Transcript of 70mm’s Superman: The Movie (1978) Episode.
SLIM Hey, it’s your old pal Slim. And this is 70mm, a podcast for film lovers. Every Monday, I’m joined by famous artist Danny Haas.
DANNY It’s enjoyable but I don’t understand the physics of it. Like how is he making her fly like that?!
SLIM And spiritual advisor Protolexus.
PROTO Because that’s the way it works, is you know, the earth is like a VHS tape, so if the tape is turning one way, it’s going forward and if it’s going the other way, it’s going backwards.
SLIM And together as friends forever, we discuss recently watched movies. Later in this episode, we’re celebrating Richard Donner’s Superman: The Movie. Will we believe a man can fly? It’s time to settle the debate… enjoy!
[70mm theme music ramps up, plays alone, fades out]
SLIM I was listening to a podcast earlier today.
DANNY Nice. Which one?
SLIM Hold on a second. Let me finish my thought.
DANNY Okay.
SLIM And there was a person on as host that was almost to the point of tears talking about the 10 minute preview of the movie Dune.
DANNY Was it Marcie?
SLIM And that — no, it wasn’t Marcie. You saw the 10 minute preview of Dune in theaters. You were a guest host on Dune Pod.
DANNY Yeah.
SLIM Unbeknownst to us. So you shared your thoughts on the premiere.
DANNY I did.
SLIM On that podcast, not with us. So my question first is to Proto, how do you feel about this betrayal? He didn’t share that with us first.
PROTO Et tu, Danny? [Danny laughs] You know, we’re just gonna have to move past it. And we’re just gonna have to do the, you know, the review here on the show. Danny, please.
DANNY It was actually almost 30 minutes of film we watched — not of actual footage. But it started with like a behind the scenes cast interviews making ofs kind of shots. Then Timothée came on and —
SLIM He was there?
DANNY Yeah, he walked down the crown. Could barely see him.
SLIM In Orlando?!
DANNY Yeah, I couldn’t see him over the chairs. He’s really short guy. [Slim laughs] Then he introduced the — we watched the first 10 minutes of Dune. And then he came after that, Denis came on, talked to Hans about music. And then we got the new trailer last night. All on IMAX, sound, everything.
SLIM The hyperbole I heard on this podcast. Better than Star Wars. Bigger than Blade Runner. Best science fiction movie ever made.
DANNY Mhmm.
SLIM These are all quotes from Danny.
DANNY Yeah. And I prefaced those quotes was saying I’m going to regret this.
SLIM I have not seen the trailer. I’m a retired trailer watcher these days.
DANNY I respect that.
PROTO Good for you.
SLIM I’m out of the game. So I’m going to go in with a fresh mind when this is viewing, when I have my chicken parm sandwich and I watched Dune in my basement as it was meant to be seen. Proto, what do you think about all these positive vibes from this preview? Everyone is losing their minds for Dune!
PROTO This gives me great hope for our world that we would be this — that we could get this excited again for a movie that could be this big. Yeah, that’s what people are saying. That is what they’re saying with this movie, and that makes me excited. I want it to be this big. Some are saying the greatest movie ever made and it hasn’t even come out yet. [Slim & Danny laugh] I want it to be that!
SLIM Oh my god. I mean, I can’t even describe what I’m — I don’t get it. It’s a lot. The hyperbole is knocking me out cold. So I can’t wait to see this. October or if it gets delayed for another year. Maybe next October. We’ll see how it goes.
DANNY Hmm, can you imagine?
SLIM Ay caramba. We have to say hello to some new friends that joined our Patreon this week. You can join our Patreon at 70mmpod.com. Four bucks a month to get exclusive episodes. Access to the VHS Village discord, early access to episodes and discounts on Danny’s beautiful prints and merch that we sell on our storefront. So Robert, Bryce, Sean, Robert and Nick! And we are at right now. if you want to update, like to the road to 200, I feel like we should have some kind of like explosive sound effect. Like the ESPN Breaking News. We’re at 169.
DANNY Excuse me?
SLIM For the road to 200.
DANNY Noice.
PROTO One six nine?
SLIM One. Six — [Slim & Danny laugh] The Tom Hanks. [Slim & Danny keep laughing] I don’t know — this week or last week, the sweaty Tom Cruise meme has really taken over our Discord and I’m all for it. So just a reminder that 200, we’re going to do the Harry Potter movies for the patrons. I got a DM from someone — not going to name names — to our 70mm account. ‘The Harry Potter movies are not an incentive.’ That person said.
PROTO Wow.
SLIM Yeah.
PROTO I like this take.
DANNY That’s impressive. [Slim laughs]
PROTO I really like this. I like this angle. This is good.
SLIM Could’ve been one of Proto’s burner accounts for all I know. [Danny laughs]
PROTO Did I write this? That’s a good, that’s a good approach.
SLIM I’m not even sure if Proto of follows the 70mm account, to be honest, I don’t think it was him. [Danny & Slim laugh] So welcome everyone and we appreciate your support. Proto, did you watch any movies this week?
PROTO I did. I watched two. We had a night.
SLIM Really?
PROTO Where my dear JR Scrolling picked a movie for us to watch.
DANNY Oh my.
PROTO And she wanted to watch Kajillionaire.
SLIM I saw that. I was blown away that that was a movie that you logged.
PROTO Well she wanted to watch it and I looked it up and I saw well it’s streaming on HBO Max and Gemma from The Letterboxd show she had a review of it. Five stars.
SLIM Wow.
DANNY Oh my gosh.
PROTO And she said ‘I want to crawl inside Miranda July’s brain and curl up there forever’. I figured that’s a pretty, that’s a pretty good, a pretty good take. So, I was like I’m down to watch this. And it was fun. It’s like a real quirky, fun movie. Miranda July’s the director, so she has a few movies. I haven’t seen any of her other ones. But um, it kind of reminded me of Horse Girl and had like the same kind of quirkiness about it. And the lead in is Evan Rachel Wood and she’s like fantastic. She has an amazing head of hair and this that goes like down to like her waist. Looks incredible the whole movie.
SLIM Your review stated something along the lines of like, I wish I can achieve this at some point in my life or something along those lines.
PROTO Oh yeah. Oh my gosh, if I had hair that long, you can do anything! You can just do anything. [Danny & Slim laugh] Like no one can stop you at that point.
DANNY No one would stop you.
SLIM That’s the one thing holding you back is hair down to your ass. [Proto & Danny laugh]
PROTO This is the key, I’ve discovered it!
SLIM What else did you watch?
PROTO Oh, and then I got to watch the third installment of the Apes movies. Escape from the Planet of the Apes.
SLIM Ohhhh!
PROTO This movie is so good. I was not expecting this, what it was, I had no idea what this movie was about somehow. Because there’s, you could look at, I mean, a lot of things and it would just be spoiled immediately. So I had no idea what’s going to happen in this. But it was so great. So much smarter than I thought it would be. I loved the whole thing. I gave it four stars. And it’s my favorite of the Ape movies so far. So three, three is the best for me.
SLIM Yeah, I agree. I think Marcie also gave that four stars. A bunch of people on our #hotapejourney with our friends at the BAT & SPIDER podcast. They’re doing all the movies. For better or worse. And I agree, three, when I watched it last month or a month back, I was like shocked how good it was. Just from the opening scenes. I thought it was funny, very campy. Of course the back half isn’t very funny or campy be but I enjoyed it as well.
PROTO Yeah, it gets so serious. There’s so much, there’s so much like fun stuff in this with the apes. But then yeah, at the end, it like like takes a turn but it’s it’s still great. I love the whole thing. I couldn’t believe it! I couldn’t believe how much I liked this movie.
DANNY Wow.
SLIM Every week, we give away free year of Letterboxd Pro for the friends that share the show on social media. This one, I was calling out this winner for this week. Well first of all, you get rid of third party ads. You can see where your movies are streaming, get access to stats at the end of the year. And this week’s winner on Twitter is, let me just get through this thought here, @sg3i19 and their Twitter account from what I gather is a Once Upon a Time in Hollywood stan account.
DANNY Oh my.
SLIM They say that they’ve seen this movie 110 times.
DANNY That’s not possible.
SLIM Danny, your thoughts?
DANNY This seems like someone I could be great friends with.
SLIM So you’ve won a free year of Letterboxd Pro, congratulations. And if you want to support Letterboxd and upgrade to Pro or Patron status, you can do so anytime at 70mmpod.com get 20% off. Should I talk about a movie I watched?
PROTO Can you please talk about The Burbs?
SLIM Ohhh my god.
DANNY Oh baby! Talk about ’em. Please!
SLIM The Burbs. The Burbs!
PROTO What is this movie?
DANNY What led you to The Burbs?
SLIM The Burbs. You talk about sweaty Tom Hanks. The Burbs. So I’ve been watching a lot of movies lately. More so than usual. You know, trying to do prep for The Letterboxd Show, I’m co-hosting this season. You can listen to at your leisure using the link in the Episode Notes. And we’re interviewing a guest in the future who’s has The Burbs in his top four. And I’ve never seen The Burbs and I was like, Okay, it’s time, I’m going in. So I put this on, kind of like, you know, my tablet while I’m working. And I was shocked. It’s Tom Hanks, The Burbs, you know, it starts out with the kind of — it’s the same director as Gremlins, Joe Dante. And you know, it starts out with like a comedy, you get to see Tom Hanks in this small cul de sac. Everyone on the street has like a quote unquote, “personality”. And there’s this one house that is very strange. It’s dilapidated, no one has really met the owners. So all these people, this small group of people are like, oh, we got to figure out what’s going on this house. And it’s a comedy based on that. And you kind of can’t tell if it actually is something nefarious and like a horror movie esque angle that’s happening in the house. Or it’s just the leads thinking too much of it. And actually nothing being wrong. So I actually had no idea what angle it was going to take. But I was cracking up the whole movie. I loved it! I compared it in my review to Scrooged which is kind of like of the era — what’s his face? What’s that actors name?
DANNY Bill Murray.
SLIM Bill Murray. [Slim laughs] I don’t know why I couldn’t remember his name. But Bill Murray’s in that, that’s streaming all the time. Everyone watches Scrooged every year, streaming on your fridge probably at this point. The license that is everywhere. Burbs is not. It’s a Paramount movie. It’s not streaming. I don’t think I’ve ever seen it streaming. So it’s hard to watch unless you just want to rent it. Which I recommend. But I loved it. Tom Hanks is hilarious in this movie! I think like my brother grew up watching The Money Pit. So I remember scenes from The Money Pit of like him cackling after like the toilet falls through the floor. That’s like a famous Tom Hanks comedy scene. So I think I might need to go back and watch The Money Pit.
DANNY Love this journey.
SLIM Did you see The Burbs, before, Proto?
PROTO No, I want to now though. This is, me and JR Scrolling have to get up in this. She loves Tom.
SLIM Is it time to get into Superman? I think it might be time. We haven’t even mentioned it yet. Start the episode, first of all. But how about Danny’s art? I don’t know if it’s been posted yet. But I just want to call it out right now.
DANNY Do you want me to?
SLIM He’s done two pieces of art for this episode. I’m not sure if he’s gonna — I told him that he needs to post both. I don’t know if he will. But the first one was amazing. He said he wasn’t happy with it. He did a second one. Also amazing. And —
DANNY Thank you. I need to know where Art is.
SLIM Noted Superman movie film fan, think it’s his number one maybe favorite movie of all time. He’s been sweating this moment.
DANNY The sweat on Art right now.
SLIM We thought it was time. Dick Donner has left us and we thought it was a perfect time to kick off Blockbuster Month Part Two early and talk about Superman 1978. Proo, can you fly us through the story of this film?
[theme music from Superman plays]
PROTO Somewhere in the unknown universe is a dying planet. In a defiant effort to save the life of their son, a father and mother sent him out into the darkness of space on a collision course with Earth. He looks like a human but he is an alien. He blends in and lives lives like one of us. He’s a reporter at The Daily Planet in Metropolis. But he is far from average, with the ability to fly, containing enormous strength and fantastic abilities. He is like a god amongst the Earthlings. And while he is a God, he is also kind and has the capacity to love. To love Lois Lane, the cat stuck in the tree and the countless lives he saves from the evil in the world. He could be anyone and accountable to no one. He was born Kal-El of Krypton but he chooses to be Clark Kent of Metropolis. He could rule the world yet he chooses to serve it… in Superman.
SLIM Kal-El of Krypton. Superman: The Movie.
DANNY Mhmm.
SLIM Is that the official title? Superman: The Movie?
DANNY Yeah.
SLIM Oh my god, I got write that in my notes. When I post this episode.
DANNY Official.
SLIM Danny, where were you?
DANNY Where do we begin?
SLIM Where were you as a youth?
DANNY As a youth?
SLIM When you sat down to watch this movie?
DANNY Honestly, I think a lot of my viewing of this film was in pieces on television. My dad watched this a bunch of times on VHS and I wish I had that VHS because I love that poster. But I don’t think I sat down myself and pushed play and watch this film until probably 10 years ago maybe? Like it was more more recent in my life. In my comic book owning phase, we had this kind of playing on repeat quite a bit in the shop. The store we worked at — or I owned. And so that was about it. I mean, I don’t have a theater moment of this. Never got to see like a rerelease of it. It just wasn’t, it wasn’t a movie that we watched a lot.
SLIM That’s not a bad idea. They should re-release this in theaters.
DANNY Mhmm. Yeah, I agree.
SLIM Proto?
PROTO I definitely remember my dad showing this to me when I was a teen, you know, I’m watching this with him and the ending, like never forgetting the ending of this movie. So that was like the main thing. But to return to it again was so cool, because when I was young, I didn’t really know the story of Superman that much. It wasn’t until I was older that I started reading comics. And just like know the story of Superman and then from then it’s like, I watched Man of Steel and just all the Batman or Superman Returns, those movies. So like that was the one that was in my mind. And then so to come back to watch this was really interesting from what I like learned about Superman.
SLIM Yeah, growing up, I was not a big Superman guy. I was more of a X-men, Batman, I guess, of the crew. I grew up with comics, obviously. But Superman was just not my jam. I thought he was kind of a loser. I think a lot of probably nerdy kids probably felt the same way and eventually found a comic book that was right for them and maybe was like okay, maybe it’s not so bad. My first note, actually, to be honest, I don’t remember seeing this movie when I was kid. I think this is a TBS Superstation jawn, probably.
DANNY Yeah, exactly.
SLIM Four hours. [Danny laughs] Commercials every two minutes. This opening for this movie. I checked the clock.
DANYN Which opening?
SLIM After my son waltzed out the room. [Danny laughs] He gave up on this movie during this intro. Over five minutes long, the opening credits.
PROTO Amazing.
SLIM Like what’s happening here?
PROTO Everyone wanted that letter treatment. Are you kidding me?
DANNY I mean, I want my name in those lights.
PROTO You see the test of that, you’re like ‘No, yeah, yeah. Do me too. Yeah, no, no, you have to do me. I’m on there’ [Slim & Danny & Proto laugh]
SLIM Granted the music is obviously great, but we could probably do some trimming here. We could probably figure something else out, maybe for this introduction opening.
PROTO Maybe do like five names at a time. Maybe share the screen a little bit. [Slim & Danny laugh]
SLIM Also, Christopher Reeve, he’s fifth billed in the intro?! Did anyone else catch that? I was like did I miss Christopher Reeve’s name? To start this movie? And then finally comes up, I was like, holy god, did they not put any trust in him? He’s the star of the movie!
PROTO Well, how about he doesn’t show up until —
DANNY 47 minutes.
PROTO 47 minutes.
SLIM That’s because Marlon Brando scene takes an hour before they even have him appear on screen.
DANNY My gosh.
SLIM Danny, what’s on your list for Superman?
DANNY My first thoughts is this intro with Brando. It’s so — I don’t know. I mean, this is 78 right? 78? And what is the comic scene at this point? You know? This this jumps straight into the Brando hamming — like not even hamming it up, just phoning in this Jor-El scenes.
[clip of Superman: The Movie plays]
JOR-EL We will never leave you. Even in the face of our death. The richness of our lives will be yours. All that I have, all that I’ve learned, everything I feel, all this and more, I bequeath you my son. You’ll carry me inside you. All the days of your life. You will make my strength your own. See my life through your eyes, as your life will be seen through mine.
[clip of Superman: The Movie ends]
DANNY He’s kind of awesome. [Slim laughs] Like I kind of like the — it’s so weird! Like I think like only Brando can do this, like phone in a scene but still be regal and kind of cool? Like, it was amazing. But this story feels so wild. Like, how do you get 47 minutes into a film before you see Reeves in the tights and a cape flying? It’s wild. Like how are people not walking out of this film? Like, right away? It’s I mean, you come into them with the sentencing of Zod and crew and mind you, I thought oh, cool. This is the one where they fight Zod. [Danny laughs] I was like oh, it’s this one! I was like, I guess the second was where he decides to reverse the earth and throw physics out completely. But no. So yeah, you have Zod and them in like hula hoops of death. Like it’s unreal what people sat through to get to Christopher Reeves in this film, willingly.
SLIM Yeah, it’s funny. I actually thought the same thing. I was like, I couldn’t remember the plot of this. And then I was like, oh, he fights them in this. And then I forgot that there was this whole, they filmed both Superman one and two at the same time. So they were kind of like teasing the next movie and allegedly —
DANNY That’s insane to me.
SLIM 1978, I mean, what are people thinking back then? That was weird thought to have. But apparently, so Donner films 75% of the second one, had a falling out with the producers. And they’re like, okay, stop what you’re doing just finish the first movie, and they had to scrap everything he did, and reshoot it, that the next guy, Robert Lester, I think could get full credit for directing the second movie.
PROTO Wow. That’s crazy.
SLIM Can you imagine scrapping 75% finished?! What a waste of money.
DANNY That’s the reason there was the push for the Donner cut for the second film.
SLIM Yeah, yeah, exactly.
PROTO Ohhh.
DANNY Okay, that makes more sense.
SLIM So I actually remember most of Superman 2 more than I think this one.
DANNY I do, too.
SLIM So looking back, it is kind of strange that they like tease that. You know, the second movie. The one of the thing from the first 45 minutes, I think we all watched the 4k version, maybe of this version. But that thing they do with the Kryptonian suits, it actually usually hurt my eyes a little bit. [Danny laughs] Watching this scene. Like the silver — I don’t know what kind of photography trickery they’re doing, with the contrast or whatever. I thought it was kind of jarring.
DANNY This is like 3M reflective material. It’s on like runner’s gear at this point. So you don’t get hit by a car. Like just lighting it up with a light will make it shine like that.
PROTO It’s a crazy way to like give like a futuristic like alien look to the clothing.
DANNY I think it looks amazing. I love that on screen, especially when it’s the red, the red looks so badass.
SLIM I felt so old. [Danny laughs] Thinking in my head ‘this hurts my eyes’. [Slim laughs] I thought that was the end of me. Proto, what you got?
PROTO My first note says Krypton looks like Legos. [Danny laughs] But all the like the design of the beginning I loved, like everything like it, like those portions don’t look that great. Like the, just the landscape. I mean, it’s but it’s a cool concept and the way that it like moves, you know, and they, when the planet is exploding, or like they’re going into the other ones. And then later on when the Fortress of Solitude is built, it does like the reverse, that was like really just seeing it like on both sides. But then when when Zod is the throne in the space and there’s that huge dome that flips over. That was such a great scene! I love that!
DANNY I love that.
PROTO Like the design of all that?
DANNY It’s so rad.
PROTO It’s so cool. And just seeing like all these miniatures, I loved like all of that in the beginning.
SLIM I think Art prefaced, I think, I’m not sure what channel we asked him in. If he, because there is a version on VUDU that is like the television cut. And it’s like three and a half hours long or something but it’s not available in 4k. So I think I asked him what version or if he had seen the 4k. He said the one thing that probably won’t hold up very well are the miniatures and some of the green screen stuff. So yeah, I think the first, some of the miniature stuff, for me at least did look a little bit not perfect in 4k. One thing that I forgot, so I was thinking Man of Steel, Man of Steel also opens with that long Russell Crowe Krypton scene, which I found was strange at the time. But now looking back, this movie did the same thing. So I was just like an idiot for not remembering that, you know, that happened already. So maybe it kind of made sense.
DANNY There’s couple of moments in this beginning that I love. Like we’ve heard, this is this Jor-El kind of speech a couple times in other Superman movies. So like when he starts talking the you will travel, my son or my little son or something, he just kind of has that like Jor-El Brando kind of moments. I get a little, I get kind of chills, like Brando’s voices is something else in this film. I really dig what they do with it. But then like, Krypton starts getting destroyed. And it’s like he’s walking in rubber cement. The pace he’s moving around, drives me nuts because it’s like, move quicker. But also it doesn’t matter. You’re gonna die either way, but it’s still frustrating to watch how slow moves around the cradle with Clark.
PROTO Talk about waiting till the last minute, like couldn’t you be like five minutes ago? [Danny laughs] There’s like, the ceiling is falling in.
DANNY You predicted this!
SLIM Also, he’s talking to the council. And they’re like, no, we’re not gonna blow up. What do they call it? It’s just another gravitational path, or something? He’s like, no, it’s just we’re on a different path. When they show the planet there is like a sun next to the planet. [Danny & Proto laugh] Like hello, you’re going to die. [Slim laughs] But Danny, what else is on your list?
DANNY I mean, after that. We get to, I mean, the next stuff on my list is coming down to teenage Clark Kent and then the death of Jonathan. And I kind of love the guy that plays Clark, young Clark in the high school, but it’s so frustrating to watch. You know, you know he’s Superman, but he’s just getting picked on. It’s like, the things he could do to that idiot that just kind of knocks over the gear and takes Lana away from him. I’m just like, just flick him Clark. Or just something! Dweeb. Atomic wedgie his ass. [Slim laughs] And then he kicks that, I always, I remember the scene because he kicks that football and I always think the transition from the football being kicked, I think it’s gonna hit the train. Because the train starts come around the corner at the cut and then I think that’s going to knock the train off the tracks like a football can do that. But that’s where my brain goes every time he kicks that football.
SLIM That gif, Megan just posted. The gif of him running.
DANNY What are they thinking?
SLIM I watched this with Amanda, Amanda was howling. [Danny laughs]
DANNY It’s so bad.
SLIM He looks like a muppet. [Slim laughs]
DANNY Clark, what are we doing? You’re literally running past a passenger train where everyone can see I’m sprinting as fast as the train. Will we wake up, please? You’re an alien.
SLIM I guess also like, what year is it? What’s the, what are they going to do? Like, tell their local paper that some kid was running really fast?
PROTO Yeah, ten people.
SLIM They’ll see it in a month.
PROTO Ten people saw a man running with the train. [Danny & Slim laugh]
SLIM What else, Proto, what do you got?
PROTO Um, yeah. So the whole thing you know, my first, well my second note is 23 minutes and we’re finally on Earth. 23 minutes to get to Earth. And then, yeah, another like 20 minutes to get to Clark. But this whole sequence I love how it started with like that a like a look at a comic book. And it like introduces the Daily Planet.
SLIM Oh, yeah, I didn’t even know that was there.
PROTO I mean you could just tell that the writers just love this, love this story so much. It’s all just like such a homage to like all the big moments in Clark’s life. Like those — when we talked about Justice League, like him in the field, and the you know, with the sun, the sunrise. Oh my gosh, like, that, I just love that the mythology of the origin story is just to me so compelling. Like, I love how it hits all those notes in this.
SLIM They have the great line where he’s talking about him showing off.
[clip of Superman: The Movie plays]
JONATHAN Yeah, I know, you can do all these amazing things. And sometimes you think that you will just go bucks and you can tell people about it.
CLARK Yeah. I mean, every time I get football, I can make a touchdown. Every time. I mean, is it showing off if somebody is doing the things he’s capable of doing? Is a bird showing off when it flies?
JONATHAN No.
[clip of Superman: The Movie ends]
SLIM My god, that whole scene was very well written with the two of them having that great conversation, and Clark’s wig almost blowing off his head during that shot. [Danny laughs]
DANNY That — is that a wig?
SLIM That had to have been a wig!
DANNY It’s so bad, right? What is that?
SLIM That was not good.
DANNY Yeah, maybe that’s what cause the heart attack.
SLIM Proto, your review, what was your one work review for this movie? Wasn’t it just ‘wigs’?
PROTO Yeah, wigs, some great wig work. I mean our boy Gene Hackman, amazing. [Slim laughs]
DANNY My gosh.
SLIM This is a noted Gene Hackman stan podcast. Art in chat getting defensive: ‘I’m going to look up how long until Batman shows up in the suit and Batman Begins, guarantee it’s also 45 minutes.’
PROTO Well, that’s the thing for me. And I was reading the reviews coming in and a lot of people said, they didn’t really like it until like the second half, or like the final act of this movie, like was slow. Like they’re like, oh first half not so great, second half better. To me, the first half of this movie is amazing. I love this whole story. I just love every aspect of just seeing his origin story. And I know it’s like, you know, a superhero movie. Is that what you really want to see? But like with this, I don’t know, I just, I just love it and actually, I had an idea for if they did Superman. What they should do is just do origin stories but like have somebody different, a different like, you know a person of color just be Superman and like just tell a completely different origin story for Superman growing up in different you know, parts of the world. Like it’s so good to me that you could do that. Like rather than have a continuing story about one Superman, just retell the origin story over and over again. I think it’s, you can just change it in interesting ways.
SLIM I think Ta-Nehisi Coates is doing, is writing the next Superman movie. And I think that that follows a black Superman.
DANNY Oh my gosh.
SLIM So I’m not sure if that’s a multiverse, or what, because there is a pretty famous Superman like multiverse story where he’s black, but he’s also the President I think.
DANNY And for me, it’s not necessarily seeing Superman in the capes. It’s seeing Christopher Reeves. Like it’s not just about Superman, it’s about seeing the main actor in this film not till 47 minutes. And that’s what the most mind blowing thing is for me. Is that we don’t see Christopher until then.
SLIM We need a lot more Christopher.
DANNY That’s the thing, yeah, that’s I want more of him.
SLIM Yeah, him as Clark, the dweeb. He’s great. And he sounds like Kermit the Frog in so many scenes as Clark it but it’s so amazing. Like the one shot where he’s hunched over in Lois’s apartment or whatever. And he like is going to tell her so he takes his glasses off and he like stands upright.
DANNY Oh my gosh!
SLIM You’re like oh shit! He is actually doing some work here. [Danny & Proto laugh] That was amazing. I thought.
DANNY Yeah, yeah, yeah.
PROTO Yeah, he’s so good in this. He’s so compelling. All his scenes. And just the way he really transforms himself as this character is so good. There’s so many funny bits with him. Him just like, bumping into people and, you know, putting up his glasses. He just has the whole package.
DANNY Yeah, that’s the thing about Clark. He’s like, that character he portrays is so comedic that he does it so effortlessly, like, you can tell like, it’s meant to be funny. But also it’s he’s just meant to be a dweeb like it just to kind of a geeky guy, but he pulls it off incredibly well. And I find myself just almost enjoying watching him play Clark more than I care about him being Superman. That’s impressive. Like it’s just, I’m so like, captivated by his Clark.
SLIM How about he says goodbye after his dad dies, and he goes and says goodbye to his mom, adopted mother. They say goodbye as if like they’re never gonna see each other again.
DANNY Yeah, that was heartbreaking.
SLIM How crazy was that?
DANNY And just real quick, back to the Pa Kent dying scene. Both, so I watched this twice this week, both times. I can’t, I’m blanking on the actor’s name, both his performance when he says his line when he just says ‘oh no’ there’s both times, I almost teared up, like there’s something like oh, no, I’m dying, but like, it was like oh, no, it’s not my time to go. Like it’s just, just that those two words but the way he delivered, felt like, it hurt both times I watched this twice this week.
[clip of Superman: The Movie plays]
JONATHAN Oh no…
[clip of Superman: The Movie ends]
SLIM Yeah, I think that’s my favorite scene in the movie.
DANNY Wait what? Him dying? [Proto laughs]
SLIM It was that whole, the conversation they have and yeah, him dying after.
PROTO Did you cry? [Danny laughs]
DANNY Damn Slim! [Slim laughs]
PROTO You tearin’ up?
SLIM I did not cry during that scene, but I do, a little tear up moment, is when he first runs through the street and pulls his dress shirt to the side like that is movie magic. Okay? Just saying that right now. There was one line that maybe didn’t make any sense. I’m not sure if you caught it, but Jor-El says that I will have been dead for like 500 years. Did anyone else hear that?
PROTO I think 1000? Because I was wondering that as that like was beginning, like at the start of the movie?
DANNY Yeah, I didn’t understand that either.
PROTO Wait, does he, like, how, is he in there for 1000 years? Like when he’s looking at Earth are we, you know, is this like 10,000 bc? Like I was trying to figure that out because they could have done that. But then it seemed like they, they but changed after that.
SLIM Well after that he taught like, while he’s educating his infant child. You know, in the ship, he mentioned Albert Einstein. Right? So then, that doesn’t make any sense.
PROTO I think they have it that they have, like all the history of these planets to like, that’s why they know of Earth and they know like, how far along they are. I don’t know how they would know that. Maybe they’re listening to the radio?
SLIM Just getting WiFi beamed up to that ship, just absorbing all Earth’s data. [Proto laughs]
DANNY But that’d be the future, right?
SLIM Well, if he had been dead for 1000 years, he wouldn’t have known about, you know, the theory of relativity or any bs. Where’s Art in chat? Can you explain that to me Art?
PROTO We need a Mythbusters on this.
SLIM What else is on your list Danny?
DANNY Well, I mean, Clark, the Daily Planet. And then we get Lois. We get Margot Kidder’s Lois and I, she, for me, she borderlines that endearing, but also a little bit annoying aspect of the character like she could really like, grade on you, like grade on you. But I kind of, I also love her like, she’s pretty great as Lois. But it’s, I don’t know. What do you guys think of Margot?
PROTO I feel like she’s so unique. Like just as a character, like I can’t really, there’s just something again, it’s just something about her and the way she carries herself. Yeah, it’s so different than I feel like another character is written and it seems so. You know, I guess like, I don’t know, maybe that’s just like how she is written in the comic books. That’s what I would imagine and like, and then Margot just portrays her so well. Yeah, it’s kind of like yeah, at times, I’m like, I don’t know if I really like her in this. But then by the end of it, she’s so endearing. And just her and Clark together are amazing.
DANNY Mhmm. Yeah. I love watching her in the Daily Planet to just kind of doing her thing being the lead reporter and I don’t know, she’s just fun in that role.
SLIM Yeah, like I like Margot. I like Margot as Lois. I like the character Lois. I’ve always liked the character of Lois in the comics. She’s probably the coolest female character that I had read growing up maybe in these comics like one of the early ones that I can remember that I could hold her own. And that wasn’t always kind of like a damsel in distress. So I liked the scene, you know, where the robber scene where Kermit the Clark is trying to save the day there. [Slim & Danny laugh] But she, you know, I just think she’s, she’s fast. She’s witty. She can’t spell, I’m a better speller than Lois. I like her. I like her in this movie.
DANNY Nice.
SLIM One of my earliest memories of Margot Kidder is probably when she’s dying from the earthquake. Like I think I might have seen this scene way too early. And she’s like, you know, eating dirt in that shot and it’s like oh my god, is she dying?!
DANNY Insane shot, yeah.
SLIM Yeah, that is a very dark shot.
PROTO Yeah, yeah, I remember the first time I saw that was like very scared. Well, can you think of a worse way to die? [Slim laughs]
SLIM Suckin’ down dirt.
PROTO Oh my gosh.
SLIM Proto, what else you got on your list?
PROTO So something I realized while watching this. You know, this came out in 78. Star Wars came out in 77. So can you imagine like being a kid, you watch Star Wars and the next year you get this movie? You probably thinking like we’re going on a run!
DANNY The lotto.
PROTO Yeah, we’re just like, each year we’re gonna have an amazing movie. Like that must have been amazing! Like Star Wars coming out for the first time? Are you kidding me?
DANNY Talk about John Williams never stopping working at all.
SLIM How much time off does he get a year? What’s his schedule like? [Danny laughs]
DANNY I don’t know, between going from Star Wars straight into, I mean he wrote these back to back! Like, how do you write to iconic themes, like how do you have that in your brain? Like it’s fascinating!
PROTO These movies are definitely twins, like because of that John Williams, but then they also just have like a similar feel to me. I was thinking of A New Hope. And actually made me think I kind of wish we at some point got a George Lucas superhero movie. Just like, I wonder what he would have done with that.
DANNY Holy cow.
PROTO George, please.
DANNY How about the interview she does with Clark, with Superman on her balcony? How… horny? My god!
SLIM They were a few line that were like triple entendres.
DANNY I was like, just ask them how big his penis is! [Slim laughs] That’s what you’re asking.
SLIM There’s one line, I think she asks does he eat?
[clip of Superman: The Movie plays]
LOIS Do you… eat?
SUPERMAN Yes. Yes, I do. I’m hungry.
LOIS You do.
[clip of Superman: The Movie ends]
SLIM And then he looks at her seductively, when I’m hungry? [Danny laughs] Can we slow — this is 1978 everybody! This is a Superman movie. I wrote this down. I can’t remember if I wrote this down correctly. This must have been a quote. ‘Do you like pink?’ Was that a line about her underwear?
DANNY Yeah.
SLIM Because he was like trying to see — also, yeah, she asked what what color my underwear is. And he tries to look right away! I was like, Superman!
PROTO The lead.
DANNY The lead. [Danny laughs]
SLIM I can’t believe Superman tried to look the first time!
PROTO C’monnnn.
SLIM C’monnn.
PROTO What do you think he’s doing? C’mon. [Slim & Danny laugh] He may be Superman but he’s still aman.
SLIM He’s a Boy Scout. I’m just saying, I wouldn’t think he’s, ‘yes, I’ll try to see what color your underwear is right away.’ I don’t think that’s you know, day one. Maybe day two. What’d you think of them flying?
DANNY The flying was interesting. I don’t mind much. It’s enjoyable. But I don’t understand the physics of it. Like how is he making her fly like that?! [Slim laughs]
PROTO The fingertips!
DANNY The fingertips! Didn’t make any sense! But it’s fun. It’s great.
SLIM Seantana [Slim laughs] ‘Could see her underwear but couldn’t see she was gonna get buried in the rockside’ [Danny & Slim & Proto laugh] Yeah, I mean, come on. How did he not hear any of that, but he’s able to do everything else?
PROTO I mean, he gets around the planet so fast to all the different places he goes. He’s not keeping an eye on Lois? Like he knows where she is.
DANNY His girl, yeah.
SLIM Yeah, that was bs. Admittedly that part was bs. Yeah, the flying scene I think is talked about a lot as like one of the greatest of all time. I actually didn’t like her voiceover stuff that much in this. [Danny laughs]
DANNY You didn’t like the reading the mind scene?
SLIM No, I didn’t.
DANNY Can you read my mind?
SLIM No, wasn’t for me. Sophs loved it. Yeah, like I’m the odd person out, everyone loves that scene. It just didn’t vibe with me.
DANNY I thought was so cheesy. [Danny laughs]
SLIM I got to my remember her being disturbed by her buried alive. Oh, another scene that Amanda cackle that was when he’s like flying around and doing good deeds. You know, he’s like out there finally as Superman. He saves a cat for the little girl. And the girl, little girl goes inside tells her mom that you know, a guy saved my cat. And the mother like yells like stop. The little girl gets slapped! [Danny laughs] Anyone else hear that audio?
DANNY Yeah! I don’t know what that was.
SLIM Right before they transition to the next scene, the mother slaps the daughter. Oh my god. I was cracking up. Thanks a lot, Superman. Sheesh. Been dead for 1000s of years. Am I better speller than Lois? Chilled up when he pulls the shirt. Yeah, that scene where he’s running is amazing. There’s a shot where, the helicopter scene really, the first big stunt that felt like in old school stunt. Like it felt like a stunt show. It just looks so dated, but looked. but still felt amazing. Proto, what did you think of that helicopter scene? That big first intro to Superman?
PROTO Yeah, I mean, it’s pretty good. Yeah, the introduction of him like running out. And, you know, appearing, is fantastic. Yeah, I don’t know. I mean, it’s fine. I didn’t really have like many thoughts about the helicopter.
DANNY To me that feels like the one scene that I heard the most about. Like, when people talk about this movie like, oh, the helicopter scene like that’s the scene where, I don’t know. It was just like for people who saw it then, it felt like the groundbreaking Superman catching Lois and then catching the helicopter like that would have been mind blowing to see. I mean for us now, it feels dated and like a stunt show like you said. But then, can you imagine?
SLIM I would think the most talked about seen is him and Lois eye effing each other on that balcony for five minutes. [Danny laughs]
DANNY That was the 70s beb. [Slim laughs]
SLIM Let’s talk about Gene Hackman. Mr. Luthor. Lex Luthor and the most amazing underground layer of a subway system maybe in movie history.
PROTO Talk about big brain thinking. Getting that set up there. That is like such an amazing villain lair to be there. Just like in the subway. He’s found this abandoned mansion or whatever. And filling the bottom floor with water to make a pool. Amazing. Like he’s just thinking outside the box, people. Like he may have a real estate empire. But he’s in the subway. Getting free rent. [Danny laughs]
SLIM I love the idea of an underground subway station that is just forgotten.
PROTO Yes.
SLIM All that stuff. Oh my god yes, I would want to live in one of those places. The library that he’s got set up over there. Amazing. That’s so good. I like him as Lex Luthor. [Slim laughs] Oh my god! I just saw the thumb in Photoshop.
PROTO Nailed it.
DANNY Unreal.
SLIM I loved Hackman as Luthor. Loved it and thought it was a lot of fun. I love the lair. I loved his cronies. I love how he interacted with the cronies. I mean, the scene where they have to like re-coordinate the rocket and they failed the first time.
DANNY Oh my gosh.
PROTO Oh my god. [Proto laughs]
SLIM So they had to go to like Plan B, so they have a plan B of like driving a truck with different disguises. I thought that stuff was hilarious.
DANNY I wrote down that first scene where they wreck that car and throw it like they fake the body being thrown. And that Sergeant just straight up wanting to assault her?
PROTO The mouth to mouth scene?
DANNY He just yeah, chest compressions and mouth mouth. Everyone turned around while I do this to this woman who is probably dead from that car wreck. But I’m just going to go at it anyway.
PROTO She was outside on the street but not a scratch on her.
DANNY Yeah, just assault this woman, what the hell?
SLIM Could have cut that out, could have cut the little girl getting slapped. The one scene that I wrote down, Lex Luthor is trying to figure out a weakness for Superman. And he pieces together that like okay, he came from a planet that blew up. So maybe there was a meteor. He finds a location of kryptonite, using encyclopedias faster than I could have googled this information. I’ve never seen anyone use in Encyclopedia Britannica like that before in my life. [Danny laughs]
PROTO He’s just that smart. 240 iq.
SLIM Danny, what else on your list?
DANNY I mean, I love Ned Beatty in this. I think Ned is so silly. So funny. I think I read in someone’s review that he kind of like set the bar for this kind of like sidekick henchmen and it really does like he’s, he’s silly and Mr. Luthor and like, I just this, it was funny watching him and even his intro, the walking through the station, the just, uh, I don’t know. He’s good. he interacted with Hackman real well, too. Because Hackman to me, he’s like a Brando type, very, like he feels like a serious guy, serious actor. But when you pair him with Ned Beatty, just being a goon. It’s just hilarious. It makes him look funnier to me.
SLIM Proto anything else in your list that we didn’t touch on?
PROTO Um, let’s see. I felt hearing the line from Superman. ‘Fighting for truth, justice and the American way’ just hits a little different these days than it did then.
DANNY I know.
PROTO It’s like, oh, that line is not that great anymore.
DANNY Makes you cringe a little bit. But yeah, let’s talk about Lois is death scene for sure.
SLIM Lois croaks in one of the most disturbing ways I can remember. [Danny laughs]
DANNY Buried alive!
SLIM Superman’s not even near to there. This movie, this ending i think is probably my biggest memory of this movie is Superman reversing time, and I sort of forgot about until I sat down to watch it. And then you heard the Brando voiceover to start the movie like, ‘you can’t interfere with human history’ something along those lines. I was like, oh God, the ending. [Proto laughs] And so Lois dies and this is a great scene from Christopher Reeve. He gets pissed.
DANNY Oh man, he gets mad.
SLIM Gets super mad, freaks out. Yeah, Art says comic books. Yes. Yes and. And he reverses time by reversing the planet. Like I’m forgiving the reversing time by turning the planet around. I’m letting that go. I grew up on comics, that’s fine. But I like can’t wrap my head around him going that fast around a planet but then also this kind of undoes whatever bad happens on planet Earth in the future. Like just reverse time again. You know? Just keep going. [Danny & Slim laugh] We got this in the bag Clark! Just let everything bad happen. If nuclear war happens just reverse time and stop it my friend.
PROTO It’s a good tool to have as Superman. You’re solving a lot of problems there. Yeah, I mean, that’s hilarious. That whole scene and it is the most memorable thing for me, like when I think of this movie, I like, I remembered that scene specifically. Oh yeah, he reverses time in this. Because that’s the way it works, you know, the Earth is like a VHS tape, so if the tape is turning one way it’s going forward and if it’s going the other way it’s going backwards. [Danny & Slim laugh] That’s how time works. No, it’s fun. It’s fun for this movie.
DANNY Yeah, I mean, at this point if you haven’t, like, forgiven so much silliness and you are upset about him reversing the Earth, then how have you made it this far in this film?
SLIM Right. Alright, so closing thoughts and rating for Superman: The Movie 1978, Danny?
DANNY Yeah, I had a blast watching this film. I watched it twice this week. I enjoyed, I enjoyed it both times. And I don’t think I watched it from a lens of just kind of sitting back I don’t have any stakes in this film. I don’t have any real care for, I’m not a big Superman fan. And this timeframe just felt like this is just just have fun with it. And I did. I had a blast. Twice watching it. I enjoy. I mean, Christopher Reeves is just a specimen of a human being. Watching him in this film, his physicality. Going from Clark to Superman, to being funny, to being serious, like the range she pulls off in this film is impressive. Him crying over Lois, his anger. I mean, I could not get enough of Clark and Christopher and I love Brando in this too. I know he gets a bad rap for phoning whatever in, but he’s just kind of iconic for me. So I’m coming out of this at four and a half stars. It just kind of come short of being perfect. And I just enjoy it so much.
SLIM Wow. 90 minutes a day on a trampoline was part of his workout regiment.
DANNY With Darth Vader himself, David Prowse.
PROTO Tag team.
SLIM I mean, I need to see video with this workout. I need to replicate this —
DANNY For a few reasons.
SLIM Tell you what… do you eat? [Slim & Danny & Proto laugh] Proto, final thoughts and rating for Superman?
PROTO Yeah, so like I said earlier, the first half of this, his origin. I was thinking this is a five star movie. Everything about this, we don’t even talk about the Daily Planet stuff that much. But just being there. I mean, those scenes were amazing. And the fact that a superhero movie, you know, Superman has that much good of just like movie without any superhero is great. Like, I was so engaged with it. I was thinking, how about, how about like a TV series where it’s the Daily Planet and Superman just like shows up at the Daily Planet. So like, it’s just kind of like their office inside there. I’d watched that. Give me a TV series about Superman, but he’s just in the background. Visiting Lois there. Yeah, I mean, it kind of falls off towards, you know, near the end a little bit for me. I mean, I still love it though. I love just all the characters, Gene Hackman in this, fantastic. So yeah, I’ll give it four stars.
SLIM Four stars from Proto. Wow. Woooww.
DANNY Bring us home, slim.
SLIM I’m the same way. I think this would have been amazing if they probably, I’m on the odd side, I would have cut all the Brando stuff. I was, my eyes were hurting. [Danny laughs] I was kind of falling asleep. Sounds like I’m like I’m 60 years saying it! But I did have a lot of fun. Christopher Reeve is amazing. He’s so good in this movie. He is so good as Clark. He’s so good as Superman. I just want to follow him around and to see him doing dopey good things for people and having like little nerdy sign offs to people. So I’m a four stars for Superman. I had fun despite all my druthers with the bad scenes but I had a lot of fun going back to watch it and this is a classic. Obviously, Christopher Reeves is an amazing actor.
DANNY You know what I love about Reeves as well as Superman is he kind of, not only does he kind of set the bar, but he set the tone for Superman from here on out. How he looks, how he acts. Like there’s, it’s impressive. I felt like comic books started to draw him more looking like Christopher Reeves. They have Brandon Routh wants to play more like Christopher Reeves played him. Like he really set the level. I mean even in Man of Steel, there’s a shot of Reeves, in that kind of that scene where the thing is terraforming the Earth. It’s a quick cut of Reeves in that. Like his legend of being Superman kind of lived on through every other iteration from comics to other movies, which is, you can’t ask for more. That’s amazing.
SLIM God, remember Man of Steel?
DANNY Yeah, baby.
SLIM Fudge me. What a picture. Did I watch that in 4k? I’m gonna have to rewatch that.
DANNY It’s time.
PROTO I think it might be time. [Slim laughs]
SLIM Should we do a Man of Steel episode?
PROTO I didn’t watch it when like you guys did before.
SLIM Ohhhhh.
DANNY Oh baby.
PROTO It’s been a long time.
SLIM We talkin’ bonus ep right now?
DANNY Do we just keep rolling?
SLIM We keep rolling the Superman journey. Go right to Man of Steel.
DANNY OH baby.
SLIM Well, that’s Superman, we have to get into some VMs that are Superman related. You can leave us 70mmpod.com. You can leave us a voicemail. You can write us a letter. Follow your heart. We’ll accept either. Boop beep boop beep boop beep boop beep boop beep.
[voicemail plays]
VOICEMAIL Hey you guys, it’s Haitch. I’m just like, just about delirious right now from last night. But I will say Superman: The Movie came out in 1978. I was eight years old. And it did the impossible, like it made this movie, just real. And the tagline ‘You will believe a man can fly’ on the strength of Christopher Reeve, Dick Donner, Mario Puzo, the rest of the cast, it just is phenomenal. And it’s because it captures the earnestness of Superman and the idea of bridging from 1938 all the way up to 1978. The way they did that in story, with the passage of time to ground it in the real world was phenomenal. And I will say it had the impact on me two years later, in 1980. When I went to see Superman 2, I wore a pair, at 10 years old, I wore a pair of underoos, Superman underoos under my clothes so that I could be Clark Kent, with glasses that didn’t actually have lenses, but that I could be in the theater, knowing that I was Clark Kent and no one knew that I was really Superman. So I don’t know, this movie’s profound and changed my life. I love it so much. And I hope you all had a lot of fun with it. Thanks, you guys. Haitch out.
[voicemail ends]
SLIM Would we have Dune Pod without Superman? I ask you.
PROTO That is great. Yeah, that’s I mean, you’d love stories like that about a movie changing your life when you’re that young. You know, like, that’s so great.
SLIM Haitch coming off his DUNC high. Preview night, which we talked about earlier.
PROTO Preview glow.
SLIM Quote, quote, Danny, “the greatest movie that will ever be made”
DANNY Man.
SLIM “Better than Star Wars.” Next VM.
[voicemail plays]
VOICEMAIL Hello 70mm, it’s Sophie. The reason I’m calling in today is one, I actually finished the movie on time this week to be able to listen to the recording and understand what’s going on. I just finished watching Spider-M — nope, Superman, just finished watching Superman. And it was so good. So much fun. I loved how much of a dweeb Clark and Superman were, it was very endearing. Also, when I went to go log this movie on Letterboxd, I stumbled upon Art’s review and I just really wanted to shout out that review is so heartwarming and endearing. So thank you Art for that. And it also had me wondering because I don’t think I know this about the three of you. Who are your favorite superheroes. I feel like I need to know that about you. I feel like it says a lot about a person. And if you’re wondering who mine are… it would probably be Celine Dion. Dolly Parton, Beyonce and… Britney Spears? Yeah. I think those are my favorite superheroes. Anyways, excited to listen to what you have to say about this movie. Love you guys. Bye.
[voicemail ends]
PROTO I don’t know how to answer this now.
DANNY That’s a lot right? It’s a loaded question.
SLIM I grew up with the X-men so Wolverine was probably up there but Spider-Man, Spider-Man is amazing. Every every middle aged nerd dude probably would say Spider-Man but he’s a great character, is probably one of the best superhero characters ever made. Imo.
