SUPERMAN III MOVIE MINUTE #2 – Four Photos for 75 Cents
Fire and Water Network All-Stars Chris Franklin and Rob Kelly are back with SUPERMAN III MOVIE MINUTE, where they analyze, scrutinize, and you’ll-believe-a-man-can-fly-ize the Man of Steel’s third big screen adventure starring Christopher Reeve, Richard Pryor, Annette O’Toole, and Robert Vaughn, five minutes at a time!
In minutes 05:00-10:00, we finish the opening credits, Superman leaps into action, and visit The Daily Planet.
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Opening theme and closing theme by John Williams.
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Hey guys! Thanks for struggling through another five minutes for our entertainment! It IS appreciated. You both hold the first two films in such high regard, I get how much it hurts to see the series take such a drastic step towards buffoonery.
As to the film Phase IV. It’s a rather serious science fiction film. A “cosmic event” creates a colony of super intelligent ant in the Arizona desert. Two scientists set up a lab near the colony to study the ants. It’s a slow burn story as the scientists argue about whether the ants are a threat to mankind’s existence, or the beginning of the next phase in evolution. I myself am not a fan, but I do recommend seeing it if you have the chance. It’s one of those movies you will either love or hate.
As a kid, I remember noticing Reeve’s lighter hair color.
Alien is a masterpiece! The “horror movie or sci-fi movie” debate cycles around every few years.
This also marked a time when tv and film present a real fiction for how computers did (and didn’t) work. They were treated like magical objects that could do anything needed to drive the story. See “The Net” with Sandra Bullock, a film that horribly dates itself with a complete misunderstanding of technology.
I’m a big fan of novelizations and particularly when they add characterization. I bought the novelization for SUPERMAN III around the time the previous season ended, along with a copy of SUPERGIRL- which I hope will be the next season. I read SUPERMAN III fairly quickly to prepare myself although I’ve yet to read SUPERGIRL and will need to do some digging to find it. I’d like to think that when doing a show like this, a novelization could add a new viewpoint which I admit can a hindrance if you prefer the purity of looking at only the film itself. I’ll pop in every once and in a while if there is anything of interest unless fellow commenters (or hosts) aren’t interested.
In the novelization, there is no stunning the computer teacher with accidentally performing a task that is supposed to be impossible. Instead, there is a test and although Gus took a typing class once, he was already halfway done by the time the teacher said, “go.” Gus is a electronic whiz, instantly understanding computer science and engineering electronics themselves. While the teacher is rambling on about “strings of data”, looping string variables and “the floating decimal point”, Gus has already figured out and sees everything clearly. The below excerpt establishes a backstory for Gus Gorman that is absent from the buffoon who somehow succeeds without understanding a damn thing he is doing that we see in the film.
“Gus had built short-wave radios as a boy to monitor police progress in the neighbourhood; when his uncle brought home a stolen adding machine, Gus’d taken it completely apart and put it back together again; when his father threw a saxophone through the TV screen, he’d been able to replace the tubes; then he’d wired his own snooping device and lowered it into the bedroom of the call girl living below, which brought him to the attention of her boyfriend, a local gangland kingpin who gave him work as a wiretapper. Gus might have made a career of this, but after his employer was thrown off a building, Gus drifted out of electronics. His natural engineering ability faded into the background, except for an astonishing skill with video games, whose devious pathways seemed obvious to him; his Pac-man scores were phenomenal but of little social value. Kitchen technician had become his career, until now….”
Personally, I hate how Richard Pryor just constantly stumbles into succeeding and think that seeing him being clever would make his portions of the film more bearable.
Chris, Phase IV isn’t a giant bug movie, it’s a regular-sized bug movie. Not a great film, but if –like me–you can’t get enough 70s science-fiction movies, it’s worth a watch. 🙂
This was my favourite episode of Avengers:Endgame Minute…. *ahem, I mean Superman Movie Minute. Well done, gentlemen! Even though this isn’t your favourite Superman movie, and must seem like a letdown after the first two, I am enjoying you guys going through this movie with a critical eye. You guys do it right by pointing out things that don’t work in a Superman movie, but aren’t real jerks about it.
I’m loving all the background tidbits and trivia that you bring up. This was tons of fun and I am looking forward to the next episode! Keep up the great work!
It wasn’t until listening to y’all talk about that I noticed that the bank robbers got away. It’s not the worse thing about these opening credits but it seems to me that, as was pointed out, Clark should have heard the gun shots, which may have prevented the car going wild in the first place.
Also, while saving a life is always important, the use of the Superman march here is the equivalent of getting all dressed up to go out and only staying five minutes before going home. It was such a simple save (though a neat set special effects gags) that, upon further review, I just can’t get too excited about.
Superman II opened with Superman saving Lois and flying a bomb into space.
Superman III opens with Superman tearing off the roof of a car and pulling a guy out.
One of those things only Superman can do. The other was something that the people surrounding the car should have been able to figure out.
Sigh.
Rob’s comment that the quiz will pay off later, despite its seeming irrelevance triggered a memory. Around the time BVsS came out, a UCLA scriptwriting teacher posted somewhere that, irrespective of the perceived quality of the films, Superman III, in terms of 3 act structure, set up and pay off and rising action was a far better WRITTEN movie than BVsS.
The wacky opening credits feature a number British comedy actors alongside Bob Todd. Keep an eye out later on for David Tennant’s mother in law, Sandra Dickinson.
I saw this on television for the first time. Not sure which year. I was fairly young. I had seen Superman II at a drive-in theater when it was released in 81, at 5 years old . I didn’t know about any of the opening sequences back then. We must’ve started watching it late. I didn’t even see it till years later when I got the DVD as an adult. I can now FF thru all of it.
I do of course remember the iconic junkyard scene and the “crazy computer lady”, which stopped me from watching it for awhile. It gave me plenty of nightmares. I have since re-watched it plenty of times, not as much as Superman:The Movie, but enough that I can follow along with your entertaining commentary while I work. Thanks for making my workdays go by faster.