Superman - The Movie
by Richard Donner
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Christopher Reeve, Gene Hackman, Margot Kidder, Marlon Brando, Ned BeattyDirector: Richard Donner
Brand: REEVE,CHRISTOPHER
Writer: David Newman
Writer: Jerry Siegel
Writer: Joe Shuster
Writer: Leslie Newman
Writer: Mario Puzo
Writer: Robert Benton
Writer: Tom Mankiewicz
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown), Dolby Digital 5.1; English (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); French (Subtitled); Portuguese (Subtitled); English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 5.1
Format: Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, Digital Sound, Dolby, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: 2.35:1
Running Time: 143 minutes
Published: 2001-05-01
DVD Release Date: 2001-05-01
Audience Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Studio: Warner Home Video
Movie Reviews of Superman - The Movie
Movie Review: You'll Believe A Man Can Fly!
Summary: 5 Stars
After discovering the tragic fate soon to befall his own planet, Kryptonian scientist Jor-El and his wife Lara send their only son, the infant Kal-El, to the distant planet Earth in a small spaceship, knowing that its atmosphere and the rays of its yellow son will bestow upon him powers and abilities far greater than those of its inhabitants. With his vastly superior knowledge and gifts, Kal-El will have a great advantage over the people of Earth, veritably insuring his future, but with great power comes great responsibility, to borrow from a later comic book icon. It will be Kal-El's lifelong duty to help and guide the people of Earth, to be a savior to them in times of crisis and a role model for them as they go about their daily lives.
Whether prearranged by his father, Jor-El, or completely by a stroke of terrific luck, most likely the former, baby Kal-El's ship crash lands in a field in the Rockwellian town of Smallville, Kansas, just as a kind, salt-of-the-earth, regretfully childless farming couple is driving down the nearby road. Jonathan Kent and his wife, Martha, at first don't know what to make of the strange discovery, but the toddler seems to be the answer to their countless prayers for a youngster of their very own. The couple raise the boy, instilling in him their strong values of goodness, courage, faith, humility, love, loyalty, truth, justice, and the American way. Everything seems picture perfect for the Kents and their adopted son, who they have renamed Clark, until Jonathan Kent passes away of a heart-attack and a strange glowing object calls to Clark from the barn. It is this event from which the now 18 year-old Clark Kent, also known as Kal-El of Krypton, learns that he must finally leave his gray-haired old mother and travel north to find his destiny, and so he does.
In the isolation of the cold, bitter north, the green, glowing crystal Kal-El found that night on his Smallville farm helps him to create a new home. Not a home for his mild-mannered Earthling identity, Clark Kent, but a home for his new persona, the mighty hero known as Superman! After twelve years of learning from the crystals that contain all his parents' knowledge of mankind and the universe, Superman emerges as a god among men, with skills even greater than he ever knew he had before: Faster than a speeding bullet, more powerful than a locomotive, and able to leap tall buildings in a single bound! Right away, Superman makes his presence known to the world, even as he is just settling into his new home in the fantastic city of Metropolis, and his new job as a reporter with The Daily Planet, a beacon of truth and hope across the globe. All seems to be going well with Kal-El's new existence in the hustling, bustling Metropolis, with new friends and coworkers Jimmy Olsen and Lois Lane in Clark Kent's life, not to mention the stern but fatherly Perry White, the Daily Planet's editor, and Superman making a name for himself as the city's own high-flying guardian angel. Things are about to get more complicated, though, as a maniacal criminal mastermind named Lex Luthor plots to wreak havoc from his secret underground lair. While Superman shuffles his heroics and reporting schedules to fit in time for courting Miss Lane too, Luthor is busy laying out a plan to sink Los Angeles into the ocean, making his recent desert land purchases immensely more valuable as the NEW west coast! Realizing Superman is the only thing that can stand in the way of his devious scheme, Lex and his bumbling cohorts research and discover the only way to kill the Kryptonian man-of-steel, green Kryptonite! With this deadly weapon now in their evil arsenal, even Superman may not be able to save the day!
