ALL SCI-FI

[Bud Brewster]

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That's a beautiful painting!
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[Bud Brewster]

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Today is the 79th anniversary of the first Superman comic, so here are a few trivia items about this great movie.
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~ To obtain the musculature to convincingly play Superman, Christopher Reeve underwent a bodybuilding regime supervised by David Prowse, the man who played Darth Vader in the original "Star Wars" trilogy.

Note from me: Wow, cool! Kal-El meets Darth Vader!





~ According to Roger Moore's autobiography, he witnessed Christopher Reeve walking through the canteen at Pinewood Studios in full Superman costume, oblivious to the swooning female admirers he left in his wake. When he did the same thing dressed as Clark Kent, no one paid any attention.

Note from me: Well good grief, Roger! Why should that be surprising? Christopher was wearing the amazing Clark Kent glasses . . . so nobody recognized him!

~ Marlon Brando refused to memorize most of his lines in advance. In the scene where he puts infant Kal-El into the escape pod, he was actually reading his lines from the diaper of the baby. He told Director Richard Donner that the only way to keep his performance fresh, and not over rehearsed, was to record the first time he read the lines.

"You must leave us now, my son. But on Earth you shall be a hero, and they shall call you . . . Huggies Snug 'n Dry."





Note from me: What a coincidence! I tried the same thing when I was in college. The professor discovered the things I'd written on my arms to help me during the final exam, and I explained that if I learned answers right before the test, I'd remember the info longer!

He wasn't convinced . . .

~ Initially, Gene Hackman refused to cut off his mustache to play Lex Luthor. In early one-sheets of the movie, his face is featured with a mustache. Before Richard Donner and Hackman met face-to-face, Donner proposed to Hackman that if he would cut his mustache, Donner would cut his too, and Hackman agreed.

It turned out later that Donner did not have a mustache at all. He wore a false mustache that he peeled off at the last moment.

Note from me: Oh, that's good! That's really good.

~ Richard Donner was disgusted that Production Designer John Barry and Cinematographer Geoffrey Unsworth received no recognition from the Academy for their work on this film. He was particularly aggrieved that one of the nominees for Best Art Direction was California Suite (1978), which merely duplicated an existing hotel, while Barry created an entire fictional city, and a fortress in the Arctic.





Note from me: Maybe the Academy mistakenly thought Superman was "film on location in outer space and the North Pole". I mean, we've seen the Academy do things that dumb on other occasions, right?

~ Steven Spielberg was offered the chance to direct this film. Producers balked at the salary he asked for. They decided to see how Jaws (1975), which he had just completed, did at the box-office. That movie was a huge success, and Spielberg went on to other projects.

Note from me: Well, you know what they say: Hindsight is 20/20 . . . especially when you're looking over your shoulder at a shark!





~ Clark Kent and Superman's hair part on opposite sides.

Note from me: This goes right along with the ridiculous idea that nobody would recognize Clark Kent as Superman because of those horn rimmed glass.

Picture Clark rushing into a phone both, quickly stripping off his suit to reveal his costume (including his red boots under his socks and shoes) . . . and then whipping out a comb to restyle his hair!

~ It was Marlon Brando's idea to have Jor-El wear the same "S" symbol on his clothes that Kal-El would later wear as Superman.

Note from me: Forgive me, but I don't buy this one. The idea of legitimizing the S as a Kryptonian character signifying the "House of El" was brilliant. I can't quite believe it was Marlon's idea.

~ Christopher Reeve proved to be an even greater asset than anticipated after being cast. Reeve flew gliders as a hobby and used his experience as a pilot to make Superman's flying feel more believable. His performance as both Superman and Clark Kent was roundly praised in making the superhero's secret identity seem surprisingly convincing.





Note from me: Although I'm not sure how a glider pilot's experience enhanced Reeve's flying scenes, I do agree that his dramatically different behavior as Clark Kent helped sell the idea that he was not recognized as Superman.

~ Christopher Reeve was actually a qualified hang glider pilot, which is why he was such a natural when it came to the flying scenes.

