total camp comedy. The production is slick and high tech, as are the performances by everyone from Christopher Reeve to the extras in the street. That's why the scenes range from heart-breakingly sweet (Lois and Superman's first meeting) to hysterically funny (any scene with Gene Hackman's portrayal of Lex Luther).

The special effects were state-of-the-art for 1978, and they still tell the story effectively today, if you have the imagination to view them correctly.

A generous portion of the credit for this magical film goes to the awesome talent of Christopher Reeve. Mr. Reeve invests more charm in his creation of the Man of Steel than any other actor possibly could. The physical look of Reeve's Superman is flawless. Even though Reeves is no body builder, the costume presents his physic in a flattering and impressive manner.






Also, Reeve's brilliant characterization of a shy and ineffective Clark Kent ranks alongside Tyrone Powers' performance as Don Diago in 1940's "The Mark of Zorro", and Leslie Howard's rendition of Sir Perceval Blakely in 1934's "The Scarlet Pimpernel". Margot Kidder and director Donner together create a Lois Lane that is, in many ways, as super as Superman (even though Terry Hatcher's later version in "Lois and Clark" was sexier and just as gutsy).

Margot Kidder gives her all in a portrayal of Lois Lane as an ambitious women who wants to succeed in a man's world, even though she has a women's needs. Jackie Cooper's rendition of Perry White is a fitting decedent to John Hamilton's portrayal of the crusty Daily Planet editor in the 1950s TV series.

John William's music is timeless, flawless, and mesmerizing. It is, without a doubt, one of the best of William's efforts, and in fact one of the best scores in movie history.

The dramatic conclusion of the story involves a reversal of time, which Superman brings about so that he can prevent tragic events from taking place. But this concept is presented in a somewhat confusing way, and this robs the film of the impact it would otherwise have had.

The subsequent sequels were less well done and less enjoyable, becoming increasingly flippant and campy.

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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)


Last edited by Bud Brewster on Thu Nov 24, 2022 6:58 pm; edited 7 times in total
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Pow
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PostPosted: Mon May 18, 2015 11:34 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Williams' score is absolutely magnificent & remains so to this day. I put it ahead of even Star Wars.

Terrific film overall. They still could not keep themselves from dipping into camp moments now & then though.

Hackman's Luthor was more silly than scary to me, his girlfriend is a cartoon, & the henchman could have been one of the 3 Stooges.

Wish they could have avoided doing so as today's superhero films manage not to go the way of Batman(1966 TV show).
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orzel-w
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PostPosted: Mon May 18, 2015 2:26 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Pow wrote:
...the henchman could have been one of the 3 Stooges.

That pretty much describes my reaction. Every time he appears, I think to myself, "Lex Luthor is a genius, and this is the best he could do as far as hired help?"
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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Mon May 18, 2015 4:06 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

orzel-w wrote:
Pow wrote:
...the henchman could have been one of the 3 Stooges.

That pretty much describes my reaction. Every time he appears, I think to myself, "Lex Luthor is a genius, and this is the best he could do as far as hired help?"


I'll go ya one further: not only is Otis a blithering idiot, Miss Teschmacher is dumber than a brass bra!

And frankly we're never really convinced that Luther is overstocked in the brains department either. He seems to be the only one convinced he's smarter than the average bear.

So, the presence of two air-headed henchpersons would seem to be Luthor's way of feeling smarter than everyone around him. He was just a smart fish in a real stupid pond.

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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)


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Pow
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PostPosted: Tue May 19, 2015 9:48 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

The Superman sequel with the 3 Kryptonian criminals is actually my favorite over the first film.

Liked the first one but loved the second.

After that it was all downhill with the Robert Vaughn/Richard Pryor one as horrific.
Crying or Very sad
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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Tue May 19, 2015 10:04 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

It's a shame Richard Donner wasn't allowed to do Superman II the way he wanted. The DVD that attempts to restore the version he intended is a noble effort, but it's not entirely successful.

The unfortunate thing about Superman II in general is that special effects techniques just weren't able to portray a fight between Kryptonians the way it needed to be done. The Avengers movies and their cousins demonstrate what the fight in Superman II should have looked like.

Oh, well. We live, we learn, and we get better.

("What's this we sh*t, Earthman?" -- General Zod.)

