So live. Well live. Hi everyone and welcome to the Nodioid North podcast. It's a Nodioid podcast that is hosted by Northern nerds.
I am one of your horse sound. And I am the other horse, the person that everyone loves to hit, the idiot that is Paul. It's him. Yes, it is.
It's Super Paul, shall we see it? Do that? Yes, I'm going to keep on, unfortunately. Actually, a funny story.
I'm trying to think of my first trip to Florida. I've got the bus to the mall that takes an hour. And you know what it goes through like some of the slums, the some of the shanty towns in Florida slums is a bad word. Sorry.
A young kid got on the bus and he must have been on E1314. He had a suit, a man t-shirt that had Velcro on his side and it had a cape. And I was like, I've forever looked for that t-shirt, but I have never found the suit, a man t-shirt with a cape. But yes.
Well, there's a job for you nerds. If you find the suit, a man t-shirt with a cape or even Velcro. Yes, because we all know I like Velcro, don't Akras. But yes, tonight's episode is going to be how do I put it?
I think it's a heartfelt, special based on the man that is. And just before we start, I do think we've never really done this before, but I think this person really deserves this. So again, I'm just going to put this image up. So dedicated this episode to the legend that is Krista Rave, he made us all believe a man could fly.
So just to take a moment in for the inspiration and what we are going to discuss tonight as well. So again, I think not just like, like I said, with the legacy of the suit man films, the legacy of the man himself, just to take that moment. So yes, so take a moment. So starting off on a happy note.
You know what, I think it kind of sets the tone for this episode because I thought we were coming into Superman one and two because you know Superman has become big news recently with the James Gunn's DC Universe kicking off with his Superman episode. That is amazing. That is actually amazing. Sorry, I got really distracted by Superman flying across the screen and not episode.
I'm going to film and so we thought it would be great to pop up at the concert. It's one of Paul's favorites and let's do Superman one and two. I didn't realize going into this how much of an emotional roller coaster it was going to be. Well, I suggested doing Superman one and two.
Like I said, we said, Krista Rave, but then we thought the other ones, it would be a little bit much. But you've had an interesting ad to that as well. Because I've watched it, but you haven't. You wanted to learn the discussion about the documentary as well.
So it's going to be like three, well, like not in three parts, but in three little segments, shall we say. We're going to be doing Superman one. We'll be doing both Superman two films because there's two versions of Superman two. And we will have a discussion about the documentary that came out last year.
And again, I know I've said it in previous episodes, this documentary is probably one of the most C documentaries that I can't recommend it enough. If you want to get a look back stage. And a man that is not perfect. Was it wasn't perfect?
No, but a man that gives you hope. Oh, that was such an excellent way. And it's not all Superman driven. Like I know me system meant said today, always it worth watching.
I was kind of put off by the whole Superman thing. I was like, it's not that's just like a very small percentage of the man who played him. He is he's much more than that. And we'll get to that because I can't get into it yet because I will literally start crying in straight away.
And I want to talk about the fun and brilliance of Superman one and two. So I'm going to do the disclaimer and then we're going to get on get on into this. So, everything discussing today's episode is our opinions and our opinions alone. If you'd like to discuss anything from today's episode, please come and join us on the Facebook page.
You can join us on the discord or comment section where we can have an open discussion. I thought we want to have anyone coming for us and tell us our opinions around because we can all agree to disagree in fandom. So skip it fun. Keep it kind and keep the toxic behavior out of nerdism.
Oh, okay. So in true Sami fashion, I have the taglines for Superman one. Superman brings you the gift of flight. This Christmas, you'll believe in miracles.
The man of steel is real. The movie that makes a legend come to life. And finally, you'll believe a man can fly, which is the most iconic scene in anything. And remember as well, this was 1978.
So this is kind of predating everything, like super heroes wise, this was a huge kind of like risk gamble, but for the studios as well, because it's not like today where you can't score the cinema without saying 15,000 survey remove. Nobody was making these type of films comic books was still looked at or viewed as childish for kids. It wasn't saying as an adult type thing that wasn't taken seriously at all. Yeah, no, not the slightest.
So the idea of this came in 1973 and long discussions between DC comics and the purchases of this, who is Lila and his father, Alexander Salkeid. I'm just going to refer to them as the Salkeids and because otherwise obviously in their names constantly, and they went to the studios and there was the, there was some talks DC comics were very much yes, we want to do this. But here are some considerations we would like you to take as a Superman. Now this is DC comics list and Muhammad Ali.
I talk here did fight him in the comics at least. So he did. Al Pacino. Right.
Okay, the short. And James Khan. He was very seriously looked at. Yeah.
Yeah. And see my queen. No, no, Clint Eastwood. Now you don't just think of Clint Eastwood then now.
