Why Richard Donners Superman Is Still The Best One (In Movies AND TV)

Why Richard Donner’s Superman Is Still The Best One (In Movies AND TV)

Contents

40+ years later, Richard Donner’s Superman: The Movie remains the gold standard filmmakers look to for inspiration when adapting the Man of Steel.

You Are Reading :[thien_display_title]

Why Richard Donners Superman Is Still The Best One (In Movies AND TV)

Richard Donner’s Superman: The Movie is still the best version of the Man of Steel in movies or TV. The beloved 1978 film starring Christopher Reeve as Superman, Margot Kidder as Lois Lane, Gene Hackman as Lex Luthor, and Marlon Brando as Jor-El has captured the imaginations of audiences for over 40 years. It’s the first superhero blockbuster film and the benchmark for the countless comic book movies that have followed it. Superman influenced generations of filmmakers and it’s the touchstone for every TV show and movie about the Man of Steel ever since. And yet, none of them have equaled the uplifting, sheer magic of Superman: The Movie.

The making of Superman: The Movie is also the stuff of legend. The late Richard Donner, hot off his first big movie hit, The Omen, was hired by producers Alexander and Ilya Salkind to direct Superman after their original choice, Guy Hamilton (Dr. No), left the project. Donner was given a 500-page script penned by The Godfather’s Mario Puzo and the director hired his friend Tom Mankiewicz to rewrite it into what would become Superman: The Movie and Superman II. With bankable, big-name stars like Marlon Brando and Gene Hackman on board, Donner cast an unknown Christopher Reeve as Superman and hired Margot Kidder to play Lois Lane. Donner then commenced an arduous 19-month shoot across the U.S., Canada, Italy, and the U.K. where he shot two films back-to-back while the Salkinds breathed down his neck about the ballooning budget. Crucially, Donner’s filmmaking team developed the revolutionary special effects that made Superman convincingly fly on-screen, which required over a year of Reeve enduring grueling wirework, rear projection, and stunts. Superman was so behind schedule it never had a test screening and was released on Christmas 1978.

Audiences and critics fell in love with Superman: The Movie. The film earned $300 million worldwide (equal to $1.9-billion today) and Superman holds a 94% Fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Its cultural impact can still be felt to this day. Incredibly, the Salkinds fired Richard Donner after Superman’s release and hired Richard Lester (A Hard Day’s Night) to complete Superman II, which Donner had already mostly completed filming. After Superman II’s success, the sequels plummeted in quality, with the disastrous Superman IV: The Quest for Peace ending Christopher Reeve’s tenure as the Man of Steel in 1987. The Salkinds tried to recapture Donner’s glory with a 1984 movie about Supergirl and a 1990s TV series about Superboy but they fell far from the mark. Superman’s success was the model used to launch Tim Burton’s Batman in 1989. The chemistry between Reeve and Kidder also inspired the romantic TV series Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman in 1994.

2001’s Smallville, which ran for 10 seasons, was regarded as the TV successor of Superman: The Movie, with Reeve, Kidder, Terence Stamp, Annette O’Toole, and other actors from the films appearing on the show. Reeve memorably passed the Super baton to Smallville’s Clark, Tom Welling, and the series also adopted much of Donner’s film’s iconography, including John Williams’ classic Superman score. In 2006, Bryan Singer’s Superman Returns was a direct sequel to Donner’s movie that starred Brandon Routh continuing the role originated by Reeve. In 2013, Zack Snyder’s Man of Steel, which starred Henry Cavill, became the new cinematic standard for Superman, yet many longtime fans felt that the heart and purity of Donner’s films were disappointingly absent from the DC Extended Universe until Patty Jenkins’ 2017 Wonder Woman restored Donner-style superheroism to the DCEU. Superman: The Movie continues to influence the superhero movie genre, but as more versions of Superman grace the big and small screen, including Superman & Lois on The CW, the more Richard Donner’s Superman stands out as singularly special.

See also  The Conners Producers Say No Roseanne Storyline Is OffLimits

Donner’s Movie Made Audiences Believe In Superman

Why Richard Donners Superman Is Still The Best One (In Movies AND TV)

When making Superman: The Movie, Donner repeated a one-word mantra: “verisimilitude.” For the director, it was vital that even the most fanciful aspects of Superman were grounded in a relatable realism. But the most important element that would make Superman work was that audiences had to believe that he could fly. “You’ll believe a man can fly” was literally Superman: The Movie’s marketing tagline, and, indeed, Donner’s film was the first to believably show Superman’s flying power on-screen, thanks to a combination of revolutionary special effects and Christopher Reeve’s charming performance as Superman. With the advent of modern CGI, Superman’s flying scenes seem rudimentary today but it was achieved with the finest visual effects of the era, and Reeve taking flight as the Man of Steel is still believable and magical.