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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)


Last edited by Bud Brewster on Tue Feb 21, 2017 3:58 pm; edited 1 time in total
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orzel-w
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PostPosted: Sun Jul 26, 2015 2:21 am    Post subject: Re: Superman (1978) Reply with quote

Bud Brewster wrote:
The dramatic conclusion of the story involves a reversal of time, which Superman brings about so that he can prevent tragic events from taking place. But this concept is presented in a somewhat confusing way, and this robs the film of the impact it would otherwise have had.

The main critique one hears is that turning back time by flying around the earth so fast so as to "reverse the rotation of the earth" just doesn't fly. I didn't understand it myself until I was listening to Neil Degrasse Tyson's StarTalk Radio program this week. What we're seeing, and what you may have been pointing out, Bud, is not that Superman flies so fast around the earth that the rotation reverses and therefore reverses time. That is the result rather than the cause. The rotation of the earth is just a stand-in for the hands of a clock. Superman is flying "faster than light", thereby reversing time. That's what makes the earth appear to stop and reverse.
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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Sun Jul 26, 2015 2:46 pm    Post subject: Re: Superman (1978) Reply with quote

orzel-w wrote:
What we're seeing, and what you may have been pointing out, Bud, is not that Superman flies so fast around the earth that the rotation reverses and therefore reverses time. That is the result rather than the cause. The rotation of the earth is just a stand-in for the hands of a clock. Superman is flying "faster than light", thereby reversing time. That's what makes the earth appear to stop and reverse.

Well put, Professor.

Actually, the movie does show plenty of other backwards-moving events during that scene, but if a person isn't real up on their temporal mechanics they might have misunderstood.

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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)


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Pow
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PostPosted: Sun Jul 26, 2015 9:38 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Interesting to view the Superman uniform from these Reeve movies.

They were certainly faithful recreations from the comics.
I have to say though that the designs & color schemes from the most recent Superman films is far superior to the one Chris wore.
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gofffan
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PostPosted: Sun Nov 01, 2015 3:25 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

orzel-w wrote:
Pow wrote:
...the henchman could have been one of the 3 Stooges.

That pretty much describes my reaction. Every time he appears, I think to myself, "Lex Luthor is a genius, and this is the best he could do as far as hired help?"

Yep. The opening section of Krypton and Clark growing up in Smallville through his stay at the Fortress of Solitude and his GLORIOUS first flight, in costume, before the cut to New York (or, rather, Metropolis) was magical. The film, the music and the direction were all mesmerizing.

BUT - when Luthor et al hit the screen, it was played very broad. I remember reading that Donner had shot the scenes two or three different ways and he chose the broadest takes. Alas.
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orzel-w
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PostPosted: Sun Nov 01, 2015 4:27 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

The measure of a hero's stature is the difficulty of overcoming his opponents or tasks. That's why super villains must always be invented to oppose super heroes. It's also why a buffoon is a bad choice for a central villain.

(Did you ever notice that it was always the villains who were constantly laughing in the Saturday morning super hero cartoons?)

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gofffan
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PostPosted: Sun Nov 01, 2015 5:07 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

There's also such a thing as too villainous a villain.

When John McTiernan had the original screenplay for Die Hard in his hands, it was about a group of terrorists taking over Nakitomi Plaza. He realized that there was no fun in that — so decided to make them, basically, high tech bank robbers.

I guess finding the right mix for a film makes everything work better. The (obviously planned) jarring difference between 'Phase 1' of Superman and our introduction to Metropolis was just too slapsticky.

BUT — I love the film and think Donner did the best Superman to date.
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Robert (Butch) Day
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PostPosted: Mon Nov 02, 2015 12:22 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

The problem stems from the desires of the screenwriters: Mario Puzo, husband-and-wife David Newman and Leslie Newman, and Robert Benton. They each had a different approach.

Puzo wanted a story akin to the first season The Adventures Of Superman which would be an action-adventure-mystery.

The latter three wanted a big-budget version of their off-Broadway comedy hit It's a Bird ... It's a Plane ... It's Superman!.

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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Tue Feb 21, 2017 4:39 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

__________________________________

This is a fairly good trailer for this famous film, but you'll notice something odd during the first 60 seconds.

The music it uses is not by John Williams, either from this film or any other which Williams scored! But after that first minute, the music we hear is definitely the famous score from Superman.

Odd, eh?
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__________________ Superman (1978) Trailer


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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)


Last edited by Bud Brewster on Mon Dec 14, 2020 11:16 am; edited 2 times in total
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Gord Green
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PostPosted: Tue Feb 21, 2017 7:12 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Many scenes from SUPERMAN II were filmed at the same time as StM-ONE. Edited together they would have made one hellova great movie!



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