Superman III

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Superman III is a 1983 movie that was the third of five movies based upon the long-running DC Comics superhero produced in the late 1970s-early 1980s.

The cast includes: Christopher Reeve as Superman/Clark Kent; Richard Pryor as Gus Gorman; Jackie Cooper as Perry White; Marc McClure as Jimmy Olsen; Annette O'Toole as Lana Lang; Annie Ross as Vera Webster; Pamela Stephenson as Lorelei Ambrosia; Robert Vaughn as Ross Webster; Margot Kidder as Lois Lane.

The film was the last Reeve/Superman film produced by Alexander Salkind and Ilya Salkind. It was followed by Supergirl in 1984 and the non-Salkind sequel in 1987. It was effectively retconned out of existence (along with Superman IV) by 2006's Superman Returns.

The film was significantly less successful than the first two Superman movies, both financially and critically. Many viewers complained that there was too much emphasis on comedy, the villains were too weak, and that Christopher Reeve essentially played second fiddle to Richard Pryor. In its favor, Superman III is praised for the performance of Reeve, playing a corrupted version of the Man of Steel, and a spectacular junkyard battle between this newly darkened Superman and Clark Kent.

Taglines:

• The world's super hero in his toughest adventure yet!
• Superman vs. the king of computerized crime!

Plot

In this third installment, Superman is turned evil by a mastermind's (Vaughn) flunky, a computer genius named Gus Gorman (Pryor). Gorman somehow finds Superman's weakness, Kryptonite, and attempts to synthesize it. Instead, the synthetic Kryptonite behaves like "Red Kryptonite" from the comics (despite being green): turning Superman evil and eventually splitting him into two people.

Ross Webster (Vaughn) orders the creation of synthetic Kryptonite after remembering a Daily Planet story about the last original chunk disappearing years earlier after falling to Earth (whether Webster references the Kryptonite robbery in is unclear.) Developed by Gus Gorman, it was intended to be a copy of Green Kryptonite. After scanning the coordinates of Krypton's former location via satellite, results return a small percentage of an unknown component. The substitution of tar (which Gorman used after glancing at a cigarette carton) for a crucial, but unknown, component resulted in the synthetic kryptonite behaving like Red Kryptonite andBlack Kryptonite; in this case, the Kryptonite turned Superman evil and eventually split him into two people. The evil Superman and Clark Kent, the embodiment of Superman's remaining good qualities, then engage in an epic battle at a deserted junkyard, where Clark emerges victorious and the evil Superman fades from sight. Later in the film, Gorman's creation, the Ultimate Computer, severely weakens Superman with a Kryptonite ray before Gorman has a change of heart and attacks his own machine.

Also in this film, Clark Kent reunites with Lana Lang (O'Toole), an old childhood friend. Lana is now a divorcee with a son named Ricky (Paul Kaethler). Lana's former boyfriend Brad (Gavan O'Herlihy), a former jock and Clark's childhood bully, is now a security guard and is still vying for her attention.

Box Office

The total domestic box office gross for Superman III was $59,950,623[IMDb.com > Business]. It was considered a major financial disappointment since the first two movies each grossed over $100 million. Besides a considerably poor feedback from the audience themselves, what also likely hurt the the box office performance was the fact that Superman III was released during the same summer as the Star Wars film and the James Bond film Octopussy. Another problem may have been that the trailer seemed to spoil much of the movie itself.[Why was it such a flop at the box office?] To put things in perspective, Richard Pryor's character, Gus Gorman, was perceived by many going in to essentially be the comic relief/henchman (while the main villain was Robert Vaughn's character), who tried to use his computer skills to kill Superman. In return, there was meant to be a sense of uncertainty towards whether Pryor was going to succeed or not. Yet at the end of the trailer, Pryor's character was shown shaking hands with Superman. So by the end of the trailer (and subsequently movie itself), the audience realized and/or sensed that Gus Gorman had reformed (thus hampering the element of surprise in the process).

See also

• [Superman III Original Theatrical Trailer - YouTube]
• [Trailers for Superman III - IMDb.com]

Critical reaction

A frequent criticism of Superman III is the inclusion of comedian Richard Pryor, who wound up getting the second biggest role in the movie behind Christopher Reeve. Many suspected that Pryor (who was riding off of the heels of smash hits like Stir Crazy and The Toy) helped himself into getting into Superman III after appearing on The Tonight Show and telling Johnny Carson about how much he enjoyed watching Superman II. Audiences also saw Robert Vaughn's villainous Ross Webster as an uninspired fill-in for the Lex Luthor of Gene Hackman , who sat out Superman III due to his problems with the Salkinds. Hackman along with Margot Kidder (Lois Lane) were upset with the way the Salkinds treated ' director Richard Donner, and Hackman retaliated by refusing to reprise the role of Lex Luthor entirely (though he would later be persuaded to come back for ' in 1987 with which the Salkinds had no connection). The Salkinds retaliated against Kidder by severely reducing her role in Superman III.

