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by Michael Flanagan
Superman II is not what
Superman II was supposed to be.
Nothing is going to change the movie,
it’s always going to be what you see
today, and it was never released in any
different format.
So, knowing that, feel free to keep
reading, but you may never watch Superman II
again.
Superman I & II
were filmed at the same time, by the same
crew, all directed by Richard Donner (The
Goonies, Lethal Weapon 1-4).
Donner had about 70% of part II
filmed when the production team of Alexander
and Ilya Salkind told him that he was
running out of money and time and he should
just finish part I.
So, Donner and Co.
quickly finished up Superman I, unsure
whether Superman II would ever happen.
So, instead of the original ending
for part I, they used the dramatic
conclusion of II: turning the earth
backwards to reverse time.
More about that later.
Superman I was finished
in time and released around Christmas, 1978.
It was a HUGE hit, breaking box
office records and staying at #1 for months.
So, what did the Salkinds do?
They fired Donner. They cited difficulty on the set, but most involved agreed
that Donner was not the problem.
Chaos ensued.
Christopher Reeve and Margot Kidder
publicly spoke against the Salkinds.
(Notice Lois’ small role in
Superman III?) Marlon Brando asked for more money than the Salkinds would
pay, and was cut from part II.
Gene Hackman, a friend of Donner’s,
quit the picture.
John Williams (composer) shortly
resigned. And Richard Lester took over directing duties to finish the
film.
Lester changed the
movie.
He cut scenes, changed the story, and
added much of the camp prevalent in part
III. Not
only did he cut Brando, but he re-filmed
several of Donner’s scenes. He used a body and voice double for a few unfilmed scenes
with Gene Hackman.
He recrafted the film into something
different than the original vision.
Here’s a
breakdown:
Superman To The
Rescue
The opening scene with
the three villains attacking the Kryptonian
was all Lester.
The first 8 minutes of the film are
excerpts from part I, with a hand-double for
Brando.
Donner’s beginnig involved Superman
saving a fox from hunters, then: Lois is
looking at the front page of the Daily
Planet, featuring a picture of Superman,
stern face, arms crossed over his chest.
She looks over at Clark, who is
talking to Jimmy.
Clark stands with a stern face and
his arms crossed over his chest. Lois pulls out a pen, draws on the paper, and we see that she
has drawn glasses and a hat on Superman.
She confronts Clark in his office,
and he, of course, denies it.
So, Lois jumps out the 25th
floor window.
In a flash, Clark runs faster than a
speeding bullet down the stairs, outside, he
pushes the fruit stand featured in part I
under Lois, and blows upward so she lands
safely on the fruit.
Clark does this and is back up in the
office before anyone notices he moved.
This scene was filmed by Donner and
cut.
The Villains--From
Evil to Silly
Instead of the stupid Eiffel Tower
scene, the villains were supposed to be
freed by the nuclear missile that Superman
pushed into space in part I.
Part I originally was going to end
with Superman saving the day and the rocket
freeing the villains—a cliffhanger ending.
Anyway, Lester altered the
villains’ dialogue.
They were supposed to be a lot more
evil. Donner’s
vision was not for the villains to attack
Smalltown, USA, as in that ridiculous
Sheriff ‘n Andy scene.
Donner wanted them to attack
something bigger and more important, which
makes a whole lotta sense.
The White House attack scene was
filmed by Donner, edited by Lester, and the
dialogue was changed.
The Lex Luthor escape
was Donner, as was the Fortress of Solitude.
Remember, any scene with Gene Hackman
was filmed by Donner.
At the Fortress of Solitude, no one
was supposed to talk to Superman’s mom!
Why would a Krypton elder start
teaching Kal-El, when everyone was against
Joe-El?
They had to make the elder appear to
cover Hackman’s line, “He’s not really
here.”
“He,” because they were
originally looking at the giant head of
Marlon Brando, just like in the first movie.
With Brando gone, Lester had to
refilm, and also cut costs, which is why we
get the cheesy giant crystal with the mom
inside.