DANNY Yeah. I think for me as a kid it was Spider-Man but through my like the 90s, I’m a massive Batman fan, for me it’s Batman. I love Batman. And if I’m honest, it’s really just because I love the Joker. The Joker is a character that I’ve always loved in the comics through the Batman animated series. It’s just the like, I feel like the animated series for me growing up was what I rushed home from school. I remember setting the VCR to record episodes, just Batman for me was it. I love Batman so much. Still do.
SLIM We should do the Night of the Sentinels bonus episode. [Danny laughs]
DANNY My gosh!
SLIM Maybe also do like the Batman animated series episode one bonus episode.
DANNY Mask of the Phantasm?
SLIM Ohhhhhhhhhhhh.
DANNY Mhm. Mhm. It’s a lot.
SLIM Proto?
PROTO Um, probably Arnold Schwarzenegger. [Danny & Slim laugh] He’s probably my superhero. But probably Batman too. Yeah, Batman was like the one that was like introduced to first and say my watch the animated series and it’s just like, imprinted upon my psyche. Batman’s the one.
SLIM I remember getting Wizard magazine. I used to get that every month and they had like the character designs for the Batman animated series. You know, they would like show the first ever animated drawings of each character and I could not have been more excited for that show to come out. Oh my god. Wow.
DANNY Unreal. Thanks for the question Soph.
SLIM Soph from Film Hags podcast fame, which should listen to you by the way. They just covered The Princess Bride.
DANNY Unreal movie.
PROTO The games they do on that show. Unbelievable.
SLIM Ever frickin’ heard of it?
DANNY Inspiring.
PROTO I didn’t know you could do this on a podcast.
SLIM I will say probably some of my favorite podcast listening is the Hag Royale episodes.
PROTO Yes. So fun.
DANNY It’s a blast.
SLIM We have to get to our final VM from dear friend of the show, Art
[voicemail plays]
VOICEMAIL 70mm, friend of the show, Art here. What an emotional night. We’ve all just had paying our respects as a community of film lovers to a recently passed away Hollywood legend whose greatest gift in movies comes to us with this movie. Talking about Ned Beatty, course, and his portrayal as Otis. I know it’s hard in this movie to take your eyes off of anything that isn’t Christopher Reeve in that suit or magnetic acting icon Gene Hackman. But watch it again, friends, as they say, and instead spend every moment he’s on screen looking at Ned Beatty’s face. He is brilliant in this movie. He is doing 100 little things with his body are these little micro expressions. And they all just put me in stitches. He is my favorite movie henchman. And we have the added benefit of him fumbling about here in what’s got to be the best villains lair in movies. What do you guys think? Do you either have a favorite movie henchmen? Or a favorite villains lair? Thank you for picking my favorite movie. And RIP Mr. Donner. Love you guys, have a great night.
[voicemail ends]
SLIM The king himself, Art.
PROTO Thank you Art.
SLIM Thank you Art.
DANNY Thank you Art.
PROTO I love the first line that Gene Hackman says to about Otis ‘amazing that brain can generate enough power to keep your legs moving.’ [Slim & Danny laugh] Such a good line.
DANNY It’s a good line.
SLIM Favorite lair? I don’t know, this is hard to top. I think.
DANNY It really is. For me, I absolutely love, sorry, Penguin’s ridiculous lair in Batman Returns. Other than that, I mean, this one kind of takes the cake. So fun.
SLIM Proto, can you think of anything?
PROTO Probably Dr. Evil’s in Austin Powers.
SLIM Ohhhhhh.
DANNY Oh my god!
PROTO C’mon!
SLIM Fudge. Another movie that we need to do. Eff me. Did that come out in 2002?
PROTO Is there 4K? [Slim laughs]
SLIM The 4K of his teeth. [Proto laughs] That would be life changing. Goldmember’s the only one that qualifies. Kev says. Dang it. Thank you everyone for your VMs and as we mentioned the top of the show, Blockbuster Month, 21st century. For the month of August. We’re starting early. We talked about some options. There’s a lot options out there. We’re going big. We got a top last year. Can it be done? I think so.
PROTO Can it be done?
DANNY I believe so.
SLIM And Proto is the first person in line after Superman. He already had his pick. Apparently allegedly done up.
PROTO Mhmm.
SLIM I have no idea what it’s going to be personally. But I’m ready.
PROTO When I got a 4k TV. I almost put this movie on first. When we were doing Faves Month, I almost changed my fave to have this movie in it. Because when you talk about a movie that is a milestone in your life and a theater experience, the movie that I think of, Mad Max Fury Road.
DANNY Ohhh my god.
SLIM Ohhh my goshhh.
PROTO That’s the one.
DANNY Whaaat?
PROTO That’s my pick.
SLIM That’s not what I was expecting at all. I’m stunned.
PROTO It’s time.
SLIM I’m stunned.
DANNY Man!
SLIM 4K of that, you kidding me?
DANNY You better hurry because the Village is buying the 4Ks and Amazon’s gonna jack the price up if we’re not careful. [Slim & Proto laugh] I’m going to Best Buy right now.
SLIM Wow great pick for Blockbuster Month Part Two.
DANNY Yeah, this will be fun.
SLIM Are you still solid on your pick, Danny?
DANNY Yes, I’m solid. But when we get to the ep, you guys are going to help me out. Mhm. I’m excited.
PROTO Oh boy. Wow. Okay.
DANNY But right now we got Fury Road to get through and I’m very excited for this.
SLIM I’m pumped. I’m pumped.
PROTO Pump it!
SLIM I’m gonna turn the lights off. I’m going to turn on my GOVI 9.99 LEDs behind that TV. And I’m going to pop open a fresh bag of beef jerky.
DANNY Oh my. [Danny laughs]
PROTO We need stills.
SLIM Already a disgusting looking Photoshop in chat. [Slim & Proto laugh]
DANNY Oh my gosh.
PROTO Oh my god, the possibilities in this movie.
DANNY I’m afraid for what we’re gonna see.
SLIM Next week we have Fury Road. Proto, can you wrap this up this week as we put Superman behind us?
PROTO You know what I loved about Haitch’s VM? He said, you know, a movie can change your life. Movies, Superman changed his life. And there’s movies that changed our lives. And there might be more movies. There’s movies that haven’t been made yet that are going to change your life. I think that’s just a great thing to know. You know, the movies that are ahead of us. Can’t wait.
SLIM Dune, ever heard of it?
PROTO It’s coming.
SLIM We’ll see everybody next week.
[70mm theme song ramps up, plays alone, fades out]
SLIM 70mm is a TAPEDECK production featuring original artwork provided by Danny Haas. Spiritual guidance and VGER, the robot who loves movies created by Protolexus. Producer emeritus Dale_a. Prints and other merch are available on 70mmpod.com. This episode was mixed, edited and produced by me, Slim. You can support our Patreon for access to the VHS Village Discord to talk movies with new friends, access to exclusive episodes, discounts on merch, and a physical membership card mailed to you. To check out other TAPEDECK podcasts, find the link in the episode notes. And if you’d like to support our friends at Letterboxd and upgrade to Pro or Patron status, you can do so with a 20% off discount using the links at 70mmpod.com. Goodbye!