Fans also placed most of the blame on director Richard Lester, who unlike with Superman II (when he was brought in by the Salkinds after they fired Richard Donner midway through the production), made Superman III from start to finish. Lester broke tradition by having Superman III opening up with a prolonged slapstick sequence (often compared with silent comedy) with difficult-to-read titles over it (the first two movies opened up in outerspace with big and bold credits). Fans believed that Lester, unlike Donner, had virtually little if any knowledge or more importantly respect for the Superman legacy and legend. In fact, Richard Donner was supposedly fired because he wouldn't follow the Salkinds' vision of Superman being campy (a la the Batman television series starring Adam West). Superman III is commonly seen as more or less a goofy (albeit uneven) farce than a grandiose adventure picture like the first two movies. Another problem is the screenplay, written by David and Leslie Newman. When Richard Donner was hired to direct the first two films he found the Newman scripts so distasteful that he hired Tom Mankiewicz for heavy rewrites. Since Donnor and Mankiewicz were no longer attached to the franchise, the Salkinds were finally able to put their "vision" of Superman to the screen.

Film critic Leonard Maltin said of Superman III that it was an "appalling sequel that trashed everything that Superman was about for the sake of cheap laughs and a co-starring role for Richard Pryor." Fans generally agree though that the only redeeming and sincere moments in Superman III were the scenes involving Clark Kent and his childhood sweetheart Lana Lang (Annette O'Toole), who for all intents and purposes, replaced Lois Lane as the love interest in this movie, and the climactic junkyard fight between Clark Kent and the "Evil Superman." Despite Christopher Reeve's best efforts to portray an intense and violently unstable Man of Steel, "Evil Superman's" acts of assorted mischief (staying near Lana in a suggestive manner and arriving late at a rescue, straightening the Leaning Tower of Pisa, blowing out the Olympic torch, getting drunk and flicking peanuts) gave the movie an even more camp touch though it has failed to become better received in the same way the Adam West Batman film is looked on favorably.

Trivia

• The original title of the film was Superman Versus Superman.

• In the opening sequence, the location used for downtown Metropolis is Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Scenes in Smallville were shot in High River, Alberta, hometown of former Prime Minister Joe Clark.

• 20 years after playing Lana Lang in Superman III, Annette O'Toole went on to play Martha Kent (Superman's adoptive mother) on the television series Smallville.

• Gene Hackman was so outraged over the way the Salkinds had treated director Richard Donner that he vehemently refused to reprise the role of Lex Luthor for the third film (though he would later be persuaded to reprise the part for the fourth film to which the Salkinds had no connection).

• The video game "played" by Ross Webster was created for the film and originally looked very life-like, so much so that the creators were asked to make it look more computer-like, so that the fact that it was actually a game would be more obvious to the audience. It was one of the first "games" to use "2.5D" parallax scrolling. Some sound effects used in the video game scene were lifted from the Atari 2600 version of Pac-Man.

• In the first draft Ross Webster was going to be Lex Luthor, Gus Gorman was going to be Brainiac in secret so he could get the super computer to get all knowledge, and "Evil Superman" had a bigger part.

• The program Gus creates in the beginning that is supposedly impossible is just a series of PRINT statements when Gus lists it.

• Following the use of Lex Luthor in the previous two films, some consideration was given to using Brainiac in the third installment. Still, this idea of using a super-computer was kept.

• The scenes in which Superman straightens the Leaning Tower of Pisa and then leans it back in the end were originally planned to be shot for Superman II, as it was in Richard Donner's original script for the first sequel. The closing shots of Superman in space were lifted from ' and also reused in Superman II and '.

• Enid Saunders plays a character named "Minnie Bannister", seen in one of the Smallville sequences. This is a very obscure in-joke on the part of director Richard Lester, who has had a long association with the cast members of the BBC radio show The Goon Show, where Minnie Bannister, voiced by Spike Milligan, was one of the recurring characters.

• The technique Gus uses to steal money from his company, where he collects very little money (in this case decimals of a cent) from other accounts and aggregates them in his personal account, is called "salami slicing" in computer crime terminology; compare the film Office Space, which explicitly references Superman III, and .

• When the villains are preparing to visit the site of the super-computer, Ross, Vera, and Lorelei use helicopter-like devices to float to the canyon floor. Gus prefers to ride his burro, stating, "I don't believe a man can fly!" - a reference to the tagline of the first movie in the series, "You'll believe a man can fly!"

