Superhero Movies

Liam Burke

• Editore: Pocket Essentials
• Anno: 2012
• ISBN:
  9781842438220
• Argomento: Médias et arts de la scène
• Categoria: Histoire et critique du cinéma

In 1978Supermanmade audiences believe a man could fly. Since then, Superhero Movies have shown that man can not only fly, but swing from webs through New York's concrete canyons, turn monstrous shades of green if suitably vexed and dress as giant rodents to safeguard the city streets. Today, there are more Superhero Movies than ever before as the cinematic skies are filled with caped crusaders and nocturnal vigilantes that continue to delight and excite cinemagoers the world over. This book reveals the secret identity of the Superhero Movie, examining how cinema has come to represent the mythological icons of our age. Through detailed analysis and fascinating facts, Superhero Moviesexplores how, in a single bound, the Superhero has made the leap from the comic book page to the silver screen. So fasten your utility belt as you prepare to take flight with Superhero Movies.

The Last Son of Krypton, Earth’s First Superhero

In the opening moments of Richard Donner’s Superman, revered scientist and Superman’s father Jor-El condemns three criminals to the Phantom Zone, a jail shaped like a pane of glass. Just as these Kryptonians are damned to their two-dimensional prison, another would escape his. Superman broke free of the comic-book page to arrive on the cinema screen 40 years after he was first created by writer/artist team Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster; and in doing so, the last son of Krypton became cinema’s first superhero. This was not the first time Superman had ventured outside his native medium, having appeared in a number of small-screen, radio and cinema-serial adaptations, most notably the excellent Max Fleischer-animated shorts of the 1940s and the George Reeves-starring serials of the 1950s. However, this was the first time the Man of Steel would be a star of the silver screen.

Yet Superman’s transition to the big screen would not come in a single bound. Following the campy 1960s Batman television series, few were taking superheroes seriously and no studio was interested in making superhero movies. Nonetheless, following the success of The Three Musketeers, international producing team of father and son Alexander and Ilya Salkind, and Pierre Spengler acquired the rights from Warner Bros (who had owned DC comics since 1969) to produce a series of films based on Superman. The team went through a series of writers, with The Godfather scribe Mario Puzo delivering the final mammoth script, which the Salkinds decided to make as two films to be shot back-to-back. To bring credibility to the project, Marlon Brando was paid a then record $3.7 million for his extended cameo as Jor-El and Gene Hackman a none too miserly $2 million to play the villainous Lex Luthor. James Bond alumnus Guy Hamilton was hired to direct the films but, when the production moved to England, Hamilton, who was a UK tax exile, was forced to leave the project. A last-ditch attempt to find a replacement director proved to be the film’s saving grace, with Omen director Richard Donner hired to shepherd the project. Locked into a tight schedule set by Brando and Hackman’s shooting dates, Donner quickly hired long-time friend Tom Mankiewicz to give Puzo’s script a heavy rewrite and instil a serious approach. As difficult as it was to find the crew behind the camera, the search for Superman himself proved even more exhaustive with every major Hollywood actor from Burt Reynolds to Nick Nolte reportedly turning down the part. In the end it was the 26-year-old unknown Christopher Reeve, in the dual roles of Clark Kent and Superman, who would make audiences believe a man could fly.

Filming under the banner of verisimilitude, Donner ensured Superman had an epic scope, from the Arthurian elegance of Krypton to the Norman Rockwell-inspired horizons of Smallville and the clamour of a ‘great metropolitan newspaper’. This may have been a man who could fly but his feet were grounded in reality. Disagreement between Donner and the film’s producers saw Donner unable to direct the sequel despite having already completed large portions of the film while working on Superman. The Salkinds then hired Richard Lester, a director with a more comedic approach, who had made their Three Musketeers pictures, to re-shoot much of Donner’s work and complete the film. Fortunately, the theatrically released film contained enough of Donner’s material to temper Lester’s lighter touch, resulting in a worthy sequel. This was not the case for Superman III, a film directed solely by Lester, which opened on an extended slapstick routine and featured comedian Richard Pryor in a role almost as prominent as Christopher Reeve. The poor sequel undermined the esteem of the first film and was derided by fans and critics alike, but greater disappointment lay ahead. After an attempt by the Salkinds to create a Superman spin-off series starring Supergirl failed to take off at the box office, the Salkinds relinquished control of Superman only for purveyors of B-movie tat, Cannon Films, to pick up the rights. Cannon managed to lure Reeve back to the role by offering him greater creative control. Reeve wanted Superman IV:The Quest for Peace to be a more socially relevant adventure but how this translated into Superman flying a giant net full of the Earth’s nuclear missiles into the sun is anyone’s guess. The film, shot on a shoestring budget – with many of the shoestrings clearly seen holding the Man of Steel up – was a major disappointment, sending Superman back to the Phantom Zone for the next 20 years. During these wilderness years many talented directors and Brett Ratner tried to get another Superman film made with wildly different approaches, but only by returning to Donner’s original ideas and making a film that was a continuation of the two earlier films would Superman return under the watchful eye of Bryan Singer.