Then he's what then would look like it was going to rob you not serious. That's true. And they're just an Hoffman. What do you even fight for at all?
Oh yeah, but this is IDC's. This is DC's. Christmas is a certain one. It makes sense.
So yeah, this is DC's list of actors. What the studio or who the studio really, really wanted and tested and auditioned was Olympic champion Bruce Jenner. I thought that one to be fair. Yeah.
Really, really funny. I don't think Bruce Jenner seers that every single chance he gets. Yes. He was.
But the athleticism was there. The acting wasn't. And Patrick Wien who is the son of John Wien. He was auditioned and he ended up dropping out of the auditioning process because John Wien was diagnosed with stomach cancer and he left and the best ones.
And I'm going to try and see this without laughing. And this is two actors who lobbied for it. The Indian audition studio was actually laughing out the building and was Neil Diamond. The singer.
Yes, the singer. And Anna Sausinger. There would have added dub them. There wouldn't have been a few times.
It was Richard Donner who turned around and said you can't have an Austrian scene for the truth right in the American way. Yeah. It wouldn't have worked. But what they really had their eye on was James Kahn, James Brawlin, Christopher Walker and Nick Noldy, John Voigt and Perry King.
Perry King is in Superman. But at unknown, they were thinking we may want to go down the unknown route. And that's when Christopher Reeve came in. And Christopher Reeve was auditioned as Christopher Reeve was in 1997.
And they were like, he's got the height, he's got the look, he's just got the build. Yeah, that was the thing because when you see Christopher Reeve like before Superman, he's the tall, he's got the chin, he's got the characteristics. I think he held himself a certain way as well. Like that was the thing with the ring.
He's very proper, wasn't he? Yeah, but yeah, he was very slight. He was very slender like me, shall we say? Yes.
He was very slim and he was tall. If he got the job, he would have to wear a muscle suit. Yeah. And he just went, no, no, like to, and I'm not going to go to the documentary, but just a little bit about him.
Is where he comes from, his family wouldn't allow that to take place. He is very practical in his art. So that wouldn't have been an option for him. So that's why he moved on.
But what people do on all that Christopher Reeve as well, he's a Thespian. He's a steer jactor. He's very much. He's very much like an actors actor, shall we say?
He was very much of the yuppy scene as well. So he was very delighted. Shall we say? He went to Juniard for Robert Williams, which I'm sure we mentioned on the Rob Williams episode.
But to think that them two trained as Shakespearean actors, both of them, take that in. Rob Williams trained and to be a Shakespearean actor. It's my own law. And so that's how Chris Reeve became Superman.
Now the directors chair was very much of the graphs. Yes. And before Richard Donner became it in Nehem, there was another Nehem that was being branded about. This thing was built up.
Yes. I think it's about having his hand in this as well. A little bit. No, but he wanted to take the directors chair.
No, no. Until you can tell the story that the tool in Superman won and like, let's, before we get into it, like the origin story as well. We'll talk about that afterwards. Yeah.
Yeah. He had his hand in and you can tell there's some influence there, but they didn't want to put him in the chair because what did he do? It wasn't, he wasn't in the name yet. No, it wasn't until Jaws came out.
Did Jaws come in the same year as this one? No, it was just, it had to be a little bit later because with Jaws being such a success, it kind of the prompted them to offer this position to Spielberg. Yeah, so yeah, so the Jaws comes out, it becomes a success. And they're studio, they're like, oh, shit, well, what are we doing.
And Spielberg went, fuck you guys. I'm going to do a close encounter with a third kind. And Spielberg goes, wait, there's a long, who and her and what nothing to do with Richard Donut. But he eventually gets a job.
I'm going to have to have that in before he pulls into a wall. That's fine. Just while you're running away, Sammy as well. Yeah.
So we've had a few versions of Superman. Yeah. Like Christopher Reeves is not the first version. By no means.
No, again, and all. I'm biased with this type of topic and this, this, that I do play as a male. Who is your favorite Superman? Like would you say like, I know we're just watching the Crystal of Raheem's one now we talked about it, but if you want to go back and like everything that's going on, everything that's going on, what would, when you say a Superman, what comes to your mind?
Crystal of Raheem. I would have said that before, before this weekend. And now I'm, I'll have no issue with Cabell's portrayal of Superman. But what I really do love as well is, um, George Reeves is the trail of Superman.
Yeah. And that is very, has very comic book of the time. Like, and I, and I do like that because it, you know, the alphabetical mille. Faster than a speed of bullets.
He can jump over buildings and see it single bound. He could be, he could be on the classic side of Nodie of North and also, you know, the talk of scandals and mysteries. He had an abundance that his death is clouded in a whole source of mystery. And he kind of, I was going to say it's an interesting one as well, because I know people I was laughing.
