Man of Steel (1992), a Retrospective
From Swords and Spaceships Magazine, August 2012
So, well, another Superman reboot has risen and fallen in the theaters. And if one thing good can be said for the recent film it’s that it makes us recall the first time that the franchise was rebooted in 1992, 20 years ago this week.
Man of Steel was, like 1989’s
Batman before it, a darker take on what came before. But unlike the antiheroic Raimi take on Bats, the Ron Howard take on Sups still endeavored to make Sups heroic even as it upped the ante on the villains, making Lex Luthor a real tangible threat rather than a clown in a bad toupee.
So, let’s recall 1992. The Cold War was over, the recession was dragging on, George H. W. Bush was battling for his presidency, Disney was expanding into Europe, and the neon ‘80s were fading into the darkness of the Goth-touched ‘90s. But this transformation was incomplete in 1991 when the movie was in production, and thus even the “darker” film takes were light and fluffy compared to today’s stuff. Sam Raimi’s
Batman was a far cry from the campy Adam West series, but not the twisted neo-noir of the latest round. And Ron Howard’s
Man of Steel was, like all Howard productions and despite the Raimi-penned screenplay, at its heart sentimental and optimistic.
It’s worth recalling that Superman had not been on the big screen since 1983 at this point. The attempted
Superman IV, which reportedly would have seen Sups battle nuclear war (that sounds cool! Too bad we never saw it!), was strangled in the cradle by WB the nanosecond they bought the rights back from the Salkinds. WB largely sat on it until ‘89’s
Batman proved a hit, when they immediately greenlit a reboot. Raimi, a comics fan, insinuated himself and his go-to production partner Robert Tapert into the production, ultimately leveraging the success of
Batman to get permission to write a new script. And what he wrote is largely what we got in the finished product. But, of course, he was finishing production on
Batman: The Dark Knight in 1991 and slated to direct
Batman: The Killing Joke in 1992 for release in ‘93, so instead, after much searching, they dug up Ron Howard.
“I’d loved what he did with
Willow,” said Tapert. “There was a real feel of adventure there, and it didn’t shy away from dark subjects like death and prejudice, but it also had real heart.”
Raimi agreed, but was blunter: “It kicked ass and it was sweet, but didn’t rot my teeth out.”
2010s Robert Downey, Jr., imagined as Superman (Image by “ishtarman” on “deviantart.com”) and for reference, RDJ in 1992 (Image source “vogue.it”)
Howard immediately took the somewhat darker script and ran with it. He cast Robert Downey, Jr., as Sups, which proved controversial at the time, as RDJ was young and best known at the time for playing John Hughes characters, usually bullies, and a drugged out male prostitute in 1987’s
Less than Zero by batshit Director David Lynch. Meanwhile, British character actor Patrick Stewart was brought on as Lex Luthor, Mia Sara brought on as Lois Lane, and Hughes-alum Anthony Michael Hall as Jimmy Olsen. Raimi’s original plan had been for Braniac to be the villain rather than Lex Luthor[1], but the studio execs pushed him to go with the classic nemesis.
The film begins in media res, starting with an exciting helicopter pan across the city of Metropolis (New York and Montreal served as a stand-in). While they controversially ditched the continuity of the earlier films entirely, they kept the iconic John Williams theme, properly updated, because they’re not evil. We’re then taken to Clark Kent walking meekly down the street, getting jostled by passers-by like he was nobody. Almost immediately we see a put-upon vulnerability that pretty much instantly won over the haters to RDJ as Sups. Suddenly there’s a scream, and Kent runs to a phone booth, but it’s one of those little on-the-wall jobs, so he instead runs into an alley and emerges as Superman. Sups flies to the scene of a bank robbery being committed by the nefarious Sarto Family Gang. Sups easily overwhelms the gangsters, attempting in a rather offhanded, quippy way to talk them into just surrendering.
SUPERMAN: Consider this option: you put down the firearm, and we can talk through this.
JUNIOR SARTO: Consider this: you eat lead and die, fancy boy!
JUNIOR unloads his assault rifle at SUPERMAN. The bullets simply bounce off of SUPERMAN’S chest and face as he walks up. One of the ricochets shatters a nice vase. SUPERMAN grabs the gun from JUNIOR’S hands and twists it into a ring.
SUPERMAN: You really should be more careful, you know. You could have hurt someone. (looks at the shattered vase, then at JUNIOR) And that was a perfectly nice vase, too. It really brought out the colors in the rug.
