Film fest chat with director Richard Donner reminds us why a caped comic hero became a cinematic legend
Photo by FilmEdge.net
Headlining the third day of the Los Angeles Times' Hero Complex Film Festival on Saturday, renowned director Richard Donner spoke with HC guru Geoff Boucher about the cinematic, cultural and personal impact Superman had on his life and ours. From Donner's fondly recalled tales of making SUPERMAN: THE MOVIE, his frustration in not finishing SUPERMAN II, and his disappointment in the superhero's fall from cinematic grace in the next two sequels, it is crystal clear that Superman and Christopher Reeve still mean the world to him three decades later. Donner is not alone in this regard, as devoted fans around the planet daily keep the spirit and mythology of Superman alive and thriving today.
We still need Superman, or at least we're unwilling to give him up.
It was obvious and touching to see that Richard Donner has not yet let go of Christopher Reeve, and the pain of the actor's tragic accident and passing is a bittersweet wound that has not healed for the director. Upon his reaction to watching SUPERMAN again and the film fest celebration of Reeve as the enduring image of the character, Donner stated with emotion, "When I see him and I think back, he was such a young, talented guy. He had such a great future and had a great family. His whole life was in great shape. To have a stupid accident like that happen, it kills you to look at him. There was a statue outside that somebody made of him, it's so realistic I couldn't even look at it." True enough, British sculptor Mike Hill's life-size statue of Reeve in his Superman garb is uncanny in its likeness to the actor, and captures the spirit of both quite effectively (see photos at right).
Much of the indelible cultural stamp Donner created by launching SUPERMAN up, up and onto the silver screen resulted from its star Christopher Reeve himself. A casting gamble which paid off in box office treasure, largely unknown Reeve captured the social zeitgeist of the superhero image in 1978. So serious was Donner's quest to bring the characters to life for the 1970s generation with his well-known "Verisimilitude!" mission statement, thirty years later the director describes his task curtly: "The reason I took SUPERMAN is because it was going to be destroyed by the Hungarians. We did it to save it."
The Hungarians to which Donner refers are the father-son team of independent producers Ilya and Alexander Salkind, who funded the two-film SUPERMAN project but had developed an unfilmable mess of a script with no focus on the social significance of the character himself. Richard Donner, with uncredited revising screenwriter Tom Mankiewicz and soon lead actor Reeve, took on not only the responsibility of presenting Superman to the world, but protecting him from it as well. In their capable hands, SUPERMAN: THE MOVIE reset the pop culture course for the 40-year-old character upon its release, shattering box office records on the fly.
Such immediate identification happens rarely in cinema, but when it does the mark on our collective consciousness is struck deeply. This is why film noir tough guys from the 1940s always look and sound like Bogart, why the Frankenstein monster will always be Karloff, Transylvanian vampire counts are Lugosi, and American cowboys always walk with a bit of John Wayne's swagger. Donner embedded Reeve's portrayal of Kal-El and Clark Kent so deeply in filmgoers' psyches that we've never really gotten over it, despite several new takes on the Superman mythology since.
Meanwhile, superheroes at-large have evolved and grown to unprecedented heights of cultural popularity and box office success in recent years, as post-9/11 America redefined and recast its collective concept of what makes a hero in troubled times, and what we expect of our heroes (super and ordinary) today. Summer 2011 is chock-a-block with superhero movies, as THOR, X-MEN:FIRST CLASS, GREEN LANTERN and CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE FIRST AVENGER all (re-)launch their respective franchises in May and June alone.
So where is SUPERMAN in this cinematic superhero stampede?
Clark Kent's caped alter-ego was last seen on the big screen in Bryan Singer's controversial and maligned 2006 remix SUPERMAN RETURNS. While re-redbooting Supe's film franchise into gear for the 21st Century, the film was largely received (not without reason) more as a beloved remake of Donner's original 1978 classic tale of Kal-El's adventures on Earth than a new direction for the myth. Singer's CG-enhanced valentine barely advanced Superman's story beyond his troubled reconciliation with Lois Lane and defeat of Lex Luthor. Rather than attempt to overcome Reeve's dominant legacy as the image of the character, Singer paid homage to his legend by casting Brandon Routh as Kal-El in a walking, flying tribute to the late actor's undeniable impact on the role.
Despite Singer's efforts, SUPERMAN RETURNS failed to launch a revised franchise for Warner Brothers or DC. Krypton's favorite export seems cinematically stuck in the Richard Donner era of 1978-80, though given the staying power of his version, Superman could have done a lot worse . . . and did for a while.
With last week's release of SUPERMAN: THE MOTION PICTURE ANTHOLOGY, a massive eight-disc Blu-ray box set from Warner Home Video spanning all five theatrical films with special editions of the first two, there is no apparent way to satisfy fans' appetites for the Man of Steel. Donner's genre-defining contributions of SUPERMAN: THE MOVIE and SUPERMAN II: THE RICHARD DONNER CUT speak volumes about the blockbuster origins of this franchise and, more importantly, how both Warners and audiences yearn to revisit the potential direction Donner and star Christopher Reeve might have taken Superman if not for interfering studio politics of the time.
At the Hero Complex SUPERMAN double-feature screening event, Donner delivered many anecdotes about how his hero's future got derailed much to his regret, and spoke with great pride about how much he, Reeve and the entire production team accomplished to make the world believe a man really could fly. Believe they did, and this was no small feat in 1978, an era without computer generated imagery when modern visual effects were only taking important baby steps beyond techniques used since the birth of motion pictures. When Kal-El in his blue suit and red cape first flew through his Fortress of Solitude and banked over the camera, the hearts of a moviegoing generation soared with him.