Ben Affleck technically has played Superman and Batman. Yeah. George. George.
Yeah. Brilliant. Brilliant. You want to watch it and get an idea?
It's really good. And you dedicated this episode to Christopher Raven, who rightly saw, and we commute to celebrate the man and the stories and himself, but the don't come if you don't have two of the men who I really feel before we get into the film should have a mention, which is Jerry Segal and Joe, I see his name right, Shuster. These are the two gentlemen who created Superman back in 1938. And he actually was, he started out, it wasn't DC.
He wasn't a DC character. He was just plotted around all over the place. He was actually sold to Warner Brothers in DC for a very, very small amount of money. And they spent their entire lives until the day they died, fighting for their copyright of their intellectual property.
And they died very poor men. And I completely, anything to do with Superman dedicated to them too. There's far too many stories of comic book creators who have brought these amazing characters to life for you to enjoy and then for somebody else to take complete note of control of them and gain out of them. They're not the first.
Don't be the last. It's getting harder now because people are getting a bit clued up and stuff. People don't want to be signing away. Like what would be the things I know they are advocating for it as well because a lot of comic book artists are getting signed by a major label, but then when they're signed, they're losing the rights to set.
They lose a lot. And no, Todd MacFarlane is a huge on this subject. He, especially intellectual property, you know, he is creative, some of the most iconic characters and he makes sure he keeps them. They are his property.
And again, I can say they're not the first one to the last. And it's just, it's sad. There was a small win a few years ago with Bill Finger, who if you don't know is the creator of Batman. What's the guy called?
I can't really say my name. Bob Kane. Bob Kane. Bob Kane.
And everything that Bob Kane stands for. Bill Finger is the reason you have the kid Chris Ada who looks away when he did because if you had Bob Kane's Batman, he literally looked like a bat. Like he looked terrible. Man bet.
And so yeah, in Bill is now on, it's not just, you know, pottery for Bob Kane. It's Bill Finger too. So I just wanted to make sure that they were mentioned in this because I think it's really important that the two creators of this who, you know, got shafted very badly. However, fun fact, they got a private screening to this movie.
Really? Yes, they were actually asked to be involved in it. However, they were 90 years old at the time and declined. However, they got a private screening and they adored it.
They give it their seal of approval. They felt like it was done the way they intended the Superman to be seen. 100%. And I think when we talk about comic book movies or people's versions of comic book movies, it never quite gets like what you what we read as fans.
We have a certain kind of image impression. And I think to do Superman, and again, lots of people might disagree with me. It's probably the hardest one to transition to screen because he is one of the most unrelatable heroes because when someone is so perfect, when someone is so powerful, like literally when you watch these movies, like his powers is a joke. It is crazy thing.
So it's hard for you to feel sorry, but hard for you to kind of relate to that person. And this movie, especially Superman one, they get literally everything so right from the first first few minutes of the movie to how like even how ridiculous the movie is at the end. Like everything and again, it's not a perfect movie. There's some bits in where you're not allowed and like crazy and stuff.
It's absolutely ridiculous. But then you've got to remember this was made in 1978 where a lot of the effects that they were trying to do was was basically built and created for this movie. Like normally they would just not like trying to make a man fly. They wouldn't have a clue how they did this.
And the effects they put in there still are used into these practical effects to make people look like they're flying and flowing. Yes, there's some ridiculous moments in this movie which we'll talk about. But if you watch it, it is so pure. It is so full of full of just magic.
And I think good word years and when we start this podcast, we talk around about certain things and new kind of phrase, this movie embodies movie magic. That's what that's as some as is, it's basically if you like went to a shore and you wanted a magic shore, this movie is movie magic. Yeah, completely. And just to answer Nathan Young, he says that's how Image Comics was made just about the end the all my brains kind of mush, the comment I made earlier.
I would have gone into the whole Image Revolution but we really don't have time. But I do know where that's referenced from. That's another podcast for another day. That's another podcast.
You don't want to get this started on that. Thank you, Jim Lee. You've told a few other names we could reel off there. Yeah.
Yes. So this movie has a cast of, I could dare say royalty. 100% in some form of a way. Yeah.
And there was people that were brought in to sell the movie because they were scared that the movie wasn't like Marlon Brando was brought on just five pure name. That was the only way that Brando was on. And he got paid. He got paid big bucks.
So Mario Pousa, if you recognize that name, that is the screenplay writer for the Godfather. He kind of put the name for the Brando. Brando then gets offered 3.2 million. So take that in 3.2 million to do this movie for 12 years.
He's only on set for 12 years. And Brando at the time was trying to get a film off the ground to do, you know, with his stance on American Native Americans and treatment. And he was trying to get it. And he was like, oh, perfect that because nobody would touch him.
