i want you to hit me as hard as you can the year is 1978. greece and animal house are two of the
highest grossers of the year this couldn't be further from the current era of superhero films
reigning supreme over the box office but what's that up in the sky it's a bird it's a plane
no it's superman huh been a while with everything that the dc cinematic universe has become
over the last decade it felt like time to go way back to the films that started it all so we're
going back to the beginning and revisiting all the colorful spandex flamboyant villains
and a-listers along the way first up we've got the one that started it all with dc revisited superman
dc comics has had a slew of successful superheroes over the years they popped from the page with
their bright colors and the time had come to see them on the big screen while lesser serials had
been released prior the most successful of which being the adam west starring batman the movie
it was finally time for a bigger superhero on the screen enter superman and enter young entrepreneur
ilya selkind salkind a mexican producer following in the family business joined forces with his
father alexander and pierre spangler to purchase the film rights to superman in 1974. falkin's
grand plan was to film the first two superman films back to back this meant a longer shooting
schedule but massive sets like the fortress of solitude wouldn't need to be stored in between
films or entirely rebuilt from scratch so the plan seemed foolproof salkin just needed a director
that could manage his vision or more appropriately the budget the total budget for the film was
set at 55 million dollars which translates to over 200 million when adjusting for inflation
so this was a very big gamble especially since superheroes were not the known commodity that they
are now and seeing as how they weren't exactly established there weren't any directors to go
to that had immediate first-hand knowledge on how to properly make this kind of film
given the innovation needed salkin looked to james bond mainstay guy hamilton to direct the feature
the deal fell apart however when production for the film moved to pinewood studios in england
and why exactly the move from cineceta studios in rome because star marlon brando had a warrant out
for his arrest so therefore could not be in italy to film yeah quite the conundrum
adding to the confusion was hamilton's recent tax exile status meaning he was not allowed
in england for more than 30 days which would have put the production in a very bad place
he was promptly replaced by richard donner whose recent film the omen was a massive success
mario puzzle david newman leslie newman robert benton and tom mankowitz all had their hands in
writing the screenplay with these being the writers of such classics as the godfather
bonnie and clyde and live and let die the movie was off to a great start at least that's how it
would appear puzzle's script was deemed to be too long and detailed so he left after a second draft
losing interest in the character benton and david newman were then brought on to rewrite
puzo's script and break it into two films due to ben's commitments to the late show
newman's wife leslie was brought in as his writing partner considered much more modern
and filled with campy humor the main problem still persisted the script was too long when donner came
aboard as director he brought mankowitz with him to rewrite the script the wga was strict about not
having more than four writers on the movie he was relegated to the position of creative consultant
despite the fact that in his own words he didn't use a word from the prior screenplays
but with the reworked screenplay by mankowitz downer could now get to work
finding his superman the list of studio approved actors that were considered for the lead role
is a who's who of hollywood with such giants as al pacino james khan steve mcqueen and dustin hoffman
but the glamour of getting into skin-tight spandex was still a few decades off so most
were uninterested once the hiring process started an official offer was given to robert
redford which he turned down this continued with burt reynolds eventually paul newman
was offered 4 million dollars to take on either superman lex luthor or superman's father jor-el
but still the offer was declined getting an a-lister just wasn't in the cards so instead
the focus shifted towards finding an unknown and populating some of the other roles with big names
after seeing hundreds of auditions christopher reeve who had only appeared on tv shows like love
of life and the wide world of mystery had managed to impress producers enough to win the role
he had both the physical attributes and a certain boyish charm when playing clark
oddly enough in order to get into proper superman level shape reeve entered into a bodybuilding
program supervised by none other than the physical form of darth vader himself david prouse results
that clearly paid off marlon brando was cast as khalel's father jor-el and like many roles
before it brando brought his interesting way of doing things he notoriously wanted to do
as little work as possible on set even convincing richard donner to film during the rehearsal takes
that's not even getting into his salary which started at three and a half million but was
increased after disputes with the producers that had him removed from the second film
in a somewhat odd move jeff east was cast as a young clark kent despite being only five
years younger than reeve why not just have christopher reeve play the high school role
as well with a little bit of makeup adding to the confusion reeve dubbed over all of east's dialogue
so you never once hear jeff's voice in the film to make matters worse producers never informed
the east of this during filming it's an odd decision but it's honestly really hard to notice
and works fairly well all things considered is it showing off and somebody's doing the things he's
capable of doing oh and i'm not going to criticize the fact that these teenagers look like they're
about 30. have you seen teenagers from this era they look about 40. so if anything this is a win
going back to the kent farm glen ford and phyllis baxter starred as clark's parents jonathan and
martha they're the two that shape who clarke is so their conveyance of all things good is
pretty pivotal to the story and given that this period is given the least amount of screen time
they really needed to make an impact early and they nailed it when we get to the daily planet
there's a whole slew of fascinating characters each one more interesting than the last
you've got the boss perry white played expertly by jackie cooper he's a fast talker who's command of
the daily planet newsroom makes the hierarchy clear without a word needing to be spoken
then there's teenage photographer jimmy olsen while olsen was mark mcclure's most famous role
some of you may remember him as marty's brother in back to the future and last but not least star
reporter lois lane played expertly here by margot kidder kitter had been in films such as 92 in the
shade and the phenomenal black christmas here she gave lois all the qualities we would grow to love
her fierceness her loyalty to the truth and her puppy dog love for superman it's a great
