Customer Reviews

Movies and TV: The New York Public Library Book of Answers

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The First Superman The Nation Loved., September 10, 2006

Reviewer: Betty Burks (Knoxville, TN) - See all my reviews

In the Fifties, we had a real Superman, someone who fought for Truth, Justice and the American Way on television. He wasn't as dapper as Christopher Reeve but George Reeves was the first and foremost Superman. To us teens back then, he looked old and bulky (not sualve as they do today), but that was the way the male actors in the movies were for the most part then. All the kids looked up to our Superman as presented on our home t.v. sets. This kinky film shows the sordid backstage life of a mortal man who had no other roles (he tried in a Sinatra movie and bombed), because of his involvement with a married woman. Her husband even bought him a nice home for $12,000 which he considered a good investment as he had his own foreign paramour living in his mansion. He wanted to keep the little wife happy.

It's just pretend, making shows on television and movies for the big screen. Being directed by the person who did 'Sin in the Big City,' that is the sordid way the Superman icon is presented. Well, he was just plain marvelous as Clark Kent, but his personal identity was humiliating to him and he wanted other things besides being a t.v. performer. She wanted him as he was and refused to help him further a film career. Thus, when he found a younger woman and fell in love, she set out on a murderous path of revenge.

There were perplexing endings so you can take your pick as to who actually killed him in his own house, or if he did indeed kill himself. I always believed you every time, he'd told her; I had no idea I could spread so much joy. There was much more going on that you realize, and the guys were all frauds. Nothing was as it seemed. Before he met his demise, he told her, "You owe me an explanation," which he never got. All he got was a fatal shot in the head. It was depressing. One woman commented to me on the way out, that it was well-done. I repleid that I would have to think about it.

Actually, two stories were woven into one: the ill-mannered investigator played by Sean Penn with his sordid life and that of the major characters which made the movie rambling and disjointed. How's that? Why's that? A good biography of the first Superman on the screen, someone we all admired, was not in this movie. Instead it was like 'Sin in the City' in the Hollywood of the Fifties. No wonder Eddie went wrong, as he believed in that stuff. It was all make-believe and dangerous.

You can skip this one and watch it on late-nite t.v. in the near future. There is not much redeeming value in watching one of your heroes sullied in this manner. Even if he was only a man, not a Superman, in person. He had the right to live out his life, but that one married woman felt differently. She is the villain even if she didn't pull the trigger. It's possible she did it in person, but with this story as presented here, we will always have to wonder.