Studio wise, I know that's perfect. I can completely finance this myself. And he did it. But he came with rules.
One of them rules was that he refused to learn his lines. Which blows my mind when you watch his performance because it's absolutely impressed. He has a lot of it. And Richard Donner is because a lot of work is done with Brando where you don't have to have them on screen.
It's only the beginning part with the trailer, which by the way makes nothing sense to have it in there. But hey, we move. No, no, there is a point for that because there were film and so there were film and so man wanted to get it. Oh, yeah.
They decided to do simultaneously, which is how you get your second version of Superman too. But it has not been on the plot whatsoever. It's literally because I think the plan was literally, I know what happened at the budget. So they had to stop at 70% of Superman too that just stopped filming because we need to finish the first one.
So, I'm sorry. Did you just have to Google Richard Donner to find out what movie he did before you made that comment? He's watched the goonies. He's watched the goonies.
Just what did he do? Yeah, he's watched the goonies. Oh, bless him. He also did the omen as well.
Just put that up there. So, yeah, so he does this movie 3.2 million 12 days of work and when the movie, because how I was thinking, I expected this to do very well because that was the only negotiation he did was the 3.2 million. He didn't find out, oh shit, this made money. What is my money?
So he sued Warner Brothers and everyone else for a piece of the pie. And there was points in the court. I was reading some of the transcripts of the cochiers and this point where I really could have been thrown out. But they settled and he got 15 million off the back of that.
Apparently the reason he tried to change the use of these kind of rocker too, where if they used his likeness or if he was going to be into, he wanted percentages off the market of what the movie made. So that's why he changed that. And that's why in the final one, he's not in the second one at all. Like he let everything out of Brando because he caused that much of his stink.
But yeah, Brando wasn't like, he didn't know what it was. He didn't care. He just, as I said, got pared. He turned up, didn't want anything to do with the cast.
No, no, no, no, no, no, really fun fact. Really fun fact. The guy who had to take him from set every day from to be through left back to be in the end of the fact that I know who that was. Carly Earls.
Right. Princess Bride. One of his first jobs and he was like, if I didn't disillusion my take on Hollywood, I'm surprised I went into acting at all. But yeah, he was an agree person.
Christopher Reeve, not on the film. He was incredibly kind during the film and book afterwards and many years later, and possibly even as Brando was dead, mid comments of it was all about the money for him. He wasn't a very nice person to work with. He's not, he took the granted something that was incredibly special to him.
Because there was one thing I read where it was his, he saw elegant in how he talks and he said that this. Sorry, I'm sorry to interrupt us because he's brought it up. David Proust was Superman's trainer in the gym. So Darth Vader trained him to get both.
Yeah. I've got that written down in my notes. Thank you. Sorry.
He got there first. But no, he said it was something along the lines of this, this movie, Open Doors for how could he knock down an opportunity to be a part of something that was going to literally open doors for him, something that I shared with Paul at the weekend. There's a certain recipe on action, horror icon, fantasy icon, and Sir Christopher Lee turned down the role of General Zod. That would be interesting.
Lee would have been a daughter saying, but the term star as Zod was breathtaking. But he ended up going to play Captain America 2, death too soon of 1979. He actually moved it. He was when he moved to Hollywood for his tax exile because he didn't want to return to England.
Or Texas. Oh, bless you, Christopher Lee. But let's talk about the main reason why I chose this movie. I like this because we could have just went straight to Superman 2 because there's abundance of things we can talk about in Superman 2.
But watching back now and watch about over the last two days and watching Superman with Nick last night, there's not very often when we're both very silent watching a movie because we're so engrossing London. What the origin story? We've had so many different origin stories. We've had Uncle Ben dying.
We've had Captain getting juiced up. We've had Tony getting his suit. But seeing a clock, I'll show you a come to Earth in one of the craziest lot in spaceships that you've ever seen. Seeing how Martha and Jonathan Kent find them and instantly think, oh, it's a baby come from a thing we're American.
We'll just say it's I was no one on last night. No, no, no, no, no. But again, this would never happen these days. Seeing a child's penis on screen as well was a bit short.
Like for a while. Wow. But I can say it was the 70s, so they were a little bit more liberal. But that origin of like say going from Carlisle to getting Clark to getting them like the lessons he's taught by his father and Martha and stuff, aren't so in your face.
Or it's not always like, oh, with great power comes great responsibility. You know, I can say it's not that kind of line. It's certainly done and it's beautifully done. It's just like having the conversation just because you can do something.
You should exactly. It was a very good, it's very good. We have explained in that in Civil War, I thought because what people have seen in recent when Superman's told just because he can, you shouldn't is when Kevin Costner did him out of steel and it was really blunt and blunt and to the point there was no hard behind it. So to hear that Tom Holland said it was like, oh, yeah, I kind of get what you mean.
But to go back and watch Jonathan Kent see it in, you know, as a caring father should be, not the way that. Sorry, Kevin Costner's performance always makes me giggle in that movie because he's such a a twat. Yeah. It's like the guy who played Jonathan Kent Glenn Ford, like he was so loving and he was only a small role.
But you can see how Clark grew to be in the Clark he was because of that family dynamic, because of the love, because of the care and how like said that he was given like say the true morals and belief through that like say that couple and again, same like small will in like say the thing, same Lana for a brief second as well was quite. I'm in a very young, Lewis language really itked me a little bit. I was like, okay, could we not have made her a little bit older to fit the age Clark is now, but that kind of did it as a little bit. And the my, my version that I watched was three and a half hours long.
Right. The first one. Yes, three and a half. Patrick Bing because I started watching about eight o'clock and we started talking and it didn't, we would talk on towards the end of it and I told her it finished at half eleven.
Right. Because the runtime I've got two hours and twenty three. I wasn't, but I had bits in there where Clark was looking for the spaceship. And there was a lot of bits in there that felt like they were drawing out linked out and added in.
Right. And because I honestly felt like you could really cut this movie down if you took all that out. I say I love that element as well. Because like that's when you're really feeling like who Clark is and again, and all at the time, like, like now we've been told like we've seen the like the Superman story.
We've seen the into like how many versions of Superman is we've seen how he becomes Superman like through Manus. And we get that we get that. It's getting that's why Marvel's such a home run with Spider-Man because they haven't done the whole. The stock that is trucks.
Yeah. So they've had to get full. We're going to kill this person. But this one, this was the first time of saying it first time of kind of realizing it.
So you needed that breath. You needed that kind of thing. The thing that they made the left the most is when Clark's running next to the train and it's the most ridiculous run you've ever seen. It's like.
Oh, yeah. It looks like something that the Flash would do now. Yeah. Yeah, it looked a bit silly.
And what I loved is the difference between Clark and Superman. Yeah. Because everyone argues the same thing. They say, oh, how could you not tell that Clark Kent is not Superman?
Just by. Because it wasn't but it wasn't just that though. And this is what I realized when watching this on Friday night was the amount of effort and work he put in to his Clark character was it was actually, if you think about it, his character is more Superman, which because Clark is who he's always being. Oh, all he remembers.
It's only been up until recently he found out this whole I am Superman thing. So is it the is it the guy trying to. I don't know what I want to say. Is it the Clark Kent version who is you know, he's fumbling, he's daft, but he's really lean on thick.
He's a clumsy nerd. That's really is. Or is it the is he really trying and so hard to be this superhero type person? Like it's almost like he's trying to figure out which each individual person is and you're there watching him do it.
It's almost the opposite effect because people have the conversation about Michael Keaton and Batman. Michael Keaton is an amazing Batman, but a terrible Bruce Wayne. He's not in the movies. He's not a player boy.
He's basically just Batman without a mask. That's the thing with Clark with Christopher Reeves, portrayal of Superman and Clark Kent. They are two completely different people and different personalities. And it's so amazing to see it's so subtly done as well.
It's like when Clark's in the building with Lewis and he's just because Lewis has just had a big flight with Superman and it's ridiculous. It's romantic. It's so stupid. It doesn't even make sense.
It defines the laws of gravity that he can just hold a finger and she can fly because Nick was like, does she transport how it's through? I think it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter. But yeah, but then you get Clark who knocks on the door because he's going to take it over a date and he's got his hat on and he's got his glasses and he's like sheveled in himself and he just goes like this because he's taking a turn on Lewis and he goes and he rises and you see him coming up and you see the transformation that again, it's the confidence it's what you exubed.
So again, it's so breathful and brilliant and it's just so subtle. It's like you wouldn't see them because even though Clark Kent's six foot odd, hope and man, he carries himself, he's invisible and even Lewis and Perry have conversations with him saying, I don't know if you cut out for this type of work, you need to be confident, you need to go for the jugging, you need to be aggressive and clark it. I don't think I need to be like that. I love him as Clark Kent.
I love the fact that those link on spell. That was one of my favourite moments. I know Margaret Kidd is getting a lot of shit in pop culture over the years and I just want to say fuck you all. She is incredible in this book.
She was incredible in black Christmas. Unfortunately, she had a very late bipolar diagnosis and was not medicated correctly and things got a little bit out of control and then it was a run and fucking joke for a very long time that she was crazy. She was not crazy by any stretch. But she is absolutely amazing in this.
