Outside Context

**SPOLIERS ahead!**
You too will believe a man can fly.

Super­man Returns has two her­oes in it.  Not just the man in tights, there is also the man who has almost-married Lois.  For while the man of steel may be in the lime­light I would have to go a long way to see a bet­ter man than Richard White.

Geek dis­cus­sions often talk about Sci Fi char­ac­ters.  One major pop­u­lar sub­ject is Star­wars and often the dis­cus­sion will cen­ter around a single ques­tion, “Who is your favour­ite char­ac­ter in Star­wars?”  To this I would always answer, “Wedge Anti­lles.”  

Why?  because Wedge is a nor­mal man, lack­ing in the Force to help him, and yet a man of amaz­ing power and determination.  A skilled mas­ter of his craft (star fighter com­bat) and respons­ible for more quiet cour­age than the entire Jedi coun­cil.  The force is not his guide and yet he still not only does the right thing, but does it amaz­ingly well.

Such it is with Mr White.  It is not an easy thing to raise another mans child and to love that child as a son but he does it with a grace and true hon­esty I haven’t seen in a char­ac­ter since Sam­wise Gamgee went There and Back Again.

Super­man Returns is a film on three levels.  Four actu­ally, if you count that the first is a lament for Chris­topher Reeve.

Second is the sur­face plot.  Kevin Spacey knows exactly what he is doing in this film; he is spa­cing out the action; he is actu­ally backstory. 

His “plan” is foiled almost as if he knew it would be.  his per­form­ance is excel­lent only because he is half Verbal Kint and a half a side of ham.  Per­fect.  Also per­fect is Parker Posey who steps very well into the role of “squeeze.”  Parker is one of the most attract­ive, eleg­ant women in Hol­ly­wood and yet she man­ages to act the “dame” role so well it actu­ally works in mak­ing her seem…ugly!

The nuances of the sur­face plot can safely be dis­carded, with only the pro­viso to say that it moves the real story along well.

Third is the real, deep plot.  That is the love tri­angle between super­man, Lois and Mr White.  This part of the movie had little of the spec­tac­u­lar but all the actual heart.  Heart in buck­ets.  While you, as I did, may see the twist in this play com­ing, you cant fail to be moved by the qual­ity of the script and deliv­ery.  This is pitch per­fect.  Little looks, little move­ments.  All executed to arrange a layer of the story that the younger audi­ence will miss entirely.  That’s right, Super­man Returns is an adult film pre­tend­ing to be a kids sum­mer block­buster.  Much, if not all, of this layer will be missed by your aver­age teen for it was writ­ten for me and you:  those of us who have watched and loved the Super­man movies since we were kids.  Those of us with a little of the backstory, delivered at a time when it meant some­thing to us grow­ing up.  Like my allu­sion to Star­wars above, Super­man spoke to us as chil­dren.  This film speaks to us as adults.

It was quite moving.

Forth is the man him­self.  Those of us who loved Kill Bill 2 will remem­ber the soli­lo­quy regard­ing Super­man all to well.  In fact it was play­ing in my mind dur­ing much of the action.

Here it is for those who missed it:

Bill: As you know, I’m quite keen on comic books. Espe­cially the ones about super­her­oes. I find the whole myth­o­logy sur­round­ing super­her­oes fas­cin­at­ing. Take my favor­ite super­hero, Super­man. Not a great comic book. Not par­tic­u­larly well-drawn. But the myth­o­logy… The myth­o­logy is not only great, it’s unique. Now, a staple of the super­hero myth­o­logy is, there’s the super­hero and there’s the alter ego. Bat­man is actu­ally Bruce Wayne, Spider-Man is actu­ally Peter Parker. When that char­ac­ter wakes up in the morn­ing, he’s Peter Parker. He has to put on a cos­tume to become Spider-Man. And it is in that char­ac­ter­istic Super­man stands alone. Super­man didn’t become Super­man. Super­man was born Super­man. When Super­man wakes up in the morn­ing, he’s Super­man. His alter ego is Clark Kent. His out­fit with the big red “S”, that’s the blanket he was wrapped in as a baby when the Kents found him. Those are his clothes. What Kent wears — the glasses, the busi­ness suit — that’s the cos­tume. That’s the cos­tume Super­man wears to blend in with us. Clark Kent is how Super­man views us. And what are the char­ac­ter­ist­ics of Clark Kent. He’s weak… he’s unsure of him­self… he’s a cow­ard. Clark Kent is Superman’s cri­tique on the whole human race. Sorta like Beat­rix Kiddo and Mrs. Tommy Plimpton.

