Blu-Ray Review: SUPERMAN THE MOVIE: Extended Cut - Too much of a good thing.

 

I was 13 years old when I saw SUPERMAN THE MOVIE for the first time. It was opening at a theatre roughly 15 minutes away from home, on the South Shore of Montreal. (I now live less than 2 minutes away from the same venue). I remember a long line outside, snaking its way into a room that was so overfull, people were sitting in the stairs leading down to the screen (this was most likely before those pesky fire department regulations). From the first notes of John Williams's powerful score, I was hooked for life. I now know every notes of that soundtrack, and every lines of that dialogue. Its reverential grasp of traditionally ridiculed pulpish source material was a breath of fresh air, and conferred a proper dramatic weight to a character that had been until then treated in a rather puerile way in plethora of movie serials, some gorgeous cartoons and a popular TV show. All of a sudden, it was treated with respect, starring beloved actors like Gene Hackman and Marlon Brando, music by the same dude who had made that stunning STAR WARS music, ground-breaking special effects and sumptuous cinematography by Geoffrey Unsworth.  Christopher Reeve, the then unknown actor who had beaten to the blue tights other stars like Robert Redford, Paul Newman, Charles Bronson, Burt Reynolds, and a long list of similarly absurd contenders, transcended the part in a dual role that is to this day considered by a vast majority THE  absolute incarnation of the Last Son of Krypton. The only weakness I could already see at the time, was a definitely cartoony depiction of the villains, right down to their own comedic musical theme. One would have thought that an actor like Gene Hackman would have brought more gravitas to the character of Lex Luthor, and bring a true sense of menace to Superman's arch-nemesis. But instead, it's as if it was decided that this is, after all, a comic book movie, and we should NOT take ourselves TOO seriously, offering to the viewer a constant wink and a nudge. Nevertheless, the film was, and still is, a terrifically entertaining piece of cinema, and has since become an unavoidable cornerstone of the genre. In the nearly 40 years that have followed, I have seen the film countless times, in many forms, its familiarity almost a therapeutic balm on the soul. 

Along with STAR WARS in 1977, this was a film that made me a movie lover. I started collecting trading cards as a kid. Not Baseball or Hockey cards, but movie cards. I had started with the many STAR WARS movies card sets, as well as TV shows like SPACE 1999. However, something strange struck me as I started looking through my SUPERMAN THE MOVIE trading cards collection. Some of them were showing unfamiliar images. They were not behind the scenes shots, or promotional photos of the characters. They seemed like they were taken from actual scenes from the movie. But these were no scenes I was aware of, and I had seen that film in the theatre a number of times.

''Military Police'' on Krypton?! Never saw that before!

A Trial by fire?!! That looks cool! Why wasn't that in the movie, I wondered.

What is this place? is it outside Luthor's lair? I would ask my brother who loved the film as well; do you remember this?

Is the icy peril something cooked up along the ''trial by fire''?   The mind boggles!

This was my first hint of something that would widely become known as ''deleted scenes'', so ubiquitous in these days of DVD and Blu-ray supplemental material. But in the 70s, this was far from being common place. It would take a couple of years for a movie to be first released in a ''Special Edition'' (Steven Spielberg was granted a re-release of his 1977 hit CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND   in 1980, under the condition he shows the interior of the Mother-ship. So intent was he to properly re-edit his film that he felt had been released in an incomplete form, he reluctantly agreed to do so.)

The mystery behind these cards lingered for years, until February of 1982, when SUPERMAN made its network premiere in a two nights event. Since the film's original theatrical duration of 143 minutes was too much for a regular Sunday night TV slot, and to split it in two would make it too short once spread over two evenings of viewing, it was decided to pad it with over 40 minutes of footage that had been, sometimes quite wisely, excised. This was reportedly producers Alexander and Ilya Salkin's decision, without the support of the studio or Donner, in an attempt to transform every extra minutes into additional revenue from the network sale.

Finally, I was able to see if those scenes captured on those trading cards would improve a movie I already loved passionately. And for the unsophisticated 17 year old that I was, they were just fine, and at times, genuinely exciting. 

Like many television events at the time (Like the infamous STAR WARS HOLIDAY SPECIAL), that version aired only once, never to be seen again. Its extra content only hinted only by the addition of deleted scenes as bonuses on recent releases of the film, or even included in the 151 minutes ''Special Edition'' approved by director Richard Donner. But never before has this 188 minutes version been allowed to grace our screens again.

Until now.