But just as important as Superman flying and using his other amazing powers like his strength, X-Ray Vision, and Super Hearing, was that Superman felt like an honest-to-goodness hero. Tom Mankiewicz’s witty and sly screenplay pitted the cynicism of the late 1970s against this cape-wearing do-gooder from another world. Yet when Superman tells Lois, “I’m here to fight for truth, justice, and the American Way,” Lois (and audiences) initially scoff but everyone also believes in his sincerity. Christopher Reeve’s Superman isn’t just powerful, but he’s smart, kind, approachable, and generous. As Lex Luthor later learns, Superman is also incorruptible and stands steadfastly against cruelty and evil. Donner grew up reading Superman comics and, when he took the directing job, he was outraged by Mario Puzo’s campy script that derisively mocked the superhero and source material. Donner and Mankiewicz labored to restore Superman as a modern American myth about a god-like hero who grew up in Kansas and considers himself “a friend” to everyone in the world.

Superman: The Movie Doesn’t Question Him Or His Place In The World

Why Richard Donners Superman Is Still The Best One (In Movies AND TV)

Richard Donner’s Superman: The Movie didn’t attempt to deconstruct the Man of Steel, it celebrated him for everything he is. Donner and Reeve saw Superman’s duality simply: Clark Kent poses as a bumbling goofball to deflect any possible suspicion that he could be the flying caped wonder despite their physical resemblance. Meanwhile, Superman enjoys being Clark Kent because it allows him to be part of the world while incognito and to be close to Lois. As Superman, Clark selflessly gives of himself to help others, from performing major rescues like saving an airliner from crashing or bringing a cat stuck in a tree back to its young owner. Superman also foils crimes big and small, from bank robberies to Lex Luthor’s attempt to detonate a nuclear missile on the San Andreas Fault. Helping people is what Superman does because the good deed is its own reward. Meanwhile, Superman’s love story with Lois Lane is an unabashed fairytale romance.

See also  Massive Fallout 4 Tower Took 20 Hours to Build

Modern audiences may reject Donner’s quaint notions and other Superman movies and TV shows have attempted to explore and dissect the Kryptonian’s psyche, with mixed results. Superman Returns wallowed in Clark’s sense of alienation. Smallville had Clark spend ten years rejecting his destiny and slowly becoming Superman in fits and starts before ultimately denying fans the chance to see Tom Welling finally become Superman by wearing the costume. Man of Steel and Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice have scores of fans but they present an angry and mistrustful Superman who was both hailed as a hero and feared as a menace. Thankfully, Superman & Lois has a better handle on the Man of Steel, presenting Clark (Tyler Hoechlin) ably juggling being both a noble hero and a caring husband and father. Superman & Lois more closely follows Richard Donner’s classic model for Superman, which is one reason why The CW’s series has won fans over.

Superman: The Movie Perfectly Captures The Essence Of Superman

Richard Donner’s movie understands Superman in a way that palpably conveys the Man of Steel’s essence and purity. Donner and Tom Mankiewicz structured Superman: The Movie with three acts: the bombastic and Shakespearan Krypton prologue, Clark’s Norman Rockwell-like upbringing in Smallville, and the rest of the film set in Metropolis is witty and urbane while going all-in on the heroics until Superman reverses time in a god-like feat in order to save Lois’s life. The end result is Superman presented as a proper, modern myth that offers a sly sophistication and romance for adults while thrilling children with Superman’s impossible feats and dedication to seeing good triumph over evil. Superman is not conflicted or tortured, he doesn’t question his purpose or mission in Donner’s film. Superman is exactly what Jor-El intended, the gift of his only son sent to Earth to be “the light that shows the way” and give humanity a symbol of hope they can aspire to. Man of Steel also vocalized the same intent but Henry Cavill’s Supes still needed two more movies before he approached the undiluted heroism of Christopher Reeve’s Man of Steel.

Donner’s Superman masterfully brought all of the key elements together: iconic performances, larger-than-life set pieces, a playful sense of fun and joy, and another crucial element: John Williams’ Superman theme, which is one of the greatest movie scores ever composed. Williams’ music forever indelibly evokes Superman, in the purest, most heroic sense that Donner’s movie and Christopher Reeve’s Superman performance convey. Superman: The Movie has its flaws and it lacks the Man of Steel fighting villains – that came later in Superman II. Certainly, the frenetic action and spectacle of Zack Snyder’s films far surpass what Donner could film in-camera back in 1978. But even as evolving technology and visual effects are able to make Superman’s powers and adventures more eye-popping, the films and TV series that f0llowed Superman: The Movie still inevitably look to Donner for how Superman is and should be. Superman: The Movie is the light that shows fans and other filmmakers the way to make the Man of Steel a true hero on-screen. 40+ years later, no one has depicted Superman quite as right as Richard Donner did back in 1978.

Link Source : https://screenrant.com/richard-donner-superman-still-best-all-movies-tv-why/

Movies -