Like the other DC ulti­mate super hero; Bat­man, Super­man believes in “Amer­ican Justice” and this is the only part of the char­ac­ter that does not ring true (and in fact; never did.)  Because we all know the lim­its of the US judi­cial sys­tem, right?  In every other respect, Super­man is amazing.

Con­sider this, most other hero’s effect that which is out­side them, for example Mag­neto can con­trol metals.  Either that or they lack some­thing inside them, some­thing dark takes hold of them.  For example, the Pun­isher is driven by encroach­ing mad­ness.  Super­man stands as the embod­i­ment of a human ideal; con­trol over one’s self.  In con­trast to the other Super hero’s, Super­man is always in con­trol of him­self men­tally and physically. 

Would the scene where he walks through the hail of bul­lets towards the Mini Can­non wield­ing bank rob­ber, who then shoots him in the face, actu­ally work if super­man didn’t watch the entire thing with a level of super human detach­ment? 

The bul­lets bounce off with no effort and the final colt 45 face-shot simply crumples.  But through this bar­rage Super­man walk, watches and then only raises an eye­brow.  He is impossible to piss off.  His power is that great.

Also, amaz­ingly, he is powered by the most nat­ural force in the solar sys­tem; the sun itself.  Unlike the dirty bomb radi­ation of the Hulk, the bat crazy men­tal­ity of Bat­man, the radio­act­ive spider bite of Spi­der­man or the dodgy Super Soldat pro­cess that spawned wol­ver­ine, Super­man is Solar powered.  He is a fam­ily friendly, healthy and above all envir­on­ment­ally friendly.  Thus he is the per­fectly accept­able super hero. What could be more nat­ural than being solar powered?  The scene where he renews him­self in the sun is stun­ningly beau­ti­ful because of this.

I digress here, but I always wondered why he hung about in low Orbit so much… know I know; he was recharging.

Super­man rep­res­ents the ideal we would all like to aspire to. For while he is very Amer­ican in the ori­ginal movies, he also has a large Uni­ver­sal­ity due to his alien nature.  And this is the rub; the greatest “man” of Earth is an alien.  Mes­si­anic con­nota­tions are not missed I feel, and indeed they were not by the film makers either, as when he “renews” in the glow of the sun he makes the sign of the cross.  The whole:

“They are a good people, they want to be, they only lack the light to show them the way, that is why I sent them you, my son”

The “Chris­tian God” angle.  Yes, all the stops are pulled out for this one.  Super­man is the Jesus that the Amer­ic­ans wish they had. Not meek, but strong.  So strong that he can afford to be meek.  Like a man hand­ling ham­sters: gen­tile, firm, guid­ing, wise and caring.  A man unlike “V” (who takes our con­scious to a higher plain through pain), Super­man makes us feel warm and safe, he is the per­fect Christian.

And yet dis­pite this, (I am firmly in the Richard Dawkins camp myself,) just for those moments in the film we can almost wish he was real.

Then the film ends.

Step­ping out­side of that cocoon of unreal­ity, I am back here. And whilst I may be stuck here, a part of my child­hood and a won­der­fully example for my adult­hood have been awakened.  I over­state not at all when I say that Super­man and his human rival for Lois rep­res­ents all that is good in men.

I hope to take from their example.

(9/10)

Basho

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