A complete inter-positive of the Extended Cut was found in a Warner vault, as a 19 reel long ''TV version''. It prompted the studio to make a 2K scan of the long lost cut, which was thought to exist previously only in a cropped pan and scan TV ratio. With extensive color correction and restoration, viewers can now watch the most complete version of SUPERMAN ever. But is it worth it?

That depends on just how much of a fan of the film you are. The added 45 minutes  (or 37 minutes, if you consider Donner's Special Edition released in 2011) does nothing to improve the pacing of the film, of course. As with any movie, this was one of the main reason these scenes were cut in the first place. As the Theatrical version of the film literally flies by (pun intended) at a fast clip, the extended version feels at times like it's crawling along, especially in scenes that are just padded with rejected shots that add nothing to the story at all. Such is the case of the drive back from the football practice by a group of teenagers. Having left Clark Kent stranded back at school, they are stunned to see Clark Kent back home so soon without having had the benefit of a car ride. That scene has been stuffed with so many unnecessary shots it's almost unbearably long. The editor in me was driven mad by the desire to bring the film back to my Avid editing station and chop away! A few more scenes are extended in this way, like the cops following Otis (Ned Beatty) to Luthor's lair for instance. Overall, though, we see mainly longer establishing shots, prolonged ending shots and extra bits of dialogue that had in most cases been very wisely deleted from the theatrical cut. 

There are also a lot of elongated scenes involving the villainous trio of Luthor, Otis and Miss Teschmacher (Valerie Perrine). Since this is the weakest part of the film, extending these scene only accentuate the often ridiculously dopey dialogues and silly situations between Superman's foils. Never are those extra moments adding anything worthy to the story. Particularly the pit inhabiting ravenous and unseen predators, right out of a 1940s serial.

Miss Teschmacher being lowered into the pit. A low point of the Extended Version.

In fact, most of the notably worthy additions had already been included in the 151 minutes long Special Edition approved by director Richard Donner, which is coincidentally included in this blu-ray set. Since he had not approved of this extended TV version, it seems only natural to include alongside his own preferred vision of the feature.

Here are the major scenes common to both versions present on this set. (You'll have to pardon the poor quality of the images, they are not meant in any way to reflect the actual quality of the blu-ray, but are there to serve only as reference).

- A longer Krypton sequence, including an extended view at its agonizing destruction.

-An extended scene of the little girl witnessing teenage Clark's race with the train, establishing her as being a young Lois Lane (with a fun cameo by the 1948 serial's  own Lois Lane and Superman, Noel Neill and Kirk Alyn)

- A second meeting between Superman and the ghostly image of Jor-El (Marlon Brando) where they discuss pride in a rather poignant scene.

-The famous scene that appeared on those trading cards all those years ago, as Superman goes through a gauntlet of bullets, fire and ice before reaching Luthor's lair.

-A subplot about American Indians being offered ridiculous amount of money for their lands by an unknown realtor (Who of course turns out to be Lex Luthor, as part of his maniacal plan to deface the West Coast.

These are, in essence, the only added scenes that matter. They flow well within the plot of the film and add extra information that are either fun or  are actually helpful to the plot or the characterization. If in fact, you decide that the particular ''Special Edition'' which includes these scenes is sufficient for you, just know that it was already included in the Superman Motion Picture Anthology released in 2011.

So who is this EXTENDED VERSION for exactly? It is for die-hard fans of the original film like me, who got very excited when news broke that particular edit of the film would be finally released officially. It is for those weirdos like me, who can never have too many versions of a film he loves. And it is for nostalgic geeks like me who still hold a fair amount of fond memories for that cold February weekend in 1982, when I was offered too much of a good thing, and I didn't care just one bit.  

• Format: Blu-ray
• Language: English
• Region: All Regions
• Number of discs: 2
• Rated: PG Parental Guidance Suggested
• Studio: Warner Bros.
• DVD Release Date: October 3, 2017
• Run Time: 339 minutes
• No Bonus material on the Extended Cut

• Bonus Material on the Special Edition is the same as  what was included in the 2011 Anthology:
• Audio Commentary
• Taking Flight: The Development of Superman (SD, 30 minutes)
• Making Superman: Filming the Legend (SD, 31 minutes)
• The Magic Behind the Cape (SD, 24 minutes)
• Original Screen Tests (SD, 22 minutes)
• Restored Scenes (SD, 11 minutes)
• Additional Scenes (SD, 3 minutes)
• Additional Music Cues (Audio Only, 36 minutes)
• Music-Only Track: