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RICHARD DONNER
“We had a completed version of Superman, and much like you do with any composer, we ran the picture and spotted it, deciding where the music should be. But John was so far ahead of us after seeing it just once that he kind of took charge emotionally. He read so much into the picture, almost more than we did.
The first recording session for Superman was the opening reel of the movie, and those brilliant titles that were done by Richard Greenberg came flying onto the screen. It demanded special music, but you didn’t have to say that to John because when the title ‘Superman’ came flying in, John made the music say, ‘Su-Per-Man!’ If you listen to just that one little piece, you can literally hear the music say, ‘Superman.’ It brought tears to our eyes.
When he’s conducting, you’re usually looking at his back, because you are looking at the orchestra much like he is. But I would often go on the music stage, up behind drums and the top instruments, and watch John like the orchestra was watching him, and his face conveyed the whole movie. He must have studied acting because it was like he was living the entire piece. Very beautiful. It ended with this truly happy expression on his face as if to say, ‘Oh my God, that was good, and I did it.’ “
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The first day of scoring included the early versions of "The Planet Krypton," "The Dome Opens" and the first cue in The Flying Sequence. It wasn't until day 4, on July 11, that they got to the main title, and that would have been the early unused version, the film for which we have still never seen.
The final version of the opening credits wasn't recorded until October 31. And that recording ended up being used for the end credits instead, while the end credits music recorded a week earlier was later edited and sped up and placed over the main title credits in the final film.
But it's a nice story.
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So beautiful. This score still transports me back to the day when I first heard it in the cinema.
Absolute art.
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Absolutely wonderful quotes from Director Richard Donner about the greatest film composer of all time... The "super" John Williams!
I'll NEVER forget seeing "Superman: The Movie" in the theatre in 1978... I had recently turned 12yrs-old... It was one of the greatest film-going experiences of my young life... Richard Donner, John Williams, Christopher Reeve, Margot Kidder, and Gene Hackman (and all of the other gifted artists in front of and behind the camera) really gave me something very special and magical with that timeless and perfect film... I came out of that theatre AWESTRUCK, ELATED, and JOYOUS... I truly believed that a man could fly...
Yes, sir... A true classic.
I just recently watched "Superman: The Movie" (along with its equally classic 1981 sequel, "Superman ll") two months ago (for the "millionth time" in my life, I might add!), after the passing of, and in memory of, the great Gene Hackman (who I had the very good fortune to meet once at an event in 2000, and who had nothing but praise for Donner and Williams at that time)... And, well, what can I say?, All these decades later, I STILL haven't quite "come down" from that first 1978 viewing "high"... Those memories and feelings are literally burned into my soul, and they once again happily rose to the surface as I was watching it nearly 47 years later... Simply incredible... BTW: When I did watch "Superman" recently, I watched the extended 3-hour TV version, which I prefer over the theatrical cut... As I always say, "You can NEVER have TOO MUCH of "Superman: The Movie" (I just love 'Otis, feed the babies!").
And I must say, the opening titles / credits sequence for "Superman: The Movie" could very well be the GREATEST opening titles / credits sequence for a film EVER committed to celluloid! Watch it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rk1aQx9hTaE Did I lie?
And what can I possibly say about the score from Maestro Williams and the London Symphony that hasn't been said before? It is a true tour de force... A bona fide masterpiece... It is one of the greatest orchestral compositions EVER written... From the heroic "Main Title March" (which I had the thrill of seeing Williams perform live at the Hollywood Bowl in 1986... What a treat THAT was!), to the gorgeous "Love Theme" for Lois Lane, to the jocular yet menacing "March of the Villains" theme for Lex Luthor, to the powerful theme for the crystal planet of Krypton, to the sweeping theme for the wheat fields of Smallville, to the fabulous set-pieces like "Helicopter Rescue" and "Chasing Rockets"...It's an incredible, monumental achievement... How on earth Williams didn't win the Oscar for Best Original Score that year, I will NEVER understand... Watch the Superman March performed live by John Williams & The Berlin Philharmonic here: https://youtu.be/Ha4oc2SCWzU
I also absolutely ADORE the pop song version of the Love Theme, "Can You Read My Mind?", performed by Maureen McGovern. "WOW"... It is simply one of the greatest, most beautiful ballads ever sung... It's a darned shame that it didn't feature in the movie, as John Williams and Leslie Bricusse most certainly would have been Oscar nominated for Best Original Song... If not even WON! As much as I love Kidder's narration during the flying sequence, I can only imagine how PERFECTLY the song would have fit there. Watch "Can You Read My Mind?" performed live by Maureen McGovern here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g_loUAl3CksPS:
A quick side note regarding "Superman ll"... It's a real shame that whole nonsense went down between Richard Donner and the Salkinds... Now don't get me wrong, I simply ADORE Richard Lester's "Superman ll" (I ALWAYS have, even WITH its minor "flaws" which, by the way, don't AT ALL take away from the overall BRILLIANCE and FUN of the film)... But I just KNOW it would have been EVEN BETTER if only Donner could have delivered HIS version... The 2006 "Superman: The Richard Donner Cut" was a worthy attempt by Donner, but he should have used MORE of Lester's material (just as Lester did with Donner's material) to make it work more cohesively... Oh, well. That's all "water under the bridge" now, as they say. (However, there IS an "unofficial" Donner / Lester "hybrid cut" out there that does JUST THAT, utilizing what works BEST from BOTH versions... I highly recommend seeking it out!).
I will ALWAYS cherish the 1978 masterpiece "Superman: The Movie" from Richard Donner, and it's soundtrack masterpiece from John Williams... It's absolutely one of the greatest motion pictures of All-time, and absolutely one of the greatest scores of All-time... They sure don't make movies quite like this any more... And they sure don't compose film scores quite like this any more, either...
Unless, of course, Mr. Williams composes one, that is. Let's all hope that there may yet be MORE "super" scores from him to come!
PS:
Take a look at this charming video: A snapshot in time... Chris Reeve and Margot Kidder presenting at the 1979 Academy Awards https://youtu.be/7zaKspFxEJ0 (2:40 - 4:30) Aren't they just TOO ADORABLE? They really had such great chemistry together, both on AND off screen... Chris is just too cool, and Margot is quite a hottie here! There will NEVER be a better Superman & Lois Lane.
Superman: The Movie 1978 Theatrical Trailer https://youtu.be/pUwxH4SM9Rg
Superman: The Movie - Modern Trailer #1 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xXyuUbtpmxE&pp=ygUVc3VwZXJtYW4gMTk3OCB0cmFpbGVy
Superman: The Movie - Modern Trailer #2 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=grO4OcJ6cgY&pp=ygUVc3VwZXJtYW4gMzV0aCB0cmFpbGVy
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I remember another anecdote Donner told some time in the early 1980s about working with Marlon Brando on SUPERMAN. Brando was obviously the most expensive star, and they only had him for a very limited time, and Brando wasn't really enthused about "SUPERMAN" anyway, but obviously, they paid him a fortune. One day, he came to Donner and asked to finish a couple of hours earlier, because he wasn't feeling to well (a cold or something). Donner said (according to him the only thing he could say): "You are Marlon Brando. How could I stop you?" To which Brando replied: "You know what? I give you an extra day." So according to Donner, Brando gave them a day more than he was officially required to be on set, which meant they could comfortably shoot all the scenes with Brando.
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I saw one of those pop-up videos on Facebook the other day of Christopher Reeve speaking with Larry King and talking about how unimpressed he was with Brando. It surprised me. Reeve normally is only ever complimentary.
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It's well known that Marlon Brando wasn't really interested in SUPERMAN and did it for the money.
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The first day of scoring included the early versions of "The Planet Krypton," "The Dome Opens" and the first cue in The Flying Sequence. It wasn't until day 4, on July 11, that they got to the main title, and that would have been the early unused version, the film for which we have still never seen.
The final version of the opening credits wasn't recorded until October 31. And that recording ended up being used for the end credits instead, while the end credits music recorded a week earlier was later edited and sped up and placed over the main title credits in the final film.
But it's a nice story.
I just has to ask
I made my own 1cd for this score with the film versions used on main and end titles
but they do sound similar still
is that correct or may i have accidently not used the film version of one of these pieces -
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Who is the British guy in the clip? Is that Stuart Baird?
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I saw one of those pop-up videos on Facebook the other day of Christopher Reeve speaking with Larry King and talking about how unimpressed he was with Brando. It surprised me. Reeve normally is only ever complimentary.
Yep Christopher Reeve also said it on David Letterman..The Same thing! But Chris was right. Collected more than 2 million ..and then Marlon Brando sued Producers ..Ilya and Alexander for cutting his scenes out..and Suzanne York reshot the scenes for lil dick Lester’s Superman 2..with that London High School Band! lol. All we saw was Marlon Brando’s hand? Remember Marlon Had a contract saying that Salkinds owed Brando 11.75% of Superman 2’s Profits. It was settled out of Court.
https://youtu.be/w9uyvZ4answ?si=4cq0Uo1Hig6izGtJ
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Last spring I was invited to watch a rehearsal for SUPERMAN IN CONCERT at Roy Thomson Hall, with music performed live-to-picture by the Toronto Symphony Orchestra.
That was really something, sitting in an empty concert hall, watching classical musicians work through my favourite film score. Understand: I lived inside the original 2LP soundtrack from the age of 16 onwards. In my headphones, every day, years. I know this music.
The film was the original 1978 theatrical cut, but now with some of the unused music restored. You know that music – several minutes that were on the album but never in the movie. (That always confused teenaged me.) We now had music for the launch of baby Kal-El’s starship, and the Krypton-quake that sends panic through the populace. Also for the subway tunnel, when the detective spies on Otis using his secret entrance into Luthor’s lair.
This was just a rehearsal so I had to forgive the occasional mistake. The timpani’s first roll into the main title’s ostinato was tentative and ineffectual. That punch in the brass when teenage Clark runs alongside the train, was late. You know that punch. It’s supposed to burst in after the pizzicato strings establish the locomotive. And the french horn totally missed that depth-full spread of thunder that’s meant to show the entire curve of the planet just before Superman spins at super-speed to turn back time. Mere quibbles. Rehearsal problems. Some were actually addressed right there when the conductor stopped, gave a note, and they rewound the film to try again.
One really understands what’s intended by this music when one sees it live. Because here, in the concert hall, you’re not only hearing it, you’re feeling it. Drums hit you in the pit of your stomach. Strings raise your hairs. Trumpets really do blow your head off. And that signature Williams touch – that warm, mountainous glow of brass and horn that sounds like adventure itself – really does catch you in the throat. No stereo – no matter how expensive – can ever do that for you.
When the tuba plods with Otis as he lumbers down the street, we actually feel Williams poking fun at thievery, and villainy, and bad-guys-ery in general, because now we understand that he’s saving the majesty of this score for the main event, the title character, and rightly so. Even during this first rehearsal the orchestra beautifully captured the might and resonance of our greatest modern legend.
Later that evening when the audience finally arrived -- S shirts, baseball hats, costumes and all – it was obvious that there is still a deep love for this film. Now, no more rehearsing! The audience is listening!
What the mighty TSO got right they got very, very right! Flubs and missed measures are part of the package with a live symphony. We forgive the warts, because we must. Must forgive the french horn being absent (to my ears) when the first rush of blue letters pushed those little cinema curtains aside and thrust us into outer space. Hey! French Horn! Are you asleep? Okay, okay never mind, because now we’re thumping with the timpani, cellos, and bass trombones for the indelible heartbeat of this score – that recurring pulse that builds us towards the spectacle to come. When that figure continues to build, adding sections of instruments measure by measure – now strings, now woodwinds, now everybody – bum-ba-da bum-ba-da, bum bum bum bum bum bum-da-da bum-da-da – it was unbearably exciting. The orchestra played that with such electrifying exactitude I could hardly believe it.
All of the many colours of the score came to life. Jor-El’s speech to his infant son was moving and pure. Those scurries in the strings and flutes as the starship speeds through space, were sparkly and feather-light. (That trip through space is an alluring stand-alone melody that never recurs in the rest of the film but that teenaged me always imagined belonged alongside Holst’s other planets.) As is usual with Williams, there’s a lot of distinct melodic material making up the flesh of this score. Krypton has a theme. Baby Kal-El has one. Smallville has a theme – an earthy, Copland-esque portrait that reaches full maturity when mother and son say goodbye in the field. There are two themes for Superman – three if you count the B-section of the overture, no, four, actually, if you also count the moment Christopher Reeve takes off his glasses and *almost* confesses his true identity to Lois – and there’s the famous love theme, which in 1978 we knew as the newest in that succession of five-note themes that came out of Williams’ pen following Close Encounters. This tune – Can You Read My Mind – adds the romantic layer to the picture and basically functions as Lois’s theme. We hear it in variations – sweet and syrupy, light flighty, epic and grand, or in a minor key for Lois in trouble. There’s a goofy march for big fat Otis, a hint of a scherzo for the Statue of Liberty, and a full-on military motif for the convoy of trucks that Luthor tries to sabotage. The TSO hit it all.
Our cello section was in fine form. (They usually are.) You know that short phrase for elderly Martha Kent as she gazes through her window, just before saying goodbye to Clark? That few seconds – that close-up of Phyllis Thaxter with silver hair -- is a moment of music all on its own, just as complete as anything else in the score, filled with age and melancholy for a poignant 9 ½ seconds. That’s the thing about this score! There’s not one wasted gesture!
The woodwinds were icy cold when Clark Kent hiked through the arctic. Kal-El’s 12-year sojourn through time and space has a fullness when performed live that no recording could ever capture.
The helicopter rescue! The centrepiece of the score. So much suspense, so much glory, so many sync-points for the conductor to get just right. That’s the sequence I was bracing for. There’s onlookers gawking, a damsel falling, and a big blue bird in bright red boots leaping into the air to save the day. Happily, the orchestra nailed every detail, every gesture, every blast of victory. It looked and sounded great. Best of all – it *felt* right.
All in all I’d say it was swell.
Judging by the extended ovation at the end, most of the audience agreed with me – that this was a success, even with the occasional flub. (Seriously, Mr. French Horn! Where the hell were you all night?! You waited until Superman brought Luthor to the prison yard – nearly the end of the film – to finally hit a properly glowing note!)
We didn’t get to enjoy the end credits. Union overtime I suspect. The players had to stop. The credits did roll, but the musicians left their chairs and the house lights came on. No music. A pity, as the credits are usually such a glorious way to sum up the evening.
If I could pull the marketing department aside and give them a note, I’d say they would be paying more respect to our (still alive) composer by renaming this event. Instead of “SUPERMAN IN CONCERT” how about:
“SUPERMAN THE MUSIC.”
Just a thought. But a good one.
I’ll wear my Superman silk necktie the next time I go. My grandma gave it to me.
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