Overcoming the limitations of visual effects, Donner wisely took full advantage of Superman's unique ethos in pop culture entertainment history: his unabashed patriotism, his self-professed vow to fight for truth, justice and the American way. Superman always fought to preserve the 'us' in the U.S., and Clark Kent's wholesome, Norman Rockwell-style upbringing on the family farm ingrained in him the crucial sense of modest self-sacrifice required for Superman to be a just defender of America and humanity overall.
RICHARD DONNER ARTICLE CONTINUES
IN COLUMN 2
Photo by FilmEdge.net
When I see him and I think back, he was such a young, talented guy. He had such a great future and had a great family. His whole life was in great shape. To have a stupid accident like that happen, it kills you to look at him.
- Richard Donner on Christopher Reeve
ARTICLE CONTINUED
FROM COLUMN 1
Recollecting a story from SUPERMAN's production about Reeve's weekend off, Donner told of the star's secret secret private plane flight, which included running out of gas, an emergency landing at an abandoned WWII airfield and a circuitous trip back to London requiring a car, a train and a bicycle. Studios and filmmakers frown upon their lead actors taking such risks with their lives in the middle of filming for obvious reasons. When the director confronted his star about his misadventures, Reeve shrank with embarrassment but admitted to the entire unauthorized-but-harmless escapade. Donner concluded with emotions that still resonate for him years later: "He was honest. He's a very special, a very special guy."
The most telling aspect of Donner's stories about Reeve is that the filmmaker has such a hard time talking about the star in the past tense. One can easily catch him speaking of Christopher Reeve as if he's still living somewhere out there, and no doubt in Donner's heart the man who was Superman lives on today and forever. The line between actor and character may be easy for Donner to define in terms of his films, but the borders between the actor and the personal hero may be gossamer thin if existing at all.
To be sure, Reeve brought the size and stature to the role, bulking up in training to fill those blue tights and back that red S symbol with a pec-packing chest. But the actor also embodied the dual role of Kent with all the doubts, insecurity and deep wistfulness that illuminated the strengths of Superman amid the shadows of such human faults. No longer was Superman merely a comic book hero, a fondly remembered veteran of cartoon exploits and episodic TV adventures: Donner and Reeve transformed Superman from being a hero to a Hero in the largest, deepest capital-H sense of the word. A hero now hardwired into his cultural mythology, both ancient and contemporary, and projected onto screens around the world for all to enjoy, discover and embrace like never possible before.
Photo by FilmEdge.net
Since Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster's hero first appeared in Action Comics #1 in April 1938, Superman's popularity and cultural relevance has grown steadily, stumbled occasionally, but never faded from prominence. American culture and global technology have changed drastically since then, with comics now being distributed digitally to readers' iPads in an ethereal process which would have been declared utter science fiction to Kal-El's creators seventy years ago.
Today's films telling these superhero stories have also gone digital to the extreme in their fantastic illusions of flight and might, but at their core such characters including Superman harken back strongly to their early/mid-20th Century origins in theme and message. Our reasons for wanting a superhero may ebb and flow with the tides of society, the faces of evil may change their appearance as decades tick onward, but our ingrained need for such heroes survives and outlasts all trends and tragedies we face.
The Man of Steel's longevity in this regard is unquestionable, and his appeal via Donner and Reeve's 1970s interpretation with SUPERMAN: THE MOVIE remains undeniable. Although SUPERMAN II: THE RICHARD DONNER CUT is available in the Motion Picture Anthology box set, the rare opportunity to watch it on the big screen following Donner's first film is a revelation of what could have been a better integrated sequel to the first film. Lois and Clark's relationship evolves in a less goofy and more mature fashion which enhances their characters looking forward, and Superman's potential future would likely have stayed truer to his traditional calling instead of becoming franchise fodder for increasingly weaker stories and cheaper production budgets.
As viewers of SUPERMAN II: THE RICHARD DONNER CUT will likely testify, his unrealized vision (until now with this reconstructed film including rare screen test scenes) would have been a far superior springboard to at least one or two more contiguous sequels, which Donner revealed on Saturday that he and Mankiewicz had in mind after filming I and II. To this day, Donner mourns these lost opportunities to expand and improve Superman's feature film reputation, nearly as much as the filmmaker laments the passing of Reeve himself.
Perhaps it is this unfinished, unrequited future-that-never-was for Superman that keeps the character's on-screen adventures an open-ended quest for audiences and filmmakers alike.
Currently director Zack Snyder and screenwriter David S. Goyer are taking the next step forward for Superman in MAN OF STEEL, now in pre-production and set for a late 2012 release for Warner Brothers and DC Entertainment. Will their attempt to renew and reboot the Kryptonian superhero extend Superman's cinematic legacy for another generation, or might their vision make for yet another intriguing one-off take on the timeless symbol of truth and justice?
With that outcome unknown for another 18 months, and the Donner/Reeve vision swooping around for another landing in home theaters on high-definition Blu-ray discs, one thing is clear: we cannot stop telling Superman's story to ourselves. From Kirk Alyn and George Reeves to Christopher Reeve, Brandon Routh and now Henry Cavill, the faces and features may change but our desire for someone to embody all the simple virtues and complex meanings that Superman represents never wanes.
No matter who delivers him to us, we still need Superman.
June 7, 2011