• The scene where Superman creates a diamond by squeezing a piece of coal in his hand is a reference to some earlier Superman stories from the comic books where he performed the same action. It was later performed in the Smallville episode Reckoning, most likely a reference back to Superman III.

• According to the writers, the original choice to play Ross Webster was Alan Alda. They wanted an actor who could be ruthless without losing any charm.

• When it was first revealed to producers that Lana Lang would be a single mother, a comic book was quickly written explaining how Lana came to be in that situation.

• Although this sequel was released three years after Superman II (1980), it had actually been four years since Christopher Reeve filmed the role - his work on the second movie was completed in 1979.

• The 'little boy' who appears waiting by the photo-booth while 'Clark Kent' changes into 'Superman - during the introduction of the film - was actually the same little boy who played 'baby' Kal-El (Superman) in (Aaron Smolinski).

• It took approximately a month to film the junkyard fight between the evil Superman and the good Clark Kent, with Christopher Reeve and a stunt double alternating between the roles of the evil Superman and good Clark Kent.

• Although they're all completely unrelated, the "Evil Superman's" color scheme on his costume is very similar to the palette utilized for Superman's suit in the Max Fleischer Superman cartoons and in Superman Returns. This particular color scheme is also similar to the post-Crisis Bizarro costume.

Extra footage

Superman III was released on June 17, 1983 with a running time of 123 minutes in the United States and 117 minutes in the United Kingdom. The extended cut was first shown on ABC in 1985 with an extra 20 minutes of added footage (thus, making the running time 143 minutes). Just like with the previous two Superman movies, the television edition of Superman III was produced by Alexander Salkind's company. This version continues to be shown today in America as part of the Superman syndication package which also features Supergirl and . In the United Kingdom, the extended version has been shown about two or three times in the late 1980s.

Broadcast television version

• The credits on the broadcast version are in space (similar to and Superman II) and accompanied by an adaptation of composer John Williams' Superman theme. The theatrical and home video versions had difficult-to-read titles over an opening slapstick sequence. The main titles for the TV version were exclusively made for it. Its end title score was tracked in and altered to fit in with the end credits.

• The unemployment office scene comes after the credits, with a few extras in the background.

• The Metropolis scenes are not in widescreen and has two extra scenes:

1. The thief's bag of loot being accidentally lifted by a construction ladder.
2. The thief realizes his newly acquired fortune has disappeared.
3. He spots his bag and can't reach it. He yells "stop thief!"
4. After Superman rescues the man drowning in his car: A mother places her son on a see-saw; The bag of loot falls off a painting rig; it hits the opposite side of the see-saw that the little boy is on, catapulting him into a tree. Superman takes off from the car and flies over to rescue the boy.

• On the bus approaching the chemical plant fire, Jimmy Olsen says "What a sunset!", Clark replies "At three in the afternoon?"

• Extra shots of the chemical fire and more dialogue with Superman and the fire chief.

• There's a shot of Vera and Lorelei "shaking hands."

• Before Gus goes into Ross's office, he is greeted by Ross' secretary. Gus tries to escape through the executive washroom, but the secretary sends him in when Ross gets impatient.

• Ross explains to Gus why Vera calls him "Bubba." In this scene Lorelei gives Ross one of the burnt penguins from the beginning.

• A longer conversation between Gus and Brad (Gavan O'Herlihy) outside the Smallville Wheat King office.

• While drinking, Brad reveals that his high school nickname was the "Smallville Flash" and Gus thinks that it's a good name for a drink. This is then referenced a couple of minutes later when Gus is dragging Brad into the computer room.

• Expanded scene of the guy at the ATM.

• Gus Gorman's speech about Superman's feats while wearing skis is longer. After Gus describes Superman's heroics, the TV is turned back on and the newspaper says , "Well Superman's done it again."

• A longer sequence with Gus walking across the street in his skies.

• The scene involving Gus posing as a general is longer.

• After Gus shuts off the world's oil, there is a shot of two people not getting oil from a cold pipeline.

• The souvenir salesman near the Leaning Tower of Pisa now says "Stupido Superman!"

• Some shots of Ross and Lorelei exercising.

• On some TV/Video versions there is an additional shot of Gus knocking open a utility room and scaring himself in a mirror.

• In the scene where Lorelei is on top of the Statue of Liberty the TV version has the police officer with the megaphone saying "Do not despair. You have everything to live for... I know, I've just seen you.", whereas the video release has him saying "Don't jump... please don't jump."

• A scene showing Vera trying to read a book on computers while Lorelei and "Evil Superman" can be heard fooling around in the next room.

• When Metropolis' power is turned off there is a shot of a surgery room and a little dialogue.

