Superman III

Superman III
Original movie poster
Directed by	Richard Lester
Produced by	Ilya Salkind Pierre Spengler
Screenplay by	David Newman Leslie Newman
Story by	David Newman Leslie Newman Jerry Siegel (Characters) Joe Shuster (Characters)
Starring	Christopher Reeve Richard Pryor Jackie Cooper Marc McClure Annette O'Toole Annie Ross Pamela Stephenson Robert Vaughn Margot Kidder
Music by	Ken Thorne John Williams (Themes) Giorgio Moroder (Songs)
Cinematography	Robert Paynter
Editing by	John Victor-Smith
Studio	Dovemead Cantharus Productions
Distributed by	Warner Bros.
Release date(s)	16 June 1983 (1983-06-16) (Spain) 19 July 1983 (1983-07-19) (United Kingdom)
Running time	125 minutes (Theatrical) 141 minutes (Television)
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English
Budget	$39,000,000
Gross revenue	$59,950,623
Preceded by	Superman II
Followed by	Superman IV: The Quest for Peace

Superman III is a 1983 superhero film that is the third of five films in the Superman film series produced from 1978 to 2006 based upon the long-running DC Comics superhero.

Christopher Reeve, Jackie Cooper, Marc McClure and Margot Kidder are joined by new cast members Annette O'Toole, Annie Ross, Pamela Stephenson, Robert Vaughn and Richard Pryor. The film was the last Reeve/Superman film produced by Alexander Salkind and Ilya Salkind. It was followed by Supergirl (produced by the Salkinds) in 1984 and the non-Salkind produced sequel Superman IV: The Quest for Peace in 1987.

The film was less successful than the first two Superman movies, both financially and critically, but was still the fifth highest grossing film of 1983. While harsh criticism focused on the film's comedic and campy tone, Reeve was praised for his much darker performance as the corrupted Superman. Following the release of this movie, Pryor signed a five-year contract with Columbia Pictures worth $40 million.^[1]

Series producer Ilya Salkind originally wrote a treatment for this film that included Brainiac, Mister Mxyzptlk and Supergirl, but Warner Bros. did not like it.^[2] The treatment was released online in 2007.^[3]

Plot

Gus Gorman (Richard Pryor), an unemployed ne'er-do-well, discovers a knack for computer programming. After embezzling from his new employer's payroll (through a technique known as salami slicing), Gorman is brought to the attention of the CEO, Ross Webster. Webster (Robert Vaughn) is obsessed with the computer's potential to aid him in his schemes to rule the world financially. Joined by his sister Vera (Annie Ross) and his "psychic nutritionist" Lorelei Ambrosia (Pamela Stephenson), Webster blackmails Gorman into helping him.

Meanwhile, Clark Kent has convinced his newspaper to allow him to return to Smallville for his high school reunion. En route, he extinguishes a fire in a chemical plant containing vials of acid that can produce clouds of corrosive vapor when superheated.

In Smallville Clark is reunited with childhood friend Lana Lang (Annette O'Toole). Lana is a divorcée with a young son named Ricky (Paul Kaethler). Clark and Lana begin to share affection for each other, though Lana's former boyfriend Brad (Gavan O'Herlihy), Clark's childhood bully and now an alcoholic security guard, is still vying for her attention.

Meanwhile, Webster schemes to monopolize the world's coffee crop. Infuriated by Colombia's refusal to do business with him, he orders Gorman to command an American weather satellite named Vulcan to create a tornado to decimate the nation's coffee crop. Webster's scheme is thwarted when Superman neutralizes the tornado and saves the harvest. Webster then orders Gorman to use his computer knowledge to create kryptonite, remembering Lois Lane's Daily Planet interview from Superman, during which Superman identified it as his only weakness. Gus uses a computer to locate Krypton's debris in outer space, but after the computer fails to analyze an "unknown" element in kryptonite, he improvises by replacing the unidentified element with tar, garnered from a pack of cigarettes.

Lana convinces Superman to appear at Ricky's birthday party, but Smallville turns it into a celebration. Gus and Vera, disguised as United States Army officers, give Superman the kryptonite as a gift, and are dismayed to see that it appears to have no effect on him. However, the compound begins to produce symptoms: Superman goes through a descent into darkness, he becomes selfish, focusing on his lust for Lana, causing him to delay rescuing a truck driver from his jackknifed rig. Superman begins to question his own self-worth, and, as the Kryptonite takes effect, he becomes depressed, angry, and casually destructive, committing petty acts of vandalism such as blowing out the Olympic torch and straightening the Leaning Tower of Pisa.

