Superman in the movies

In a smart move, Jor-El foresaw the cataclysmic end of his homeland coming, swaddled his baby boy up in a bullet-proof comforter and launched him in a rocketship into outer space, out of harm’s way. In a particularly stupid move, however, Jor-El aimed the ship at Earth, evidently not having done his research into relocation. Despite appearing human, young Kal-El possessed powers and abilities far beyond those of mortal men. He found out quickly (as mentioned) that he was faster than a speeding bullet and more powerful than a locomotive. Early on he discovered he could leap tall buildings in a single bound and bend steel in his bare hands.

Being an illegal alien, he found it necessary to create a false identity, that of a mild-mannered reporter and using the alias of Clark Kent, he managed to secure himself gainful employment with a great metropolitan newspaper. These days most illegal aliens create false identities in order to ensure they get regular welfare cheques, but we won’t get into that.

It is interesting to note with Kal-El, that, in comparison to his uncanny superhuman powers, he is somewhat lacking in imagination. His one and only method of concealing his true self to others is to don a pair of horn-rimmed spectacles. Presumably the investigative reporting staff of The Daily Planet is similarly unencumbered by imagination, as Clark’s keen disguise has had them hoodwinked for over sixty years now. Not what I would call Sixty Minutes staff material. More like the National Enquirer.

So Kal-El/Clark/Superman did what he did best, living out his life fighting a never-ending battle for truth, justice and the American way (whatever that means). Nobody else but Kal-El’s adoptive mother and the dim-witted ace reporter that he secretly lusts after, Lois Lane , have a clue that Clark Kent and Superman, strange visitor from another planet are one and the same person. His mom knows, and Miss Lane only suspects.

True to time honoured tradition, the modern myth of Superman was eventually translated to the lively art of cinema, first in a series of very well drawn animated cartoon movies produced by the Fleischer studios, the guys who had previously breathed life into Betty Boop and Popeye the Sailor Man. The big fella next showed up on screens in the form of a cliff-hanger serial, wherein Kal-El was portrayed rather uncomfortably by a former dancer in Busby Berkeley musicals by the name of Kirk Alyn, who looked about as at home in the blue leotard and red suede boots as a man wearing spats at an Iowa picnic. His portrayal of Clark Kent was admirable, though, a take-charge, go-getter in a snap brim fedora who opted for wire rims instead of bulky tortoise-shell frames on his cheaters.

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The special effects in this low-budget offering had me scratching my head and wondering to myself, “Hang on, am I really not supposed to notice that everytime Superman is about to fly, the actor playing him runs behind something and comes out the other side as a cartoon?” Up, up and away. When he landed they pulled the same trick in reverse. It must have been state of the art FX for the 1940s.

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The coming of the fabulous fifties brought with it a different Superman, this time on the relatively newly affordable device known as the television set. Clark Kent on the small screen was just as much a take-charge go-getter as he had been in Alyn’s portrayal, but, as played by George Reeves (whose only prior notable role was that of one of Scarlett O’Hara’s suitors in Gone With The Wind), he had a sly cheekiness about him, often cocking his head, pushing the horn rims up on his nose and winking to the camera after offering an implausible excuse to Lois about where he had been while all the excitement had been going on.

Just one time I would have loved to have heard him say, “Well, Lois… If you would take your head out of your ass long enough to get ample oxygen to your brain, you would realize that I AM Superman.” If George Reeves as Clark Kent seemed endearing, his portrayal as Superman was downright charming. Still looking uncomfortable in the leotard (according to reports, George claimed it was very itchy and made him sweat profusely), the middle-aged actor did a great deal of bouncing off a miniature trampoline into and out of open windows, kicking in balsa wood doors and crashing through Styrofoam brick walls.

The flight technique was now achieved by filming the out-stretched actor lying on a table against a blue screen and then superimposing his image, cape ruffling, on top of a background of either passing clouds and/or buildings. Every single time he took to the air, the Superman Theme Music would pipe in. Doing the majority of his own stunts took its’ toll on George Reeves, who suffered from chronic back pain as a result until his death by suicide at the end of the decade. Contrary to rumour, George Reeves did not leap from a high rise building’s ledge to end his life, he in fact killed himself in the bedroom of his Beverly Hills home by pressing the barrel of a loaded WWII German Luger to his temple and squeezing the trigger , unable to climb out of the bleakness of a clinical depression brought on by his inability to work.

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Except for a poorly animated series of cartoons and a musical that ran briefly on Broadway in the mid-sixties, Kal-El remained confined to the pages of the comic books.

Then in 1976 he was back in a major big-budget motion picture adaptation of the saga penned by none other than Mario ‘Godfather’ Puzo. The title was ‘Superman, The Movie’ (as opposed to what? ‘Superman, The Infomercial’?). The film was hyped with the tagline, “You WILL believe a man can fly”, and, even though you didn’t, it still boasted a stellar cast including Gene Hackman as a wonderfully sarcastic Lex Luthor, and a notoriously overpaid Marlon Brando as Jor-El. Donning the cape this time was an obscure stage actor named Christopher Reeve, who filled out the tights like nobody had in the past and whose chiseled facial features seemed to have emerged directly from the comic books.

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Even his hair seemed perfect, and that’s how Reeve played him: perfectly; a flying Gandhi, with more pity than malice for villainy, a genuine affection for mankind and more compassionately human than any human being would ever be capable of. The role was finally given a seriousness by Reeve, despite the comedic bent of the dialogue, and at times, thanks to his acting ability, one almost feels sorry for this lost soul who is the last of his kind, a stranger in a strange land struggling to adapt in a world of inferiors. It would have been easy for a lesser actor to fade into obscurity after such a high profile film debut, to be typecast as “that guy who played Superman”, but Reeve survived three more outings in the cape (one of which he directed), and made dozens of highly regarded films until an equestrian accident left him a quadriplegic.

Despite this, he worked even harder, not so much as an actor (although he STILL appeared onscreen in a remake of Hitchcock’s classic film ‘Rear Window’) but mainly as an activist, championing the rights of the handicapped and rallying for funds for medical research into spinal cord injuries right up until he died last year of a heart attack resulting from complications due to respiratory failure.

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Which brings us now to the present, with Superman fans worldwide eagerly awaiting a new film adaptation, directed by Bryan Singer and starring a rather odd-looking yet buff young actor named Brandon Routh in a revamped costume and a new pair of horn-rimmed spectacles. What can be done with the story of Kal-El that hasn’t been done already? Will the new guy be any good? How can he possibly top Christopher Reeve, who, for my money, IS and always WILL BE the ONLY Superman? Tune in next week for another exciting story in “The Adventures of Superman”!

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USA says on 2012-02-11 08:03:00 about HSlpWkgQeMjSJ UTYu2e Not bad post, leave it at my bookmarks!....

TJN says on 2006-03-28 14:39:55 about Superman Holy crap folks...it's a blog, not an election.

Bronxbomber says on 2006-03-16 16:15:52 about Superman Hey Racy, Where's you article or drawings. You like being a critic but you give nothing in return except an opnion. You know what opinions are like don't you? So seriously if you don't like the man's work go to another site and leave this one to the people that enjoy life and don't look at it from the politlcally correct side every fuckin chance they can. I personally think you spend too much time jacking off and really don't enjoy the finer things in life. Now you've been told.

Havok says on 2006-03-13 23:06:00 about Superman is my hero I have no problems with this article. Well put together and someone just offering their opinion. It's the net...don't wanna read something go elsewhere !!

tom nicholson says on 2006-03-08 09:51:35 about idea Here's an idea: Why don't you just tell me exactly what you would like to read, exactly, mind you, don't hold back, let me know what exact words I may use, what subject I should write about, how lengthy the piece should be, what my opinions should be on it , etcetera, and I will do my best to write an article suited to your specifications. Does that sound fair to you? If it doesn't, I don't know what else to suggest, other than maybe you should write it yourself. Take aspirin if you get a headache. Happy Writing!

Racy says on 2006-03-08 09:00:55 about Superman article Boy, we really touched a raw nerve here, didn't we? You still have stated no reason to call me a fool, while your statements I alluded to earlier speak for themselves. I don't have any desire to have an online blow-for-blow battle with you or anyone else, and I would have commented only once had you not thrown down the gauntlet. And don't tell me what venues are appropriate for what I say when you freely use whatever venue you desire for what YOU say. Perhaps we agree that except for Native Americans, we're ALL immigrants. Happy writing.

Tom Nicholson says on 2006-03-08 08:24:35 about Superman Okay Pal, enough is enough. It was one line in an otherwise relatively non-threatening article. I refuse to apologize for it to you or anyone else, because it wasn't written in malice or with any other sinister underlying meaning, despite what you may believe. I am an immigrant myself, as were my parents, and you have said nothing new to alter my prior opinion of you as a fool. Now, if you care to continue this debate any further, I suggest you do it via email and leave this section for people who have actually taken the time to read my ENTIRE article to comment on IT, should they feel the need.

Racy says on 2006-03-08 08:12:16 about Superman article I based my posting on your comments, which are ridiculous. You have called me a fool based on the fact that you don't like my comments. You have not refuted what I said about your prejudice. And I don't need drugs to chill. I have quite calmly read postings about Superman and everything else under the sun for years, and don't often find prejudicial commentary about things unrelated to subject matter buried in a script. If you don't have deep-seated prejudices toward immigrants, how did your opinions on the issue show up in a story about Superman? I don't so much object to the fact that you hate illegal immigrants so much as the venue. When I read about Superman, I'm not interested in anyone's pet peeves about unrelated issues.

Tom Nicholson says on 2006-03-08 07:22:08 about petty minds like mine I'm so sorry to have offended you, whoever you are. Yes, and I cannot help but agree that I manufactured that fact from the crevices of my narrow petty mind. I shouldn't have made such a callous, flippant remark about illegal aliens, because I don't have the facts, do I? I am far too busy with my hidden agenda. Where did I put that agenda anyway? It was here a moment ago...I bet one of those lousy, no-good welfare defrauding illegal aliens took it. They are all thieves, you know. Liars and thieves. And you sir, are a fool. Take a chill-pill and rent a Superman movie. It will make you feel much better about villains like myself and Lex Luthor.

Racy says on 2006-03-08 04:02:45 about Superman article I didn't know most illegal aliens either created false identities or collected welfare. Coulda sworn most illegal aliens just try to evade scrutiny and get minimum-pay jobs. I'm sure some try to get welfare, but not many succeed, and not many have the organization or wherewithall to create a false identity. Sounds like our author here, rather than write about Superman, one of my favorite subjects, has a hidden agenda: to perpetrate his radical right-wing view of the world on everyone, including ludicrous postulations based on his extremist prejudice. As soon as I saw that tripe, I stopped reading the article. I'm not interested in contrived evaluations of whole groups of people based on the paranoia of someone who really needs to get out more and refrain from manufacturing facts from the crevices of a narrow, petty mind.

Lue says on 2006-03-07 19:09:37 about Soopyman Nice job, I can't wait to read your follow up story!

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