My favourite line of hers is when he catches her and he's going, I got your man, she's got you got me. Who's got you? But it's that fucking voice that sounds like she's smoked about 50, 60 cigarettes a day. I love it.
She embodies Lois Lee so much as well because as you said, she's a go-go-getter. She's feisty. She doesn't hold her tongue. She's very much everything that Lois Lee was in the comics as well.
But again, it's weird when you see it getting introduced to someone and she comes to love sick puppy dog to the man in the state. But again, like to be fair, if Christopher Reeve was flying down and carrying me about, I'm like resort to that type of puppy dog esque as well. I can't really comment too much about that. She was great and again, I say going back to the spelling thing, she was terrible at spelling but it didn't stop out from being a reporter because that's what she wanted to do.
Even though I spell them as terrible. I love that. I really do love that about her, especially as a dyslexic. I love the fact that she didn't allow that to stop out from going ahead and becoming the reporter she wanted to be.
No, definitely. And again, when you go on through the full cast, the people who win this, I love the guy who played Jimmy Olsen as well. And Jimmy Olsen is in the comics, is an innocent, is a lovely, is like, do you really guys and like from a happy, go-go-go guy? And that's the way he was portrayed in both of these movies as well.
He idolizes not just Superman, but he looks up to Clark as well as kind of like the person who he sees he wants to be. But with any type of like, mean, like hero type, sorry, it lives and dies by the bad guys as well. Oh, does it just? Yes.
So unfortunately, well, I said the word unfortunately, it's a version of Lex Luthor that I, again, it's not the Lex Luthor that I was used to. It was definitely a different version with Jane Hartman. It was more con man than a sadistic like megalomaniom. It was more just like, he had no scribbles, but he was more like, he would be reminders of a double glaze, double glaze when salesmen.
You know, he could put him in the Batman universe and he would fit in perfectly. But to be Lex Luthor, and Jane Haffman wouldn't shave his hair, so he wouldn't have the Lex Luthor look. But he's two, he's almost two comic boogie for this movie. He would fit in perfectly in comic boogie movies now, but not that.
I don't know what it's just- I think he would fit in in the Adam West Batman very well. And do you know what, maybe that's what he was looking at. You've got to think source material for them at the time on superhero movies is bad. Adam West Batman.
Yeah. So maybe that is what he's looking at as a villain. Well, it's just when he walks around saying, I'm Lex Luthor, the world's greatest criminal and stuff like that. It's just Lex is more sinister.
Lex is intelligent. He's portrayed as intelligent. But you know, Smarmy and a weird that kind of like, it's like, oh, you wouldn't ever think he was ever going to get the better of Superman. That was the thing.
No, he was better than Jesse Eisenberg. That's for that. I'm sure. I think Jesse Eisenberg was still a bit more sinister.
There was a lot of that. I know. Again, different opinions, different things. I didn't mind Lex in this one, but when we get into talking about Superman two, that's when they got the villains right.
They got the bad guys right. Christ did they took a boot to go and a page out the Star Trek on that one mind. I'll give them that. It was definitely like Star Trek villains, but and you do get a glimpse of them at the beginning of this beautiful face of turn stamp.
But yeah, they're not they're not throughout this whole movie. I tell you what really threw me was the open right? Very, very open. The kid reading of comic book that was added on.
I'm so pleased. Yeah, that's so weird. I think I must have watched the same copy as you because after I played it, I was like, that's not the superman I remember. So I went by anything that was watching the documentary.
Yeah, that's what I thought initially. I was like, Oh, I've clicked on the crystal rings documentary straight away. Yeah. So, but yeah, that was a bit of a thing.
It must have been like for a special edition or something that was added in it. I didn't go back and look and try and look into it. But that wasn't the superman I remember as a kid or when I was on TV. So I think it was something that might have been added.
But I know we've missed quite a chunk of just talking about the opening credits for this as well. Like more back to the day where you get the titles and it lasts for like seven, eight minutes, rather than like the 30 seconds we'll get now. And it's short cases, everything that gives you the score. So you know, you're in the score musically this film is up there with some of the best scores up there.
I didn't want to bring John Williams up until the second one because there's a score in the second one. But this is this was a dream come true for the man. Yeah, this is iconic. And I tried to play again with them, Paul, and a few others the other night of can you think this?
Can you sing the theme tune? And it was I think the theme tune. Can you sing Indiana Jones theme tune? Can you do the Star Wars theme tune?
Again, that's the fucking game. Yeah. But so do you think of any of the joins that stayed in your head forever? Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah. Now do the superman one. No.
Yeah, actually can't do it. Try it on guys. You can't do it. If you do Indiana Jones Star Wars, you'll start all the Star Wars, but you will eventually get there.