Niagara Falls...and
so does that stupid kid
The boy falling from the waterfall
was Donner’s idea, but filmed by Lester.
The Lois going in the river scene was
all Lester, as a replacement for the fruit
stand scene. Lois discovering Clark’s identity was originally different.
Remember, in Lester’s, she asks
Clark to hand her a brush and he trips over
the bear rug, knocks his glasses into the
fire, reaches in to get them, and she sees
his hand is fine.
In Donner’s version, she puts it
together after Clark disappears when
Superman saves the boy. So, in the room, she pulls out a gun on Clark.
She pulls the trigger and Clark is
fine. He
stands and takes off his glasses.
He says, “You know if you had been
wrong you would’ve killed Clark Kent,”
to which she responds, “With what?
A blank?”
Powerless Plant
The Superman losing his
powers scene was a little different.
First, he was talking to Brando, not
mom. Second,
the chamber was a lot bigger, not that
oversized crystal.
Also, there was more of a love scene
between Clark and Lois.
The truck stop scene,
where Clark gets his butt kicked by a
trucker, was Donner’s.
In an interview, though, Lester
discussed how difficult that scene was to
film. Then
why was it Donner’s?
When Clark and Lois pull up in the
parking lot, a man walks across the front of
the diner. That man is Richard Donner.
The biggest loss to the
film is the restoration of Superman’s
powers.
In Donner’s version, Clark calls
for his father in the Fortress and finally
collapses.
Marlon Brando appears, not as a head,
but as a full body.
He gives this amazing Marlon Brando
speech, basically saying that he gives the
last of his life energy to his son, he
reaches down and takes Clark’s hand, and
disappears.
Kind of a Hand of God metaphor that
goes along with everything else Donner had
been doing. Once Jor-El is dead, Superman is reborn.
Donner himself has said this is a
truly great scene.
Seen Fights
The villains attacking
Metropolis is all Lester, with the exception
of the Daily Planet scenes with Gene
Hackman.
Watch the fight closely.
When the 3 villains blow the
Metropolitans down the street, the movie
almost changes into Superman III.
Wigs blow off, people try to stay on
the phone, and rich women get
insulted…pure comedy. Not Superman!
The final fight in The
Fortress of Solitude was a mix.
When you see Hackman’s face, it’s
Donner.
When you just hear his voice or see
his back, it’s Lester.
Ever wonder when Superman learned how
to throw is “S” and capture people in
it, or split himself into four images of
himself?
That would be when Lester said so.
Basically, the fight ends the same in
both versions.
Superman wins and beats up the bad
guys by taking away their powers.
The big difference is that Superman
destroys the Fortress of Solitude before
flying back to Metropolis.
Donner’s idea, Donner’s footage,
and all gone.
He'll Fly Away
To make Lois forget
about Clark being Superman, Supes flies
around the earth backwards and reverses
time. One
would assume had Donner continued, since he
used that ending for the first one, he’d
come up with something different for the
second.
At least something different than
that stupid kiss.
The scene when Superman returns the
flag to the White House is all Lester. Notice you never see the President’s face.
Because he quit, too.
Superman flying over
the earth and smiling at the camera is
Donner.
Actually, every Superman movie ends
that way, and it’s all Donner.
Each Superman ending is a different
take filmed by Donner for the first movie.
What Might Have Been
Yet Superman II was
released as it is, so-so.
Not bad, but not what it could have
been. And
Richard Donner wasn’t even given a
“special thanks” in the credits.
He’s been asked to revisit the
movie, make a “Richard Donner’s Superman
II” DVD, but he says no, he’s past it,
and he’d rather not revisit that time in
his life.
Also, they’d have to pay Marlon
Brando somewhere around $20 million just to
use his footage.
So, Superman II will always be
considered the best of Superman…sequels.
Final note: Before the Salkinds fired
Donner, he and Creative Consultant Tom
Mankewitz had planned to make more Superman
sequels. But, he went on to make The Goonies instead.
And we’re better for it.
If only Superman II were.
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