performance and there's electricity whenever reeve and kitter are on screen together their
famous flying scene is one of the most magical of the movie and leaves a massive impression
taking on the part of superman's arch nemesis lex luthor was gene hackman known
for movies such as the poseidon adventure the conversation and the french connection luthor
is superman's greatest villain so to have an actor the caliber of hackman to encompass him
is a dream come true unfortunately hackman didn't quite see the role like it was in the comics
or rather he didn't like the look refusing to wear a bald cap until the final scene of the movie
donner instead opted to style jean's hair in various ways to make it appear like
different wigs were in different states of dishevelment the illusion works fairly well
working alongside lex luthor is his assistant love interest eve tesmacher valerie perrin stands
out because she feels like more than just lex's girlfriend in fact she's pretty vital to the story
finally we've got ned beatty playing otis who may be just the dumbest oath of the henchman out there
how luthor puts up with him i'll never know if you've never seen superman the story is simple
enough young kal-el escapes his dying planet of krypton and crash lands in rural kansas
now clark kent he's raised to be a good person and sets off to use his kryptonian powers for
the good of humanity only he's got one really big problem lex luthor see ludor is all about
money and power and going about getting them in not so honest ways you can see why he wouldn't
be a fan of supes like any good villain he has a plan to kill superman with his one weakness
kryptonite that way he can set off a massive bomb on the san andreas fault line sending the coast
of california into the ocean and making way for new beachfront all owned by lexcorp it's honestly
pretty genius i'll bite completely insane in the midst of luthor's crazy scheme he manages to get
lois lane killed this is when we find out that superman doesn't just have super strength super
speed bulletproof skin the ability to fly laser eyes x-ray vision and freeze breath he can also
turn back time and how does he do that well he flies ridiculously fast around earth which causes
time to go backwards because that's how things work in this world and god bless him for it we
get the very storybook ending of superman saving the day and dropping lex luthor off at prison
oh and we finally get a look at lex and his full bald glory thank god for bald caps superman saved
the day and the bad guy has been defeated it's the most good versus evil way of storytelling out
there and that's why it works so much heck that's why the superman character as a whole work so much
because sometimes we just really want to see something good and pure doing what's right
when it comes to the visuals there were loads of amazing effects work done in the film
take this shot of a young clark kicking a football into the stratosphere
these days it would have been entirely cgi but here they actually stuck a cannon in the ground
and then shot the ball out of the sky it's extremely impressive then there's the flying
which pretty much became the standard for any sort of flying scene from here on out with its
dynamic movement no more just hanging still in front of a projector anymore that's not to say
there weren't issues all of these effects meant problems which often meant delays
john williams has created some of the most instantly recognizable scores ever and superman
is no exception the opening credits as well as this theme over top of it is absolutely iconic
in every way while the studio wanted the film to release in the summer months preferably in june
for the character's 40th anniversary the massive delays in filming pushed the film to december
this delay also meant that they abandoned their plan to film the sequel along with the first film
despite the fact that they filmed over 75 of it but just focusing on the original film they were
able to push through and make its december date when it finally made its debut it broke various
profit records for warner brothers and it wasn't just audiences that were enamored critics loved it
in 2021 speak it had a 94 on rotten tomatoes which is rarefied air superman's success actually
carried over into awards season the amazing special effects of superman were awarded with
a special achievement academy award for visual effects unfortunately despite its nominations for
best film editing best sound and best original score this was the only award the film received
from the academy for many years superman was the benchmark for how to do a comic book movie right
christopher reeve is superman every person to play the role since has been compared to him
some entirely basing their performance off of his but it's not just his superman that's so special
the boyish charm he displays as clark kent and shy body language or such a contrast to the cape
doning superhero that you totally buy into the fact that no one recognizes that these two people
are the same 50 years from now people will still be comparing whoever is playing superman at the
time back to christopher reeve in the year since a three hour television version was released that
included extra scenes but this version has been admonished by its director richard donner who
refers to this version as nothing more than a work print some fans however absolutely love this cut
it gives you a little bit more insight into the character of superman and honestly just gives you
some really fun moments none of these scenes are what you would call pivotal to the story
so it's easy to see why donner isn't a fan of them however with how much they add dimensions
to the characters it's also easy to see why fans have latched onto this cut of the film
while it was only available in full screen for many years fan demand and the luck of finding
the original negative allowed warner brothers to release a fully restored extended cut on blu-ray
the cast of the film has shown up in various dc projects in the years since
reeve kidder and mcclure all showed up on the superman origin show smallville as various roles
unrelated to their prior characters footage of brando that was shot for superman 2 was eventually
used for brian singer's superman returns in 2006 which saw a return to the world of the first two
superman films this year even saw the release of the comic book superman 78 which exists in
the world of reeves superman and gives us more insight into the world molded by richard donner
given donner's unfortunate passing this year it's a wonderful tribute to both the director
and all of the deceased stars from the film like reeve and kidder despite it being 43 years since
its release superman is as timeless as ever that's due in equal parts to its wonderful direction by
donner the stellar performances from reeve kidder and hackman and those never before seen special
effects they all combined to make one of the greatest comic book movies ever made with all of
the success of the original there was still the matter of that pesky sequel that was already 75
filmed but we're getting ahead of ourselves join us next time same movie time same movie channel
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