Later, Ross Webster wants to take control of the world's oil supplies so orders Gorman to direct all the oil tankers to the middle of the Atlantic Ocean and sit there until further notice, but Gorman moans that Ross gets his own way all the time and is not right. Ross asks "Thats it. What do you want?" and Gorman pulls out a load of crudely drawn blueprints for a 'super computer'. Ross makes a deal with Gorman by agreeing to build his super computer in return for sorting out the oil tankers.

Superman assuages his depression with a drinking binge, but is overcome by guilt and undergoes a nervous breakdown. After nearly crash-landing in a junkyard, he splits into two personas: the evil, selfish Superman and the moral, righteous Clark Kent. They engage in an epic battle that ends when Clark strangles his evil identity, restoring him to his former self.

After defending himself from numerous rockets and an MX missile, Superman battles Gorman's supercomputer, which severely weakens him with a kryptonite ray. Gorman, guilt-ridden and horrified by the prospect of "going down in history as the man who killed Superman", destroys the kryptonite ray with a firefighter's axe, whereupon Superman flees. The computer becomes self-aware, defending itself against Gus and draining power from electrical towers, causing massive blackouts. Ross and Lorelei escape from the control room, but Vera is pulled into the computer and transformed into a cyborg. Empowered by the supercomputer, Vera attacks her brother and Lorelei with beams of energy that immobilize them.

Superman returns with a canister of Beltric acid from the chemical plant he saved earlier; the intense heat emitted by the supercomputer causes the acid to turn volatile, destroying the machine and turning Vera back to normal. Superman flies away with Gus, leaving Webster and his cronies to the authorities. After dropping Gus off at a coal mine, where he gives him a job reference, Superman returns to Metropolis and reunites with Lana Lang, who has relocated to the big city and found employment as Perry White's new secretary.

Cast

• Christopher Reeve as Clark Kent / Superman: After discovering his origins in the earlier films, he sets himself to helping those on Earth. After beating arch enemy Lex Luthor twice, Superman meets a new villain: Ross Webster, who is determined to control the world's coffee and oil supplies. Superman also battles personal demons after an exposure to a synthetic form of kryptonite that corrupts him.
• Richard Pryor as Gus Gorman: A bumbling computer genius who works for Ross Webster to destroy Superman.
• Robert Vaughn as Ross Webster: A villainous multimillionaire. After Superman prevents him from taking over the world's coffee supply, Ross is determined to destroy Superman before he can stop his plan to control the world's oil supply. He is an original character created for the movie.
• Annette O'Toole as Lana Lang: Clark's high school sweetheart who reconciles with Clark after seeing him during their high school reunion.
• Annie Ross as Vera Webster: Ross' sister and partner in his corporation and villainous plans.
• Pamela Stephenson as Lorelei Ambrosia: Ross' assistant and sweetheart. Lorelei acts unintelligent to fool people but is in fact quite smart, outwitting both Ross and Vera multiple times.
• Margot Kidder as Lois Lane: A reporter at The Daily Planet who has a history with both Clark Kent and Superman through the first two films in the series.
• Marc McClure as Jimmy Olsen: A photographer for The Daily Planet.
• Jackie Cooper as Perry White: The editor of The Daily Planet.

Distribution

Superman III was released on June 17, 1983 (one month after the release of Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi) with a running time of 125 minutes. An extended cut was first shown on ABC in 1986 with an extra 16 minutes of added footage (thus, making the running time 141 minutes). Just like with the previous two Superman movies, the television edition of Superman III was produced by Alexander Salkind's company. Until recently, this version had been distributed in American television syndication as part of Viacom's Superman syndication package which also features Supergirl and Superman IV: The Quest for Peace (later distributed through Paramount Domestic Television, full rights have since reverted to WB). In the United Kingdom, the extended version has been shown about two or three times in the late 1980s.

Reception

Box office

The total domestic box office gross (not adjusted for inflation^[4]) for Superman III was $59,950,623.^[5] Despite poor feedback from the critics, the film was highly successful in international territories, much like the Supergirl film the next year. In fact, the film still became one of the highest grossing films of 1983 and #1 at the box office.

