Superman (1978)

[William Moore]

Title: Superman

Tagline: You'll Believe a Man Can Fly!

Genre: Science Fiction, Action, Adventure

Director: Richard Donner

Cast: Christopher Reeve, Margot Kidder, Gene Hackman, Ned Beatty, Marlon Brando, Jackie Cooper, Terence Stamp, Glenn Ford, Phyllis Thaxter, Trevor Howard, Jack O'Halloran, Valerie Perrine, Maria Schell, Susannah York, Jeff East, Marc McClure, Sarah Douglas, Harry Andrews, Vass Anderson, John Hollis, James Garbutt, Michael Gover, David Neal, Penelope Lee, John Stuart, Alan Cullen, Lee Quigley, Aaron Smolinski, Diane Sherry Case, Jeff Atcheson, Brad Flock, David Petrou, Billy J. Mitchell, Robert Henderson, Larry Lamb, James Brockington, John Cassady, John F. Parker, Harry Scott, Ray Evans, Su Shifrin, Miquel Brown, Vincent Marzello, Benjamin Feitelson, Lise Hilboldt, Leueen Willoughby, Jill Ingham, Pieter Stuyck, Rex Reed, Weston Gavin, Steve Kahan, Ray Hassett, Randy Jurgensen, Matt Russo, Colin Skeaping, Bo Rucker, Paul Avery, David Baxt, George Harris II, Michael Harrigan, John Cording, Raymond Thompson, Oz Clarke, Rex Everhart, Jayne Tottman, Frank Lazarus, Brian Protheroe, Lawrence Trimble, Robert Whelan, David Calder, Norwich Duff, Keith Alexander, Michael Ensign, Larry Hagman, Paul Tuerpe, Graham McPherson, David Yorston, Robert O'Neill, Robert MacLeod, John Ratzenberger, Alan Tilvern, Phil Brown, Bill Bailey, Burnell Tucker, Chief Tug Smith, Norman Warwick, Chuck Julian, Colin Etherington, Mark Wynter, Roy Stevens, William Russell, Noel Neill, Kirk Alyn, Edward Finneran, Tony Selby

Release: 1978-12-13

Runtime: 143

Plot: Mild-mannered Clark Kent works as a reporter at the Daily Planet alongside his crush, Lois Lane. Clark must summon his superhero alter-ego when the nefarious Lex Luthor launches a plan to take over the world.

I am a huge fan of this 1978 classic, not to mention being a fan of Christopher Reeve, having managed a movie theatre in Wichita, Kansas, which hosted it's local premiere during the Christmas season, 1978. What a glorious time that was! We had four showings per day in a thousand-seat theatre. Talk about busy! Anyway, I already own this film on BD, which came out several years ago, but I discovered a 4K release just recently on Amazon, so I'm assuming that there was a new "hi-rez" scan made of the negatives for that release. The package also includes a regular BD disc of the movie and I'm hoping that this disc was mastered from that new scan, as well. One thing I noticed is that the soundtrack on the new BD is in DTS Master Audio, which makes me think that the BD is also remastered, since the original BD was in plain old Dolby Digital. Any comments?

 

[Tino]

Here’s a thread already started. In the Bluray/UHD section.

https://www.hometheaterforum.com/community/threads/superman-the-movie-uhd-review.359662/#post-4670929

 

[Mark-P]

The answer you're looking for won't be in that linked review. There is no standard Blu-ray of the new 4K remaster. The included Blu-ray in the 4K package is the same exact disc of the theatrical cut from the Superman Anthology Box which came out in 2011. If you are looking for the Special Edition cut (151 min) it is only in the Anthology box with lossless audio, as the standalone disc has lossy audio. And then of course there is the TV cut (188 min) which was released by Warner Archive and is a scan of completely different elements and has mono sound.

 

[William Moore]

The answer you're looking for won't be in that linked review. There is no standard Blu-ray of the new 4K remaster. The included Blu-ray in the 4K package is the same exact disc of the theatrical cut from the Superman Anthology Box which came out in 2011. If you are looking for the Special Edition cut (151 min) it is only in the Anthology box with lossless audio, as the standalone disc has lossy audio. And then of course there is the TV cut (188 min) which was released by Warner Archive and is a scan of completely different elements and has mono sound.

Well then, my BD shows a run time of 151 minutes and indicated that it was the "extended version" created by Richard Donner in 2000 and the sound is Dolby Digital 5.1; however, the description I read for the included BD with the 4K release states that the audio is DTS Master Audio. It then seems to me that the soundtrack was remastered, so why not the video?

 

[Mark-P]

It then seems to me that the soundtrack was remastered, so why not the video?

They re-authored the Blu-ray for the Anthology box in 2011 and at that time the new 4K remaster wasn't available. The only way you are going to see the 2018 remaster is with a 4K Blu-ray player, or else a 4K digital purchase.

 

[Lord Dalek]

They re-authored the Blu-ray for the Anthology box in 2011 and at that time the new 4K remaster wasn't available. The only way you are going to see the 2018 remaster is with a 4K Blu-ray player, or else a 4K digital purchase.

Not like converting the 4k remaster to SHD would matter much. Superman The Movie's extreme degree of filtering and film overprocessing makes ever home video release look like the format that came before it. There's probably only about 2.2K worth of visual information before you hit the brickwall.

 

[William Moore]

Well, it looks pretty good to me on my professionally- calibrated 1080P 60" Pioneer Plasma TV and obviously the process photography suffers a little, but in my view, certainly not enough to detract from the overall presentation. You must not like this movie at all. Too bad!