Though the new Superman film may have spent years condemned to development hell, it is not only the franchise that has often been considered ‘cursed’. In the years following the suicide of television’s first Superman, George Reeves, a fan superstition emerged known as the ‘Superman curse’. The curse is said to befall anyone involved in adapting the Man of Steel, causing them to suffer from personal loss. The events surrounding Reeves’ death would themselves form the basis of a film. Hollywoodland, starring superhero movie veteran Ben Affleck (Daredevil), an actor familiar with the pitfalls of typecasting, does not indulge in superstition. The film instead charts the decline of a pigeonholed actor, demonstrating how difficult it can be to step out of the Man of Steel’s shadow. The most famous case of the supposed curse occurred when Christopher Reeve was paralysed from the neck down following a horse-riding accident in 1995. But, dispelling any myth, Reeve exceeded his onscreen heroism, becoming a role model and raising awareness and funds for people with disabilities. Against all medical expectations, Reeve also regained feeling over his body and movement in his index finger. The actor even found time to return to Smallville for a recurring role in the hit teen-Superman series before his death in 2004.

The Superman curse highlights how far-reaching the Man of Steel has become, not just in cinema but in popular culture. In much the same way, Superman, as the first comic-book superhero, set the red-and-blue standard for all others; Superman and Superman II designed the template and raised the bar for every other superhero movie since, from Batman’s serious superhero approach to The Matrix’s messianic allegory and Spider-Man’s deft mix of romance and heroism. Donner’s opening film was a genre-starter that succeeded in being faithful to the hero’s many incarnations on the comic-book page and the TV screen, while adding its own layer to the myth. That superheroes, their comics, television series and movies continue to grow in the fertile soil laid down by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster and enriched by Richard Donner is a testament to the timelessness of the Man of Steel, and the continuing influence of Earth’s first superhero.

Superman (1978)

Cast: Christopher Reeve (Superman/Clark Kent), Margot Kidder (Lois Lane), Gene Hackman (Lex Luthor), Marlon Brando (Jor-El), Ned Beatty (Otis), Valerie Perrine (Eve Teschmacher), Jackie Cooper (Perry White), Glenn Ford (Jonathan Kent),Terence Stamp (General Zod)

Crew: Richard Donner (Director), Mario Puzo (Story and Screenplay), David Newman, Leslie Newman and Robert Benton (Screenplay), Tom Mankiewicz (Screenplay-uncredited), Geoffrey Unsworth (Director of Photography), Stuart Baird and Michael Ellis (Co-Editors), John Williams (Score)

Created by: Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster

Plot: When the eminent Kryptonian scientist Jor-El realises natural forces will soon destroy his planet, he is left with one option: to place his infant son aboard a craft bound for Earth. Crashing in Smallville, Kansas, the child is found by an elderly couple, Jonathan and Martha Kent. Years later, the boy, now called Clark, is a teenager forced to hide his Kryptonian ‘gifts’ from the world. Following Jonathan’s death, a Kryptonian crystal leads Clark to the Arctic where it forms a large crystalline structure. Inside this fortress, an image of Jor-El teaches Clark about his Kryptonian heritage and his superhuman powers. After years of solitude, Clark flies from his fortress draped in a red cape.

Now operating under a guise of mild-mannered timidity, Clark Kent begins working as a reporter at the Daily Planet in Metropolis alongside hardnosed journalist Lois Lane. Clark as Superman announces his existence to the people of Earth by saving Lois from a failing helicopter. Superman follows this rescue with a spate of other super-heroic activities, igniting the public’s interest. He gives Lois his first interview, telling her he is on Earth to fight for Truth, Justice and the American Way.

Criminal genius Lex Luthor reads Lois’s story, and deduces that Kryptonite, radioactive pieces of Superman’s homeworld, should kill him. As part of his new scheme, Luthor weakens Superman with Kryptonite before sending a missile to the San Andreas Fault, which he hopes will plunge California into the sea, making his worthless desert land expensive beachfront property. But Superman escapes, and, though the missile explodes, he quickly plunges into the Earth, resealing the fault and stopping the adverse effects of the earthquake. However, Lois is buried beneath the earth following a tremor, forcing a grief-stricken Superman to begin furiously flying around the planet, turning it back on its axis and reversing time. With Lois safe, Superman drops Luthor off at prison before ascending into the heavens as Earth’s mightiest protector.

Trivia: In the scene where the teenage Clark races a train travelling through Smallville, the parents of the young Lois Lane, seen sitting in one of the carriages, are played by Kirk Alyn and Noel Neill, the actors who portrayed Superman and Lois Lane in Superman’s first live-action serial in 1948.

When cast as Superman, the slight Christopher Reeve refused to wear padded muscle under the suit, instead undergoing an intensive two-month training regime in which he gained 30 pounds under the supervision of David Prowse, the 6’ 7’’ bodybuilder-turned-actor who played Darth Vader in the original Star Wars films.

One of the many stipulations of Marlon Brando’s contract ensured that the legendary actor was not expected to memorise his dialogue. The lines for the extended monologue in which Jor-El sends his son to Earth were hidden throughout the set for Brando to read, including on the baby’s diaper.

What the critics said: ‘Superman is a pure delight, a wondrous combination of all the old-fashioned things we never really get tired of: adventure and romance, heroes and villains, earthshaking special effects and – you know what else? Wit.’ Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times

‘Christopher Reeve, the young actor chosen to play the lead, is the best reason to see the picture: he’s immediately likable, with an open-faced, deadpan style that’s just right for a windup hero.’ Pauline Kael, The New Yorker

Superhero Archetype: Many of today’s superheroes owe their existence to the Man of Steel. When Siegel and Shuster created Superman they established the red-and-blue print for other superheroes to follow, launching the superhero arc...