Ultimately, the criminals, including Junior Sarto (Michael Imperioli, just off of his small role in
Wiseguys), son of the infamous gangster Blackie Sarto, are defeated and Sups delivers them to the Metropolis Police. Lois Lane is there to interview him, our bumbling comic relief Jimmy Olsen with her as the camera man. There’s some flirting that’s obvious enough to make Jimmy roll his eyes and sigh. Superman then flies off, disappearing onto the roof of a building. Clark Kent walks out of the front door.
Clark then goes to work at the Daily Planet news network, where he is admonished for being late by editor in chief Perry White (Kevin Costner cameo). We learn some things in the background, like the fact that Lois Lane is a bit of a celebrity star reporter and that Lex Luthor is a widely loved philanthropist who promises to make Metropolis “the city of the future”, with many suspecting that he was specifically designed to be a slam at Walt Disney, though Howard vehemently denies this. We get a few scenes of Clark struggling to make a career at the Planet where we’re reintroduced to hot-shot crime reporter Lois Lane and her goofy photographer Jimmy Olsen (who has an obvious crush on her, but she’s as oblivious to his affections as she is to Clark). We learn that Clark is a “fluff” reporter, doing pieces on puppy parades and the fall fashion lineup. Lane patronizingly tries to encourage him to be more assertive if he ever wants to get out of Section D and onto the front page, but he demurs about being “not really into excitement.”
We’re also introduced to hot-shot technology reporter John Corben (Val Kilmer), who shamelessly flirts with Lois while easily fixing Jimmy’s broken camera and is presented as a romantic rival to Clark. Lane playfully pokes at him about his “green rocks from space” story, but Corben exposits that “those green rocks represent a natural source of real power!” And the audience goes “gee, I wonder what
those could be?”
Suddenly the newsroom is thrown into chaos, because Junior Sarto has just been released without bail thanks to a shady lawyer. Lois and Jimmy go to investigate, with Lane sure that this is “the biggest story of the year.” Lois soon discovers through researching bank records that the lawyer has connections to Lex Luthor’s Chief Financial Officer Borden Moseley (Colin Friels), and calls Clark on her giant 1991 cell phone and tells him.
CORBEN: (smirking cockily) Hey, Clark! What are you doing here? Is Lex Luthor launching a pony fashion line?
KENT: Hi, um, John. I’m here about the new prosthetics foundation and I must say…
CORBEN: (cutting him off) Yea, impressive stuff, eh? (inspects a prosthetic arm) I’ll let you know if they make any in girl’s sizes. Until then, think you get me a coffee? (winks and smirks)
Clark, meanwhile, has been sent to report on the opening of the new Luthor Rehabilitation Center, where he interacts with Lex, Mayor Frank Berkowitz (Morgan Freeman, which
definitely pissed off a “certain segment” of the fandom), and the obnoxious Vice Mayor Alex Evell (Raimi’s old friend Bruce Campbell). Clark runs into Corben there, who it turns out is there reporting on the new cybernetic prosthetics technology being developed by Luthor Industries. Corben “playfully” dominates and belittles Clark, who smiles and takes it. Corben then walks up to Lex and asks if he’s hiring.
Meanwhile Mayor Berkowitz asks Clark why he puts up with such bullying at his age. Here we’re treated to a short flashback sequence of young Clark getting bullied by a neighbor kid, whom he pushes across the field, and then getting chastised by his adoptive father Jon (Christopher Reeve in a stunt cast) and mother Martha (Margot Kidder, completing the stunt cast), who admonish him that with his incredible power he must learn to control himself “and always be the better man.”
As night falls, Superman and Lois now separately investigate Lex. Lois is on the wharf with Jimmy photographing Blackie Sarto (Paul Sorvino) and his gang. They get discovered, and Jimmy gets his camera smashed while a shady gangster (Ted Raimi) threatens them with a knife in a nod to
Chinatown. Superman, meanwhile, goes to investigate the new Luthor Rehab Center, having become suspicious when visiting it. He hovers outside the building and uses his X-ray vision and super hearing to spy on Lex and discovers that Corben has taken a side job with Lex, building new prosthetics. Corben announces that he needs “a better power source” and thinks that he knows where he can find one.