It's a superman one. You can't do. But they're all John Williams, like, sounds as well. But yeah, John Williams is far running through this.
And it was lovely to have a movie of actual, these are all your actors, but power, ring your face, not 50 million production companies that are involved in this movie. Yeah. It was all about the cast. And I think Richard Donner's name popped up a few times, like for the credits, which.
A couple. But I was looking at the names of the people who were in the movie that was like, Oh, I like that. Yeah, I really love the open of this. Yeah.
But I think with the names of the people in, there were like say had to be in certain orders. I think Marlon Brando's was the first one. I think it was. No, of course.
But as I said, we're talking like say, greatest, in my opinion, because you'll probably say Captain America's is your favorite origin story. Am I right? Am I wrong? Right?
I thought that's all you can write. Yes, I thought out of it in the case. But yeah, for me, this is my greatest origin story. And then, as you said, the whole player with, OK, this is basically once it gets into Superman and you see the man of steel, it very much takes flight.
I'm sorry to use that word. No pun intended. It runs in with the action scene when you get seven laws from the helicopter, which again is an immune stunt and it's so well done. It's so brilliant.
It's the coincidence of him being in the building at the time. And it's even even looking at the disaster and what's actually happening. He's still bumbling around as the car can't that he is. And he's like, oh, and the fact that he goes past the phone box, looks at it and goes.
And then walks away. And then he comes back as the confident Superman and says those. But he's and then he goes and saves the cat. And he's like to the kid.
Oh, you know, the cat just might want adventures too. But let's not fall against him. But he goes for the whole city. That's the thing that's why I love it because this is him realizing that he's out now with Superman.
He's saying, I'm going to throw it. He gets the guy, client of the building, which is hilarious. He has so funny. He gives it to the police officer.
Does not know what they're doing. He's got the car chase and he's just standing on the hood and like, not sorry, the ship. And then all trying to get him on the head with a wrench and he basically doesn't even flinch. And then he comes to the cat and the train, the cat's lesson, the cat's dead now.
Because it's fast that age, which is very much so. But it's a it's adorable. But and a lot of people like, what a coincidence. You get to, you know, Superman comes out and all this crime to his place.
Maybe it's a case of he's had to come out because he has to save those. But he can only do it the way that, you know, with the suit on. And then he realizes how really shit, whichropolis actually is because of all these crime that's taken place. And it's like, oh, maybe I should just stay as this, you know, thing.
Maybe he had no intention. It was just a one time gig. But it was good. I really enjoyed that sequence of events.
And like one thing after the other, it was like, guys, he's nice and kind of. And again, this movie could have went what, what at the end? Because I said with the ending with a lot of superhero movies, because you've got to wrap up and get, get attention and get like to. There's got to be a payoff at the end.
There's got to be the danger level. And how do you have danger? Because this is again, not the shit. This has always been my issue with the Captain America movie.
So I wrapped it up and it got to the end and there was no danger. It was like, who's got to beat this man? Like army, nor is the Red Skull going to beat Captain America. Fuck, nor is defeat everything.
So basically there was no kind of like sense of urgency or sense of danger. It was a plot point to get to where we got with the Avengers, which we'll talk about next week. Um, Janice, but with with Superman, they went big. They were like, okay, what can we do to kind of showcase how powerful and the danger levels?
We'll get Lex Luthor, who's basically going to send two nuclear bombs to completely two places to try and separate. So people couldn't try and stop. So one was going to destroy New Jersey. New Jersey.
And the other one was basically going to destroy pit in earlier and basically hit a fault line and basically destroy the whole course. So he's going to have his own new course line where he's, well, probably because he's, like I said, he's a con man. He's a realtor. He wants to pick one of you, which is again, is moving around.
Um, it makes this, it gets told how long Superman's been on the earth. He works out and he puts two together and discovers Kryptonite and says, oh, this is from the earth. So this must be Superman's weakness. So that's, I can just put it together there.
And he's like, oh, he's not that fucking clever people. But he does. He puts 77 together and gets two. But yeah, it's a weird jump from that to that.
But again, we'll go over movie magic. Because we move through it. And Superman is in real danger and seen him in Pearl when he gets short of Kryptonite, which is done like Christopher Reeves performance there is fucking amism. When he puts that necklace around his neck and he just topples.
It's like he had a boulder attached to his neck and it just pulled him down. It was brilliantly done. Yes. And then we get the ball drama.
Like, I know people are focusing on it. He gets, he gets helped by Miss, I wish called Miss Eve, Teshma, Teshma, it's something like that. Yes. I can't pronounce any of them.
Like, she was a damsel that loves, loves, loves, or one of like, one of, likes, loses, who doesn't want a mom to die. So she takes an equity stock suit, man, a mixed suit, man promise that he's got to save his, save her mom first. And as Superman doesn't lie, because he is all about truth, just as an American way. So he fulfills that promise.
