Summary
The new version, coordinated by Michael Thau, certainly validates [Richard Donner]'s vision, although it can't quite overcome the planned ending that Donner would have had to fix nearly 30 years ago. That's because Superman: The Movie was initially designed, but changed during production, as a cliffhanger, with the sequel's villains General Zod (Terence Stamp) and his cohorts (Jack O'Halloran and Sarah Douglas) freed from their Phantom Zone confines. (It always looked they were lost in space inside a record album.) Superman II was supposed to climax with the Man of Steel turning back time to solve the problems, a finale that wound up solving the first movie's cliffhanger-less dilemma. Thus, both Dormer-directed flicks now have the same conclusion!
Beyond this drawback, Thau still had plenty to work with and there's some payback in this restoration. In 1981 [Richard Lester] trimmed many of Donner's flourishes (although Conner's cameo while exiting a diner still survives), so Thau has minimized Lester's comic contributions for this alternate cut. Thau even makes inspired use of a screen test between [Christopher Reeve] and Margot Kidder (as Lois Lane) for a pivotal scene that Donner was unable to film at the time. On an eerier note, Thau's version now posthumously adds one more flick to the [Marion Brando] resume.The commentary track with Donner and creative consultant Tom Mankiewicz attains some moments of rare poignancy. Donner remains a gentleman even though his long-ago firing still obviously bugs him ("A fellow, I forget his name, took over. . . ") and he needs some prompting from Mankiewicz to recall the chronology of events, but he mostly has total recall of each shot during the special-effects wingding between Superman and Zod: "Did I do this? I didn't do that. I did that. It's like pickin' strawberries!" The emotional cadences of Donner's voice betray his deep affection of Thau's loving restoration of Superman II, almost like he's regained custody of a long-lost child during a father's rights case.See the full content of this document
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Selected Shorts
Selected Shorts
The Ground Truth. (Focus Features; 78 minutes; R; 2006). The Iraq War isn't going away any time soon, and neither will the impact of this tidy documentary from producer-director Patricia Foulkrod, which chronicles the homecomings of many soldiers after their missions in the combat zone.Foulkrod packs plenty of information into the film's slender frame, sta...See the full content of this document
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