 

[William Moore]

They re-authored the Blu-ray for the Anthology box in 2011 and at that time the new 4K remaster wasn't available. The only way you are going to see the 2018 remaster is with a 4K Blu-ray player, or else a 4K digital purchase.

I own an Oppo 203 player and I wonder if there is a way which would enable me to play the 4K version on my set, using a "down-conversion" mode maybe?

 

[Lord Dalek]

Yeah I hate this movie so much I've owned five different copies over the years.

 

[Colin Jacobson]

Yeah I hate this movie so much I've owned five different copies over the years.

You're clearly a masochist!

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

Here's Christopher Reeve saying it like it is on Letterman back in the day:

 

[Richard Kaufman]

Brando gave a great performance in Superman. He was never obligated to to do anything other than that when he was hired.

 

[Sam Favate]

Brando was great in the film, but notoriously difficult. He argued with Donner about not actually appearing in the movie and wanted his disembodied voice to come from a green bagel or from a suitcase. Donner was having none of it and said for the sum he was getting, he needed to appear physically.

A year later, Francis Ford Coppola would have an even more difficult time with Brando on location in the Philippines, filming Apocalypse Now. See the great doc Hearts of Darkness for more on that.

Brando’s difficult nature persisted to his last film, The Score, in 2003. It was directed by Frank Oz, whom Brando hated for some reason. He’d make DeNiro direct him on the set, and when Oz would offer some directions, Brando would turn to DeNiro and say “Tell Miss Piggy to shut the fuck up.”

 

[Worth]

Brando gave a great performance in Superman. He was never obligated to to do anything other than that when he was hired.

True, but I'd rather work with someone slightly less brilliant, who didn't behave like an ass.

 

[Winston T. Boogie]

Brando was great in the film, but notoriously difficult. He argued with Donner about not actually appearing in the movie and wanted his disembodied voice to come from a green bagel or from a suitcase. Donner was having none of it and said for the sum he was getting, he needed to appear physically.

A year later, Francis Ford Coppola would have an even more difficult time with Brando on location in the Philippines, filming Apocalypse Now. See the great doc Hearts of Darkness for more on that.

Brando’s difficult nature persisted to his last film, The Score, in 2003. It was directed by Frank Oz, whom Brando hated for some reason. He’d make DeNiro direct him on the set, and when Oz would offer some directions, Brando would turn to DeNiro and say “Tell Miss Piggy to shut the fuck up.”

There are a lot of Brando tales that expose the fact he was not easy to work with and in order to get a performance out of him you had to be willing to wrestle with him. If he saw that he could get away with something, well, I think you were kind of sunk. He would then go totally wild doing all sorts of nutty and silly stuff. He generally, I believe, liked his fellow actors but directors had to earn their way in and the path to get there was not always clear.

Many people say he gave up on acting some time in the 1960s. I think he gave amazing performances in Last Tango in Paris and The Godfather. After those pictures, well, he probably was mostly collecting paychecks. Still, as weird as his performance is in Apocalypse Now, I think it is a good one. I also really like his performance in The Missouri Breaks, as quirky as that can be at times. He is always very watchable and interesting. I went through his later performances a couple of years back or so just to see what he was doing and if he was good or phoning it in. Truth is, I don't think he was phoning it in often but he did screw around and this probably left actors like Reeves feeling like he really did not care.

 

[Winston T. Boogie]

I would bet money that the green bagel and suitcase stories were true as that is exactly the kind of stuff Brando would come up with. He would present ideas that he knew were silly and stupid to see if he could get away with doing them. Just to amuse himself. He was into head games and you had to have an ability and willingness to get into that with him to engage him. I think was bored with acting and this is what spiced up the process for him.

 

[Colin Jacobson]

True, but I'd rather work with someone slightly less brilliant, who didn't behave like an ass.

TBH, I don't think Brando was great in "Superman" or "Apocalypse Now".

Granted, I find it hard to objectively judge his performance in "Now" because I dislike the final 1/3 of the movie period. Even the greatest performance ever wouldn't save that segment for me.

But "Superman"? He's perfectly competent and that's about it, IMO. He rarely seems particularly invested in the role and he can seem detached - perhaps because it seems clear he just did it for the money.

He brought "prestige" to the project but they coulda found any number of other actors who woulda been as good or better as Jor-El.

 

[Colin Jacobson]

BTW, Wiki claims that they offered the title role to Paul Newman.

The-53-year-old Paul Newman.

That can't actually be true, can it?

 

[Walter Kittel]

BTW, Wiki claims that they offered the title role to Paul Newman.

The-53-year-old Paul Newman.

That can't actually be true, can it?

Would the Internet ever lie to you?

IMDB Trivia indicates that for the princely sum of four million dollars (in 1978 money) Paul Newman could have played Superman, Lex Luthor, or Jor-El; his choice. (Which seems kind of strange in and of itself.)

- Walter.

 

[Colin Jacobson]

Would the Internet ever lie to you?

IMDB Trivia indicates that for the princely sum of four million dollars (in 1978 money) Paul Newman could have played Superman, Lex Luthor, or Jor-El; his choice. (Which seems kind of strange in and of itself.)

Wiki cites the DVD commentary as the source of this. I've not listened to the commentary in so long - I don't remember.

Perhaps it's 100% true, but it sure would've been weird to get a clearly too old for the role Newman as Superman.

Jor-El would've been most logical for him. Luthor would've also been okay, though Newman didn't strike me as the "evil genius" sort.