In July 1983, ITV showed the Royal Premiere of Superman III. This show included interviews with actors in the film, who had flown to London for the United Kingdom and European premiere. Some clips from the film were shown, including where Superman is flying Gus to the coal mine and explaining how he used the acid to destroy the supercomputer, thus revealing the ending of the film.

Critical reaction

Reviews for the film were mixed from fans and mostly negative from critics. At Rotten Tomatoes, only 23% of critics have given the film positive reviews, based on 40 reviews.^[6] A frequent criticism of Superman III was the inclusion of comedian Richard Pryor.^[7] 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." Pryor, who initially came to fame in the 1970s as a profane observational comedian,^[7] had a string of hits in the late 1970s and early 1980s such as Stir Crazy and The Toy (directed by Richard Donner). After an appearance by Pryor on The Tonight Show,^[8] telling Johnny Carson how much he enjoyed seeing Superman II, the Salkinds were eager to cast him in a prominent role in the third film.^[9]

Audiences also saw Robert Vaughn's villainous Ross Webster as an uninspired fill-in for Lex Luthor.^[7][8][10] Gene Hackman,^[7] along with Margot Kidder (Lois Lane), were angry with the way the Salkinds treated Superman director Richard Donner, with Hackman retaliating by refusing to reprise the role of Lex Luthor entirely^[11] (though he would later be persuaded to come back for Superman IV: The Quest for Peace in 1987, with which the Salkinds had no connection). After Margot Kidder publicly criticized the Salkinds for their treatment of Donner,^[8] the producers "punished" the actress by reducing her role in Superman III to a brief cameo.^[9][11]

In his commentary for the 2006 DVD release of Superman III, Ilya Salkind denied any ill will between Margot Kidder and his production team and denied the claim her part was cut for retaliation. Instead, he said, the creative team decided to pursue a different direction for a love interest for Superman, believing the Lois and Clark relationship had been played out in the first two films (but could be revisited in the future). With the choice to give a more prominent role to Lana Lang, Lois' part was reduced for story reasons. Salkind also denied the reports about Gene Hackman being upset with him, stating that Hackman didn't return due to prior commitments.

Fans of the Superman series also placed a great deal of the blame on director Richard Lester.^[8] Richard Lester made a number of popular comedies^[8] in the 1960s - including The Beatles' A Hard Day's Night - before being hired by the Salkinds in the 1970s for their successful Three Musketeers series, as well as Superman II. Lester broke tradition by setting the opening credits for Superman III during a prolonged slapstick sequence rather than in outer space. Superman III is commonly seen as more or less a goofy (albeit uneven) farce rather than a grand adventure picture like the first two movies.^[8]

On Richard Lester's direction of Superman III, Christopher Reeve stated:

[He] was always looking for a gag - sometimes to the point where the gags involving Richard Pryor went over the top. I mean, I didn't think that his going off the top of a building, on skis with a pink tablecloth around his shoulders, was particularly funny.^[12]

The film's screenplay, by David and Leslie Newman, was also criticized.^[8] When Richard Donner was hired to direct the first two films, he found the Newmans' scripts so distasteful that he hired Tom Mankiewicz for heavy rewrites. Since Donner and Mankiewicz were no longer attached to the franchise, the Salkinds were finally able to bring their "vision" of Superman to the screen and once again hired the Newmans for writing duties.^[11]

Despite such harsh criticisms, Superman III was praised for Reeve's performance of a corrupted version of the Man of Steel, particularly the junkyard battle between this newly-darkened Superman and Clark Kent.^[6] One of the film's positive reviews was from the fiction writer Donald Barthelme, who praised Reeve as "perfect" and described Vaughn as "essentially playing William Buckley - all those delicious ponderings, popping of the eyes, licking of the corner of the mouth."^[13]

Promotion

The soundtrack cover for Superman III.

As with the previous sequel, the musical score was composed and conducted by Ken Thorne, using the Superman theme and most other themes from the first film composed by John Williams, but this time around there is more original music by Thorne than the Williams re-arrangements. To capitalize on the popularity of synthesizer pop, Giorgio Moroder was hired to create songs for the film (though interestingly enough, their use in the film is minimal).

A video game^[14] for Superman III was planned for the Atari 5200^[15] but was never released. The game (perhaps intended to be like Missile Command) would've been loosely based on the plotline for Superman III.

See also

• List of American films of 1983

References

External links

• SupermanIII.com
• Superman III at the Internet Movie Database
• Superman III at Allmovie
• Superman III at Rotten Tomatoes
• Superman III at Box Office Mojo