Superman: The Movie and Superman II
I'm not huge into comic books. I never really was. I tried to get into them quite a few times, but besides the odd graphic novel, I don't read them. Too much money for a little booklet that leaves you on a cliffhanger and is half ads. So I don't really mind if films take liberties with the comic book characters. I do mind the films being dull (Dark Knight Rises), unintentionally stupid (Fantastic 4), or having lame actors in the main role (Batman Forever). These films have none of those problems, and for the time they were made, had innovative special effects. There's a reason they count Superman as the first modern super-hero movie.
Now, these two films have a complicated production history, which I will try to explain as best as I can. Ilya Salkind and his father Alexander, then known as the producers of The Three Musketeers and The Four Musketeers, bought up the rights to Superman in the 1974. They hired the writer of The Godfather, Mario Puzo to write the screenplay. Ilya wanted to hire Steven Spielberg to direct the film, as he showed interest in it. However, Ilya's father Alexander wanted to see how "that fish movie" turned out first. That movie of course did very, very well... but Spielberg decided to work on Close Encounters, which was his baby, instead. They decided to hire Guy Hamilton, the director of a few Bond films including Goldfinger. Mario Puzo turned in his 500 page script, and Hamilton and the Salkinds found it too campy and too shakespeare. They wanted a sci-fi epic, and they got the 1966 Batman. The script was re-tooled by Robert Benton and David Newman.... Still 400 pages and too campy. Director Hamilton left the project, and the Salkinds brought in Richard Donner, hot off his success with The Omen. He had them throw out the whole script, which he too thought was too campy, and hired Tom Mankiewicz (writer of Live and Let Die) to re-write it. He did, and it was good... and the Writers Guild still refused to give him story or writing credit. After Christopher Reeve was finally cast as the main character, shooting started. They decided to make two films at the same time. After a while, the Salkinds ended up hating Richard Donner, and ended up second-guessing every decision he made. Donner stopped talking to them, and Richard Lester, who had directed the producers' Musketeer films was brought in to mediate. Now, Lester had been suing the producers due to them not paying him for the Musketeer films, but was taking this job as payment. He had even warned Donner not to work for the Salkinds. Due to the problems between Donner and the producers, a decision was made to stop work on any shots for Superman II, which was 80% done, and work on just Superman: The Movie stuff. If the movie bombed, they would not finish II.
The movie opened to great fanfare, reviews, and box office. The producers decided to sack Richard Donner, and have Richard Lester direct the rest of the second film, as they hated Donner for going over-budget and for arguing with them about other things. When Donner was fired, Gene Hackman, Marlon Brando and some others decided not to co-operate with filming of additional scenes. As the ending to the first film had changed when they split the movies in two, a new beginning and ending had to be made for Superman II. Also, for Richard Lester to get credit for the film, he had to reshoot some of the scenes Donner had shot, as he had to have shot at least 51% of the film. Even with those difficulties, Superman II opened to box office and critical success as the first one had.
I love both films. I love the recently released Richard Donner cut of Superman II as well. The films are funny, exciting, and wonderous. Sure, they are a product of the late 70s, and it shows, but I think that's part of it's charm, just as Batman is heavily 80s influenced. They were perfectly cast too. No Lois Lane has ever gotten it as right as Margot Kidder. No Superman as perfect as Christopher Reeve. Terence Stamp is way better as General Zod than Michael Shannon in Man of Steel. You have to remember that at this point, no one had seen a man fly as convincingly as in this film. No wires! No obvious rear-screen projection! In fact, Richard Donner had the word 'verisimilitude' put up everywhere on set, so that people would know what he was going for. In other words, he didn't want one person to think of a shot as looking fake. You had to believe a man could fly. In fact, that was the movie's tagline! "You will believe a man can fly."
I wish movies were as fun and exciting these days as these movies are. People think of Dark Knight Rises as a great, exciting event movie. I thought it was kind of boring. It was too dark, too hopeless, too low-key. Not to say I didn't like the movie. I did. It just felt a bit tired and drab. When I go to see a superhero film, I want to have fun. You can be dark and still be fun. Batman did it! Imagine being a kid in 1978 or 1980 and seeing one of these films in the theater for the first time. Remember, the best special effects you'd seen were the original Star Wars. I like to view films through the eyes of the people who watched it when it first came out. You have to have a sense of wonder... of pathos... Something sadly missing from most films of the past decade. I saw these movies first when I was probably seven or eight. They astounded me. This was before I'd seen Jurassic Park even. A kid doesn't think of how these shots were done. They don't look for wires or the obviousness of green or blue screen. To them it's simply happening, and I think that's how films should be viewed. These two films remind me every time to see films that way. They keep me from being cynical about film. There's something big and bold and friendly about them that I like. To comic fans, the films may not be what they want out of a Superman story. I'm not a comic book fan, and for once, I'm glad.
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