In the shot pictured above, the camera is positioned behind the red dome light on the police car, which obscures our view of Otis’ progress down the sidewalk. A car passes by, while one of the cops is pointing at Otis across the street. People cross right in front of the camera, even when a character is speaking. The signs on the stores are more aggressive, and the guys aren’t all wearing suit jackets, like they were a few minutes ago.Īlso, stuff keeps getting in the way. The street looks grimy in this scene we see trash cans, and there’s a guy sweeping up rubbish in the gutter. This sequence does the opposite of that, in a way that indicates to the audience that they shouldn’t be feeling comfortable anymore. On Clark Kent’s side of the street, everyone was well-dressed and polite, traffic noise was kept to a minimum, and there were no visual distractions to get in the way of the audience focusing on the characters’ interactions. Yesterday, I talked about how Donner cleared the screen of clutter and contradiction when Clark and Lois stepped out of the Daily Planet building into a sunny Metropolis afternoon. Naturally, this dark ritual of summoning begins with a quaint musical comedy street-sweeper, who shouts, “Hi, Otis!” This moment is a perfect example, because over the next four minutes, the film is going to walk us through a gradual transition that takes us from the last scene’s classic romantic comedy meet-shoot and leads us down into the depths of the underworld, and the brutal murder of a central figure in the sequence. People talk about the Krypton / Smallville / Metropolis sections as if that explains everything, but Richard Donner keeps on juxtaposing different styles through the entire movie. The film is essentially a montage of different styles, and once we get to Metropolis, that process doesn’t stop. And then, for about four minutes, it becomes a cop movie.Īs we’ve been going through Superman: The Movie, I’ve been tracking the film’s swift pivots in tone, as it transforms itself from sci-fi space opera to tragic teen drama to screwball comedy, with a detour into the psychedelic mindscapes of the Fortress of Solitude.
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