Note from me: Ah-ha! So Christopher was a hang glider pilot! Okay, that's makes more sense now.
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[Eadie]

Check your DISH or DirecTV movie listings!

I just watched an uncut 3 hour & 8 minute version of the movie (NO commercials) with lots of new & extended scenes!

Wondeful!
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Art Should Comfort the Disturbed and Disturb the Comfortable.

[Bud Brewster]

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

[Eadie]

IF you have a search function, use it. I found it that way by searching titles.
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Art Should Comfort the Disturbed and Disturb the Comfortable.

[Bud Brewster]

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I was hoping you remembered what channel you watched it on. I used my search function, and it's not on any channel I get in my DISH package.

However, I don't have a single Premium Channel, like HBO. So, you must have watched it on one of those.

Amazon has a Blu-ray of the Extended Cut.
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[Maurice]

The thing that blew my mind in 1978 were the glowing Kryptonian outfits, and I had no idea how that was accomplished. Turns out the suits were made from 3M Scotchlite material as used in road signs and front projection screens. Bounce a light towards them via a beam splitter (half-silvered mirror at a 45 degree angle to the lens) and BANG they light up, but only for the camera. Move just a little off axis and they just look grey.
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"The absence of limitations is the enemy of art."
― Orson Welles

[The Spike]

The planet Krypton is doomed, all life there is soon to be over. Jor-El, knowing that the planet Earth has the same atmosphere, rockets his baby son there post haste. On Earth, the infant grows up to find that he has super human powers that must be hidden from the ordinary Earthlings, he hides away as mild mannered reporter Clark Kent and transforms into Superman whenever evil and wrong doing needs taking care of.

I would think most people have either seen Superman:The Movie, or at the least heard everything about it. It's one of those films that sticks out in cinema history as a defining point, and some like me would say a high point as well. I recently revisited the film for the first time in about 5 years and had such a wonderful time with it, the moment John Williams exhilarating score kicks in I get goosebumps and start to believe a man can really can fly.

The expectation level on release of the film in 1978 was enormous, one can not understate the hugely iconic love that the DC Comic character of Superman had. A worldwide search for the right actor to don the red and blue cape was underway, Clint Eastwood, Burt Reynolds, Ryan O'Neal, Nick Nolte and Charles Bronson were all at times linked with the hot role, whilst James Caan and Robert Redford are confirmed to have passed after being offered the job. All of those great names now seem remarkably stupid choices, and that is purely down to the man that did take on the gargantuan role that was bursting at the seams with expectation. That Superman:The Movie worked (and still does with each passing decade) is down to the wonderful efforts of Christopher Reeve.

Reeve positively nailed both sides of the character, making it his own, he is all muscles and square jaw in the cape and then showing wonderful comic ability as the bumblingly frustrating Clark Kent. Sure the supporting cast all contribute grandly, but Reeve carries the picture and lifts it to triumphant heights. Gene Hackman has the time of his life camping it up as super villain Lex Luthor, Ned Beatty & Valerie Perrine flesh out Luthor's cohorts with comedy and sexiness respectively, whilst Margot Kidder is a pure joy as core character of the piece, Lois Lane. Asked to play a love interest but a fiercely strong woman at the same time, Kidder breezes through it and radiates a beauty that couples nicely with Reeve's broadness. Marlon Brando was paid $4 Million for what is little more than a prologue walk on part, but the big name he brought to the party ensured the paying customer went through the doors in droves, but on leaving the cinema it was Reeve's name that most were talking about.

Full of outlandish sequences and cheeky comic book ideals, Superman is lasting the test of time as an endearing classic of the genre, it may have been surpassed by quite a few of the more modern exploits by Spiders and Bats, but it was once the Daddy of them all. From x-ray eyes to catching bullets, to pushing nuclear missiles into space and wooing Lois in the sky, Superman:The Movie is a special treat, and oh how I love you so. 9/10

Christopher Reeve RIP.
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The quality of mercy is not strnen.

[Bud Brewster]

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This is a funny Saturday Night Live skit, but it's difficult to watch in view of Christopher Reeve's sad demise.

_________________ Superman Auditions - SNL


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