He sends the first nuclear bomb into space. Now that one will come back to us in the conversation a little bit later. The second one, he's not there in time. It goes off.
It blows up. And we start seeing the destruction. And we're going, fuck, how is he going to stop this, this busy, like the earth crumbling and losing California, losing earlier, losing San Francisco. He goes underground in the fault lines and the, the Titanic plates and starts pummeling them back together.
That's how the whole mag better is not fucking mess with Superman. Superman can take the hotness. He's, he's suit is made out with some magic ship that doesn't burn. So he's putting the lava, putting, putting rocks back together.
The San Francisco Golden Gate Bridge, that's falling apart. And a school, school bus of flukids is tingering over the edge. So after he's busy putting the earth back together, he goes to save them. And again, it's cheesy as fuck, but it's just all about drilling in the hole.
Yeah. But he's too late for someone though, isn't he? Well, he is. That's downstairs.
Cause the rocks, there was a landslide, rocks were falling. And again, it was brutal as fuck. It really was. And his reaction is really good at all.
Like it comes from his tours. Yeah. And Lois is dead. Yeah.
So Lois dies. The car falls into like some kind of chasm because the earth opens up. Then starts with him closing the earth back in. Technically, he's closing the earth on Lois and she's been buried alive and crushed up at the same time.
Ouch. Yeah. Yeah. You think it's just going to be a small glimpse.
This goes on for a good two to three minutes of Lois Gordon screaming for help. Until he realizes that he flies like a spain bullet towards her and he doesn't make it in time. He doesn't. So not even he.
Was fast enough to get there. But after he's bit scream, he comes to the realization that maybe just maybe he could put things right. It kind of foreshadows this earlier one in the movie. Cause when he's talking to Jarrell, Jarrell, Marlon Brando, he tells him like he has a great power.
He has, he can do things that no, no, can do. And he basically, he says, but you cannot mess with human history. You cannot mess with natural law. Yes.
So he tells him these things. So he puts stakes on it. And this is again, probably one of my only problems with watching the movie back. Cause he decides that he's going to go back and change natural law.
Cause physics, he decides that if he flies around the earth the wrong way, making the earth spin the wrong way, that turns back time. Yeah. Did not know that. Yeah.
So, so apparently science, science, science be done. Yes. So soon, because originally this was meant to be the end in for Superman two. So as we said earlier, Superman one and two originally were being filmed back to back.
So they were going to make part one and part two. They were going to come out pretty close to each other. It was going to be a two part because back in the years, a lot of Superman films or Superman shorts were two parts. Like you would see, can Superman see this world?
Can Superman do this? Find out next week. So that was possibly like the kind of cliffhanger type thing as well. But as I said, we're running a budget so that they had to scrap the film in part two up to 70%.
Was that was the Richard Donut? 70%. So I had this plan for end of suit, so my tooth went right. We don't know if we're going to make Superman two because we're stopped.
We're going to put that in the now so it kind of was a full stop because I don't know. I think it was going to be on a cliffhanger and lead into. That makes an end lead into Superman two. That makes a lot of sense.
And given the production of this because to be honest, at the time, it wasn't unheard of, but it was very unusual to do it the way that they were going to do it. And just to give you something as well, the entire prologue of the American of the adventure of Superman from 1952 is used in this movie. Right. So that's interesting.
I did not know that. So you ready? Don't. Bastard in the speeding bullet.
Clark catches the bullet. Right. So you know, and when they're dying in the alleyway, more powerful than a locomotive. So it becomes the train track able to leap tall buildings in a single bound.
He catches Lois Lane from the helicopter. Superman strange visitor from a distant planet, the infant calelving sent from Earth to or from the dying Krypton. Superman who can change the course of mighty rivers. He stops the flood.
He stops the flood by the car. He stops the flood. Yeah. Ben steel in his bare hands.
He spends the railway road and makes the train track. And just want to train on anyone. Just want to know that. Oh, no.
And who disguised as Clark Kent? Tech of the years Clark Kent, the Kent's adopted him and made him Clark Clark. And fights and never end in battle of truth, justice and the American way. He literally says that to Lois Lane and the entire try.
Oh, no, that's my other notion. But yeah, that's the whole prologue from the 19th, what did I say, in 1952. So much. It's all pointing to him.
So it's a lovely little touch. It was one sign. Oh, it was a lovely little touch. It was a lovely little touch and a lovely little nod to the George Reeves Superman and bringing it into this.
I love when people do that. I feel like there's a lot of love. That's when the love gets put into things. It's not just money grabbing, like, oh, let's just make everything adventurous and stuff like that.