I just screened it, not having watched it in many years. Some random impressions:
Margot Kidder- who the HELL thought she was appropriate for Lois Lane ? I never caught the Lois Lane from the t.v. series in the early sequence with young Clark racing the train outside of Smallville. She’s the Mom talking to the little boy who says he just saw a kid outracing the train.
Cliff Claven from Cheers ( John Ratzenberger ) has a tiny part in the Missile Command Center- he gets to spout off a series of nonsensical numbers and letters pertaining to the sabotaged rocket- quick, but funny.
The DVD had a few scenes I do not remembe from the film. Notable are scenes with Brando, where Superman goes back after making his “debut” appearance in Metropolis when he saves Lois. He basically goes back to out himself to Dad as having outed himself to the planet Earth. It’s a good scene, it provides us with a hint of real humility and " I’m your Son, I did as you told me not to because I thought it was the right thing to do, and now … what should I do ? ". I liked the scene, it gave us more texture regarding how he felt. Wonder why it was cut.
They hired the right guy for the job. Reeves was a skinny young actor who was (literally) built up into the role. He brought a fresh open honest look to the role. I cannot imagine who else could have pulled it off in 1979 with equal results.
Not the perfect movie, but I’m glad I viewed it. It sits VERY well as a double-feature with "Superman Returns ", which I wish I had in the house right now.
I have Superman Returns in my house right now, which doesn’t come out till Tuesday. (The single perk of working in a video store.) The 1979 is 1,979 times better. Kidder had a pulpy background (DePalma’s Sisters, anyone?) which gave her Lois Lane a subliminal edge of dirty. Reeve, who otherwise couldn’t act his way out of a wet paperbag with a chainsaw grafted onto his arm, gave one of the screen’s great performances in Superman. He was more born to play that role than Shelley Duvall was to play Olive Oyl.
Well, actually Noel Neill, with Kirk Alyn, played the parents of Lois Lane, the little girl who looked out the window and saw someone outrunning the train.
And the movie premiered in December, 1978.
And I liked Margot Kidder in the role. She’s certainly more memorable than what’s-her-name.
Gack !!! You’re right, it was Lois’ parents. My bad. ( yeah, and I just watched it. Jeez ).
I never said he was a great actor. I just said he was perfect in this role. I found him to be nauseating in Somewhere In Time.
Lissener, you’re a lucky gal. I gotta go rent that video when it comes out to the general public.
I agree that Margot Kidder came off as slighty dirty or tawdry- but that’s not what I wanted out of Lois Lane, when I was in the 11th grade !!! Yes, it was 1978- after Mid-Terms were over one morning, we all took the train down to Center City in Philly and saw the film the day it opened in a big-assed older theatre. God. What a treat.
I wanted Lois Lane to be strong and gorgeous, brilliant and sublimely sexy. I wanted her to be the kind of woman I would be happy to lose to at Boggle before a night of complicated and ritualistically gratifying intimacy. What did I see in Margot Kidder? Zero sex appeal, and she played Lois like an illiterate feeb. The running joke is that Lois Lane cannot even spell. ( " There’s only one “p” in ‘rapist’, Lois. " ) Please. It was a demeaning way to play the role. Well, the role was written in a demeaning manner, I don’t mean to say that Ms. Kidder wrote her lines or directed herself. Then again, she is smart, she shoulda made them make Lois Lane literate.
You know who could have pulled that role off with a billion times more intellectual and visual appeal? Jacklyn Smith from Charlie’s Angels. That’s who. So there.
Inb their defense I do think it is a running gag in the DC universie that Lois is always asking people around the office to spell things for her. THough, it could just be a post crisis recon inspisred by the moive. SO what do I know.
Margot Kidder made a GREAT Lois Lane! No, she didn’t bring much sex appeal to the role, but she nailed the whole damn-the-torpedoes, I’ll-try-anything thrillseeker aspect _ and that’s the most important part.
What’s-her-name in Superman Returns came across as a doormat. She was far too passive. But Margot Kidder had guts to spare. I can completely see mild Clark Kent falling in love with her spirit and invulnerable Superman being charmed by her determination.
Margot Kidder was the second-best thing about the original movie. (Reeves was first.)
Exactly. That’s what the role of Lois called for, and that’s what Margot Kidder delivered. Indeed, that’s what Noel Neill brought to the TV series role of Lois: gutsiness in chasing the story, and a determination to prove she can do anything as well as (or better) than Clark could. Kidder must have followed Neill’s model, and as one who watched the Superman show religiously after school in the 60s, I was pleased to see Lois portrayed this way. True, not much sex appeal, but Kidder’s Lois was exactly the Lois I wanted to see.
The scene that always sticks out in my mind is when he first appears in the Superman suit standing far in the background in the Fortress of Solitude. Then he starts to fly towards the camera and at the very last second, veers off to the right. I watch it on dvd now and it’s still impressive. And there was no CGI involved. Just good ol’ wires and Reeves’ experience in hang gliding.
The tagline was “You’ll believe a man can fly”. After that scene, I sure did.
The scene on the train, where a young Lois Lane’s mother (played by Noel Neill, one of two actresses to play LL on the TV series [the other being the more hard-boiled Phyllis Coates]) chides little Lois by name for claiming she saw someone outrun the train, was indeed in the 1978 movie: I seen it myself.
What did I see in Margot Kidder? Zero sex appeal, and she played Lois like an illiterate feeb. The running joke is that Lois Lane cannot even spell. ( " There’s only one “p” in ‘rapist’, Lois. " ) Please. It was a demeaning way to play the role. Well, the role was written in a demeaning manner, I don’t mean to say that Ms. Kidder wrote her lines or directed herself. Then again, she is smart, she shoulda made them make Lois Lane literate.