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Faster than his own insecurities: Brandon Routh's Superman soars across big screens in the Fredericksburg area, and America, this week. |
By MICHAEL ZITZ
When Christopher Reeve found himself paralyzed after being thrown from a horse in Culpeper in 1995, he was helpless and hopeless in a Charlottesville hospital bed, waiting--wanting--to die, he told me in a 2003 interview.
Reeve felt isolated and alienated. Most people would have focused on their own problems, and some would have given up.
But Reeve, famous for playing Superman in the Richard Donner films of the '70s and '80s, did something truly heroic. He fought for the rest of his days--literally up until the night he died in 2004--to help other spinal cord injury victims.
It was life imitating art in the best possible way, as Reeve exemplified the ideals of the character he played. They are a combination of both self-sacrifice and being true to oneself, of courage, dedication and determination.
And the revival of the appreciation of corny but vital American ideals are what's important about "Superman Returns."
In the film, released this week, Daily Planet editor Perry White (Frank Langella) tells Lois Lane (Kate Bosworth): "Three things sell newspapers--tragedy, sex, and Superman. People are fed up with tragedy. You can't write about sex That leaves Superman."
He's right. People are indeed fed up with tragedy, and with cynicism, too. This Independence Day weekend, America desperately needs a hero.
So "Superman Returns" at a very good time.
Newcomer Brandon Routh is up to the task of playing the Clark Kent/Superman role. He has the same likable, self-effacing modesty Reeve did--and honors him by adopting some of his mannerisms.
The story resumes with the Man of Steel returning from five years of fruitless search for his doomed home planet of Krypton. He'd hoped to find others like himself. When he crash-lands back at his adopted parents' farm in Kansas, he tells his foster mother, Martha Kent (Eva Marie Saint), he's completely alone in the universe.
To make matters worse, Lois, the love his life, has given birth to a son, is engaged to the boss' nephew and has turned her back on him.
She's won a Pulitzer for penning a piece titled "Why the World Doesn't Need Superman." Ouch.
It's not giving too much away to say that, ultimately, Superman learns that Lois' son well, let's just say the kid has good genes.
Message: You're never alone.
The film features the same isolation theme that has made "Smallville," the WB television series about a young Clark Kent, a cult favorite with the alienated teenage demographic--which is to say, most teens.
Beyond that, there will always be people who read too much into things, including me.
Some theories about what "Superman Returns" means that have been flying through cyberspace at super speed in the days leading up to this week's release:
a. Superman is gay. (Um, I don't think so. He uses his X-ray vision to lovingly follow Lois floor after floor on the Daily Planet elevator. He pines for her, big-time.)
b. Superman is Jesus Christ. (Not unless we're talking about a Kryptonian "Da Vinci Code" here.)
c. Superman is a "humanistic demigod." (Huh?)
d. Superman is politically correct and Lois is a floozy. (Think "Murphy Brown.")
No, no, no. Superman is not a wannabe messiah, nor is he a partisan symbol. He's simply an unabashedly earnest hero unconflicted about his purpose in life.
"Superman Returns" is a statement of renewed belief in the innate goodness of the American spirit. The film almost seems to cheerlead America to bounce back from the agony of recent years.
The story flies in the face of typical Hollywood sneering about American mythology. It has the world learn Superman is back in this manner:
In a spectacularly thrilling scene, he catches a crashing jumbo jet in the middle of a packed Major League Baseball stadium to a standing ovation. The only thing that's missing is the apple pie. As the late Cubs broadcaster Harry Caray would say, "Holy cow!"
Fortunately, the filmmakers passed on earlier plots that exploited the legend, including one that absurdly had Superman and Batman fighting each other.
Director Bryan Singer (X-Men) treats this American icon with absolute reverence.
In a Daily Planet story meeting, editor White mandates themes for coverage of the Man of Steel's return, at one point, asking: "Does he still stand for truth, justice, and all that stuff?" Of course, "all that stuff" is really "the American Way."
"They can be a great people," the late Marlon Brando, playing Superman's biological father in a 30-year-old clip from the original 1978 "Superman" film, says to his son. "They wish to be. They only lack the light to show the way."
Teenage boys at an opening-day matinee Wednesday at the Fredericksburg 15 theaters said they came for the special effects, and at first chattered loudly about them, but then grew silent as they were swept up in the moralistic tale.
In this time of teen "Fight Club" videos getting millions of hits on the Internet, a "Boy Scoutish" Superman doesn't throw a single punch in the film, and those young men's appreciative reaction said more than any newspaper or magazine piece about "Superman Returns" could.
An obvious disclaimer: I'm a Superman geek.
I was one of those kids who ran around with a towel tied around his neck, jumping off furniture.
I watched reruns of the '50s "Superman" TV show in which he flew out a window at the Daily Planet. As a child, I actually leapt out a second-story window in my "cape," thought better of it, turned in mid-air and caught the windowsill by my fingertips, then hung there screaming for help till my mother came to rescue--and spank--me.
My own caped exploits were a long, long time ago--but not really far, far away.
The pendulum may be swinging back in that direction, with people of all ages ready to embrace the corny American ideals of Superman.
Maybe all the people displaying the emblem are part of a faddish reaction to the hype of a $200 million film. Or maybe parents and grandparents who bought into what Superman symbolized in the '50s, '60s and '70s are using him now to pass on those ideals.
The Superman "S" is a powerful symbol of goodness known around the world. It transcends the grudges of geopolitics.
It can even be seen in Congo, where an Anderson Cooper report on CNN this week showed a militia rape victim there wrapped up in it like a protective shield. Maybe that's a super stretch. Maybe not.
But here's the one undisputable truth of Superman's enduring appeal:
Like Christopher Reeve in real life and like Clark Kent on "Smallville," everyone feels alienated and isolated at times in their lives. Many feel that way much of the time.
Therefore, sending a message that being isolated--that being different--can further the causes of truth, justice and the American Way is as powerful as Superman himself.
To reach MICHAEL ZITZ:
Email: mikez@freelancestar.com