LUTHOR: Behold! The Metropolis of the future! Skyscrapers a mile high! The finest infrastructure, transportation, and support structures! The newest in entertainment technologies!
EVELL: (pocketing a large wad of cash) Yea, a real experimental city of tomorrow. Look, Lexy, Mayor Berkowitz and the Council will never agree to that. You’d need to demolish half the city. You’d leave millions homeless!
LUTHOR: Yes. Millions of desperate lost souls in need of a savior. They’ll fall on their knees in thanks when I give them rooms in the towers. And once the people of Metropolis are in my debt they’ll be forever in my power. And as to Berkowitz and the Council, well, accidents happen, am I right Mayor Evell?
EVELL: (laughs and toasts with his drink) We’ll rule this city like kings!
Sups then follows Lex to a meeting with Vice Mayor Evell, who is working with Lex and taking direct bribes from Moseley. Lex reveals his plans for “the New Metropolis”, a futuristic city of skyscrapers all owned by him, and a plot that will see this new city ruled by him and Evell. Evell laughs and toasts a drink. Lex then receives a phone call and agitatedly tells them to “take care of it; search her apartment!”
As Evell leaves, Sups enters the building and confronts Lex, who plays coy while nodding slightly to Moseley, who leaves the room. Lex tells Sups that he can take him in, but his legal team will just let him back out, noting that his “popularity with the masses” would make Sups into the villain. “Besides, aren’t there more important things for you to be doing?”
Suddenly there’s an explosion on the skyline, and Sups runs to the window to see a flaming bridge in the distance. He flies to the rescue, leaving Lex alone, and saves the dangling cars from the collapsing bridge in one of the exciting scenes that made the trailer. The cars, the obligatory school bus full of kids, and all passengers are saved, but Sups discovers that the bridge supports were blown up by a carefully placed bomb.
Lois and Jimmy, meanwhile, return to the city, discouraged and scared, though Jimmy tries to let her know that he’s “with her all the way”. Lois gets back to her apartment and finds that it’s been raided, her documents shredded and burned, her computer smashed, and her film stores destroyed. She returns to work in time to be fired over accusations of trespassing and harassment by Luthor Corp., who apparently own the wharf. John Cordon is there to bear false witness against her.
Meanwhile, Sups heads out to try and clear Lois’s name and reveal Lex’s crimes. Lane and Jimmy, both without a job, set out to do likewise. However, every time Superman starts to get close to something, a major issue like a hostage situation or police standoff keeps demanding his immediate attention, always committed by someone clearly in Blackie’s gang. Sups realizes that he will never be able to get to Lex until he dismantles Blackie’s gang, which is perpetrating all of the distracting crimes, so he sets out to do so. We’re shown a montage of Sups capturing various crooks layered with flashbacks where the Kents find and raise baby Kal’El and teach him the responsibility of his power to help others.
While the GANGSTER moans in pain in the background amid the wreckage of the cyber-suit, CORDON takes the green rock and places it into a high-tech rifle. In the background LOIS LANE and JIMMY OLSEN watch.
LUTHOR: From space, you say?
CORBEN: Yes, a meteorite from deep space. Crashed in Kansas in the mid ‘60s. And just watch the power it contains.
CORBEN fires the rifle. A red laser burns a hole through the target and several walls behind it. Someone in a far room screams in terror.
LUTHOR: Impressive, Mr. Cordon. Oh, and while we’re at it, have security remove our visitors. (gestures towards where LOIS and JIMMY are hiding)
CORBEN hits a secret button and THREE SECURITY GUARDS run in and grab LOIS and JIMMY.
LANE: I’m warning you, Lex, I’m good friends with Superman!
LUTHOR: (smiling arrogantly) I know. I saw the interview.
Lois and Jimmy, meanwhile, break in to the Rehab center where they see John Corben working on a robotic power suit powered by a glowing green rock intended to let Lex defeat Superman, but the prototype fails spectacularly and painfully for its test wearer (the gangster played by Ted Raimi). Corben demonstrates the power of the rock using a laser and Lex is impressed and takes the laser rifle. Lois and Jimmy are discovered and captured and the security guards take her and Jimmy away.
Sups by this point has wrapped up the last of the Blackie Gang and flies to the Rehab facility, where Lex is waiting, with Lois and Jimmy as hostages. Supes and Lex exchange brief quips, but as Sups goes to grab Lex, Lex pulls out the laser rifle and shoots him, driving him back. Sups, now glowing in the red laser light, starts to push back against it in a nod to the old Fleisher animated shorts and uses his heat vision to destroy the rifle and a section of wall behind him and window beside him, and causing the green rock to fall on the floor.