In 1978, producers Ilya and Alexander Salkind set forth to make a movie like no one had ever seen before: A big-budget comic-book film called "Superman." Their idea was a tour-de-force of camp, but the director they hired to do the job, "The Omen's" Richard Donner, had a different sort of film in mind. Richard, who was hired to shoot both Superman and Superman 2 simultaneously, knew that if the film was to work, it had to be a completely believable and engrossing story of one man's struggle to make a difference with the talents giving solely to him, not a feature-length joke about the comic book hero genre. Locking in big names in the roles of Superman's father, Kal-El (Marlon Brando), and arch-nemesis Lex Luthor (Gene Hackman), Richard set the groundwork for a film that could be taken seriously, rather than just shrugged off as a kiddie flick. While an incredible team tackled the problem of inventing groundbreaking effects for a film that was abundant in the fantastic, and completely without the aid of CGI, Donner went on to the difficult task of casting his leading man and lady. He found perfection in the forms of a young Christopher Reeve and a feisty Margot Kidder. With Ned Beatty, Jackie Cooper, Glenn Ford, and even more high-profile names rounding out the stellar cast, made to glow by the stunning lighting and camera work of Geoffrey Unsworth and the incomparable music of John Williams, the final package was nothing short of a masterpiece! "Superman: the Movie" was a fantastic success, spawning three sequels, the sister-film "Supergirl," and securing the last son of Krypton's place as a pop-culture icon from now to the end of time!
On DVD, "Superman: the Movie" looks fantastic, and the double sided disc is loaded with extras! With deleted scenes, trailers and TV spots, three 30-minute documentaries on the making of the film, a music only track and additional, alternate music tracks, a readable legacy of Superman, cast and director filmographies, and some highly entertaining screen tests featuring a variety of Lois Lanes (Anne Archer made quite an appetizing Lois), this truly is a special edition! The disc is capped off with a great feature commentary by director Richard Donner and creative consultant Tom Mankiewicz, who give a passing mention to everything from the film's clear parallels to the life of Jesus Christ (a theme continued through Superman 2, which puts its own spin on the New Testament's Book of Revelations), to personal differences between the cast and crew! It's quite an interesting listen! Whether or not an even MORE special "Special Edition" of "Superman: The Movie" will be released soon to hail the coming of the new Warner Brothers film "Superman Returns" is unknown at the time of this review, though it is quite likely. After all, this is the only one of the Superman feature DVDs with any extras worth talking about, and the definitive Batman film "Batman Begins'" DVD release next month will be accompanied by an all new set of Special Editions of the four previous Batman films. It would only seem natural that the Superman films would follow suit, and, make no mistake, "Superman: The Movie" will always be the definitive Superman film!
As for those 3 sequels, despite Richard Donner having been fired from directing "Superman 2" by the difficult and unappreciative Salkinds, the first Superman sequel is actually nearly as good as the original film! Plus, since Donner DID shoot much of "Superman 2" while working on the original, you have that same fantastic cast, including Gene Hackman returning with his despicably hilarious (yet not campy) take on super-villain Lex Luthor. "Superman 3" is painfully underrated, and not a bad film by any means, with Richard Pryor making up for the loss of Hackman, and a lovely pre-Smallville(TV series) Annette O'Toole in the role of the adult Lana Lang. It also features some great "Evil Superman" stuff! "Superman 4: The Quest For Peace," written by star Christopher Reeve, is easily the weakest of the three. It is often ridiculed for its flying effects and bleeding-heart storyline, but it is still watchable and mildly entertaining to less demanding Superman fans. As for the "Supergirl" movie, it's a shame it wasn't more successful. I can't say much for the loyalty to the comic books, my superhero fandom comes more from television and movies than anything else (my comic collection is mainly Disney and Star Wars), but I find this much razzed film to be enjoyable as a popcorn flick, and Supergirl is just hot. I own the boxed set of the Superman films and the 2-disc release of "Supergirl." While I may lean a bit toward the Dark Knight in terms of favorite superhero, I have always been a Superman fan (followed by Spidey and Hulk), and am addicted to the current WB television incarnation, "Smallville." For those of you who enjoy this film, I highly recommend that show, and don't get me started on the hotties it features. I also recommend the wonderful WB animated series, now available on DVD, and the classic Fleischer short cartoons from the 1940s! All fantastic stuff, and just a taste of what's out there! Why, even Krypto the Superdog has his own show now!
Summary of Superman - The Movie
The planet Krypton is doomed and Jor-El sends his infant son to refuge on a distant planet where he develops superhuman powers that he must hide from the mortals around him.Genre: Feature Film-Action/Adventure
Rating: PG
Release Date: 8-FEB-2005
Media Type: DVD
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