• More shots of the three ballooning down in the Grand Canyon.

• The computer's destruction is longer.

• When Brad sees Clark at the Hotel he says "Kent!"

• Some television broadcasts also have two little extra moments not shown in the theatrical/video release during the scene where Clark gives Lana a diamond ring. Instead of ringing Lana's doorbell, Clark knocks on the door with a "Shave and a Haircut" melody, which is copied by a man knocking on a door behind him. This explains why he's looking behind when Lana opens the door.

• After Clark sends Brad speeding back into an elevator on top of a food trolley, a lady assistant remarks "No wonder they send it back."

The theatrical/home video version

• A mother says "Say thank you" to her son at the photo-booth.

• Pictures of Lorelei Ambrosia are shown at the Daily Planet.

• A shot where Lana is shown exiting a store.

• A shot of Clark bumping into Gus.

• More reactions from the tractor driver who almost killed Ricky.

• Ricky asks Clark for Superman's autograph, Clark responds "I don't know, if I had a nickel for every time some little kid..."

• A shot of Gus walking down to Wheat King's Smallville office.

• A scene showing the construction of Gus's big powerful computer.

• Lana talks to Brad on the phone and then orders plane tickets to Metropolis.

• Brad says "Son of a bitch" at the hotel when he sees Clark.

• Some of the pan and scan is different from the home video version. In the scene where the Ross, Vera, and Lorelei are ballooning down, Vera says "Out of my way!" In the home video version, both Vera and Lorelei can be seen in the shot, but in the TV version only Vera can be seen at that particular part. And in other bits of the film the tops of peoples' heads are cut off, most noticeable in the scene where Gus is pretending to be the General.

References

Cultural references

In the 1999 film Office Space, the characters use the same computer program that Gus Gorman used to make himself rich. They even mention how it's "just like in 'Superman III'."

Soundtrack

1. Main Title (The Streets of Metropolis) 5:23
2. Saving The Factory-The Acid Test 6:09
3. Gus Finds a Way :58
4. The Two Faces of Superman 2:50
5. The Struggle Within-Final Victory 4:16
6. Rock On - Marshall Crenshaw 3:35
7. No See, No Cry - Chaka Khan 3:18
8. They Won't Get Me - Roger Miller 3:20
9. Love Theme - Helen St. John 3:14
10. Main Title March - Giorgio Moroder 4:20

External links

• [Soundtrack Review]

• [Ken Thorne Interview]
• *[Ken Thorne Interview Part 2]

• [Analysis of the music]

Goofs

• At Clark Kent's high school reunion, his class photo is of a young Christopher Reeve. However, when he was at high school, Kent was played by Jeff East (in the first movie). It is also notable if this was there, why would they not recognise his exceptional reseblance to Superman?

• In the scene where Gus is talking to Brad through the glass doors at WEBSCOE, while the camera is on Brad, you can see Gus' reflection. However, while Gus is talking, the reflection does not match up with what he is saying.

• How come Brad is in Metropolis? How did he find Lana?

• Gus humming the Superman theme and making a joke about ripping off his shirt in a Superman-way could be seen as examples of breaking the fourth wall.

• Perry said that Lois got a story about "Corruption in the Caribbean." But Lois was going to Bermuda, which is not in the Caribbean.

External links

• [The Superman Sourcebook, at The Thunder Child]
• [Superman-V.com]
• [SupermanIV.com]
• [SupermanIII.com]
• [SupermanII.com]
• [Superman-the-movie.com]
• [the agony booth : SUPERMAN III Review]
• [Superman Cinema - Superman III]
• [The DVD Journal Quick Reviews: Superman III]
• [Superman III (1983) - What is it about part 3's?]
• http://www.fortunecity.com/lavender/fullmonty/706/sf/supermaniii.htm
• [80's Movies Rewind - Superman III]
• [THE CINEMA LASER DVD REVIEW -- SUPERMAN III]
• [SUPERHEROES LIVES - Superman III]
• [Rotten Tomatoes - Superman III]
• [Movie Reviews (Chrisopther Reeve Homepage) - Superman III]
• [STARLOG 73 AUGUST 1983: INTERVIEW WITH DAVID AND LESLIE NEWMAN]
• [THE PRODUCTION/BEHIND THE SCENES]
• [THE PRODUCTION - SPECIAL EFFECTS]
• *[THE PRODUCTION - SPECIAL EFFECTS/ATARI]
• [Superhero: A Biography of Christopher Reeve" by Chris Nickson, St. Martin's Press, 1998]
• [Retro Junk - Superman III]
• [Superman Homepage: Superman III - Movie Synopsis/Review/Critique]

 

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