SUPERMAN: You know, Lex, we really should talk about your life’s choices. Have we considered counselling?
For the first time LUTHOR’S arrogant smirk vanishes as a triumphant SUPERMAN approaches him…but then as SUPERMAN gets near the green rock, now obviously kryptonite, he starts to wince in pain.
LUTHOR: (grabs kryptonite) Ah, you don’t like this stuff, do you?
LUTHOR advances holding the green rock as SUPERMAN, clearly in pain, retreats.
LUTHOR: The mighty Superman has a weakness after all.
Lex notices that the rock causes Sups pain and picks up what even the densest audience member knows by this point to be kryptonite and advances on Superman. Lex now grabs a steel pipe from the destroyed section of wall and walks up to Sups, kryptonite in one hand, pipe in the other, and begins brutally beating the disempowered Sups with the pipe. Meanwhile, as Jimmy panics, Lois manages to slip out of her constraints and unties Jimmy. Just as Lex gleefully continues to beat Sups, Jimmy walks up, challenges him, and punches him in the jaw as hard as he can. Lex is unaffected and starts to smile. Jimmy shrieks and runs. Lois picks up a chunk of concrete. Lex sneers at her and advances threateningly.
LUTHOR: I guess you want to play ball too, foolish girl?
LOIS LANE winds up and throws the concrete chunk like a softball, knocking the kryptonite from his hand. The kryptonite bounces over towards the shattered floor-to-ceiling window.
LANE: All state softball champion.
Lex and Lois run for the kryptonite, but Lois gets there first and kicks the kryptonite out the window. An enraged Lex insults her and swings the pipe at her head, but a hand catches it.
With the kryptonite gone Sups is back up to full power. He quickly and easily overwhelms Lex and ties him up by bending the section of pipe around him. He and Lois share a moment, she leaves with a folder full of evidence of Lex’s corruption, and he flies off with Lex as the theme plays.
LANE: (smiles nervously as SUPERMAN walks up to her, intimately close) So, I, um, guess that makes us even?
SUPERMAN: Lois, you’ll always be my hero.
Back at the Daily Planet Lois is being interviewed about her “exciting adventure” at the Rehab facility. There are journalists talking and headlines detailing the level of corruption exposed in a raid of the facility and we witness footage of Lex Luthor going to prison. Clark smiles at his story on a local tree planting and meekly congratulates Lois, who thanks him and gives him a “best friend” kiss on the cheek, as the whole film reaches resolution.
And now Superman’s name is on everyone’s lips as he flies across the city and even up into space in a triumphant shot.
(Image source “quaora.com”)
And just before the credits roll, we return to the taped off crime scene of the Rehab facility. The camera pans through the grime and rubble to a pulsating green glow. A hand reaches down from the shadows and picks it up, the smiling face of John Corben glowing in the emerald light.
Man of Steel was a blockbuster hit, the number three highest grossing film of the year. Those who doubted that RDJ had the chops to play Sups were quickly won over by an actor clearly at the peak of his game. The very next year he won Best Actor for his portrayal of Charlie Chaplin and the year after that returned for the first Superman sequel. Patrick Stewart, who need we forget has played Macbeth, also won over audiences as Lex Luthor, giving him just the right combination of sophistication and sinister intent. Ron Howard’s honesty and warmth as a director brought out the hopeful and inspiring message of Superman even as RDJ gave him a little more of an edge than did Christopher Reeve. The central themes of power vs. responsibility resonated well in Raimi’s script (Raimi later joked that it was “his Spider-Man movie” based on this theme, which was prominent in the Marvel character).
While my older cousins will always call Reeves “their” Superman, RDJ is mine, and I have a real hard time accepting anyone else in the role. For me this original Raimi-produced film, as directed by Howard, is, along with its companion
Batman, DC superhero films at their finest. It balanced the camp and naturalism well.
Let’s hope that the next time Sups returns to the big screen the producers will think more about Raimi and Howard and less about, well, what we got recently.
So, until then, Excelsior!
And yes, I know that’s Marvel. Shut up.
[1] Sorry,
@Pyro, but Studios will be Studios! Braniac will have to appear later.
en.wikipedia.org
