Tuesday 13 March 2018

Superman the Movie (the extended cut) (1978) TOP 100

I was 10 years old when I took a large cardboard box which had held my parents' new fridge when it was delivered, and made from it a homemade "car" complete with cushions, pillows, and layers of blankets so I could cozy up in front of the TV as if it was my own personal drive-in theatre for a two-night event. The event was the television airing of Superman the Movie. What I didn't know at the time was that it contained 40 minutes of additional footage not previously shown in cinemas, footage I wouldn't see again for 35 years. I spent the next two evenings comfy in my home made drive-in loving what has remained one of my favorite movies of all time.

Superman the Movie not only excited and entertained my 10 year old self, it defined for me who Superman was, what he represented, and what heroism can mean. As I grew older and became a comic book nerd/collector, I would come to prefer certain alternate takes on the Superman mythos (for example I prefer "Clark" to be the true persona and "Superman" the put-on identity - just a preference), but this film continued to be a standard by which I would judge all Superman stories, and superhero stories in general. Watching Superman the Movie, with or without the extra scenes, it remains the quintessential Superman story. Director Richard Donner had done something amazing with this film even if it didn't follow the comic books as much as I might have liked, even if time doesn't turn back by changing the rotation of the earth, even if the laws of physics are bent and broken a few times. Like the ads said, I believed a man could fly.

I pretty much have the entire theatrical cut movie script memorized which is why, now once again being able to watch the extended cut for the first time in decades, so much of it feels fresh and new. I will admit that the many longer scenes slow down the narrative. However, they also flesh out what often felt a bit rushed and choppy in the original cut. Many of the additions are small moments, additional lines, a little longer shots, which embellish and embolden the truncated scenes I was used to and make small anomalies suddenly make sense, I can watch this film at any length because it is that damn entertaining. That's the point. I never get tired of this film. Canonically I may prefer the approach to the characters and the look of 2013's Man of Steel, but Superman the Movie is a film I will never tire of watching, a film that remains so perfectly entertaining and magical. From the iconic score to the perfectly structured three acts, Donner's film is a triumph of movie magic.

Every time I start the film I am reminded in the opening moments just how special it is. The film starts with a curtain opening (think Moulin Rouge!) and a black and white screen shows us Action Comics #1, where it all started, a reference true comic lovers relish especially in 2018 as issue 1000 of Action Comics is being released. We know we aren't just watching any movie, telling any superhero story. We are watching the movie telling the superhero story. Brando's Krypton scenes are classically scifi gorgeous. Fleshed out in the extended cut this part flows much nicer. The original and directors cuts always made this part feel a bit jolty. Clearly they had cut quite a bit and seeing it all restored it feels more organic. We follow young Kal-El through space to 1950s Americana (actually Alberta just outside my hometown) and Clark's childhood is encapsulated efficiently and beautifully.

There is a scene here that made the directors cut which always stuns me. Elder Martha is looking out at her grown son struggle with his adulthood in the field through the screen door. It is gorgeous and tragic and perfectly lovely. It's a scene that is often forgotten or missed by most audiences focused on the larger set pieces. But for me this is a moment of great gravity, a moment where I connect so closely to Clark. As a child the character resonated for me as an adopted boy, all awkward and alien, wondering who I would be. This version of the character will always resonate for me in a way few movie heroes do, and its these little moments which get me.

Donner's scene creating the Fortress of Solitude, which manages to fit the exposition in quite organically (not an easy feat), not only functions to get backstory explained but is also a thing of beauty. There is something so completely iconic about that set, resembling nothing like it before. And we are introduced to the Man of Steel, no longer hidden.

Donner films the Daily Planet like something all 70s modern urgent out of Network or All the President's Men. The Sorkinesque banter between Perry White, Lois Loan, and Jimmy Olsen, amid the chaos of the newsroom, is sheer entertainment and Metropolis is filmed as the heart of modernity, an ethos we have left behind in our post-modern malaise but one that fits for this Superman to exist in. Superman's debut, rescuing Lois from the falling helicopter is a superhero moment never topped in any film. It has been copied often in all sorts of media (Sam Raimi's Spider-man rips it off almost verbatim for example) as is the bullet catching scene in the alley (inspiring Patty Jenkin's Wonder Woman film). These moments, almost more than any other representation of Superman ever, create our understanding of who he is. The hero we wish we had in the real world.

A scene I always get excited for is Lois Lane's rooftop interview and the romantic flight. Funny, idyllic, and spot on classic, it feels genuine. It feels so real. This is one of the scenes where Christopher Reeve's amazing performance comes through. His balancing of his identities, the way he invests us in each, and his struggle with all the complications of his life, is remarkable. Reeves would go on to be a hero in his own right, but he gives a wonderful performance here. As does Gene Hackman in his lovely turn as Lex Luthor. I do generally prefer the evil corporate Lex (most perfectly encapsulated in Superman the Animated Series) but Hackman makes me forgive that as he plays off Ned Beatty and Valerie Perirne in such delightful scenes. Look at the names in this film. Brando, Cooper, Ford, Stamp. This is a cast to die for. Sometimes watching it I am amazed this even came together at all understanding, as I now do, the troubled shoot this film had.

But the miracle is it does exist. This film is part of a small cohort of films which set the standard for what a blockbuster film can be. As a child I became a cinemaphile because of films just like this. I have watched some cut of this film almost every year of my life and I enjoy it each time, each time I appreciate something different. Often copied but never duplicated, Superman the Movie, in its fullest form, remains one of my favorite films of all time, a film I will watch endlessly, a film by which so many others are inspired and compared. As the melody of one of film's most iconic scores plays out I am inspired once again by the film.

"They can be a great people, Kal-El, they wish to be. They only lack the light to show the way. For this reason above all, their capacity for good, I have sent them you... my only son"

Superman the Movie
Starring: Christopher Reeve, Gene Hackman, Margot Kidder, Ned Beatty, Valerie Perrine, Jack O'Halloran, Marlon Brando, Jackie Cooper, Glenn Ford, Terrance Stamp, Susanna York
Director: Richard Donner
Writers: Mario Puzo, David Newman, Leslie Newman, Robert Benton

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