What better way to start a season of films based on comic books than with Richard Donner’s Superman? This is the yardstick by which all subsequent superhero movies have been measured (and usually found wanting), it’s also the one that provided the blueprint for doing it right -
- Take the subject seriously but not too seriously.
- Pepper the film with respected thespians.
- Stick closely to the source material (there’s a reason these characters have been around for decades).
Of course you can stick to those rules and still turn out a dub if you don’t have the secret ingredient that’ll make it all work. Superman’s secret ingredient is Christopher Reeve. In a film that features Marlon Brando, Trevor Howard, Glen Ford and Gene Hackman, it’s Reeve, an unknown at the time, who makes the biggest impression (particularly as Clark). The effects, which seemed so amazing when I first saw the film at the cinema aged 13, now seem dated but that just serves to focus the attention more on the performances.
It’s not perfect, the teenage Clark Kent section goes on a bit too long and we don’t see Sups until an hour into the film. I could also happily do without the “Can you read my mind” flying scene with Lois Lane, and while we’re on the subject of Lane, I’ve never seen what the attraction would be for Clark. Margot Kidder’s Lois is rude, arrogant and, lets be honest, not much of a looker. That Reeve makes us believe in this bizarre attraction, most memorably in the poignant finale, just emphasises how impressive he is.
The French seem to have a thing for loose remakes of John Carpenter films; Florent Emilio Siri made The Nest (2002) that had much in common with Assault on Precinct 13, and District B13 is a French take on Carpenter’s Escape from New York. What sets these films apart from Hollywood-style remakes is that they only take the basic idea and use it as a springboard to create a new and exciting story.