What a SUPER documentary.
May. 12th, 2006 02:36 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
thebitterguyOh, yeah: On Sunday, Cynra, ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
redeem147 and YHB headed down to the HotDocs festival to take in Look, Up in the Sky!, a documentary by documentarian/biographer Ken Burns about Superman, narrated by Kevin Spacey.
It was an interesting film, even if it suffered from trying to too much in too little time. I mean, Burns gave 12 hours to a period of four years! Now he wants to squeeze almost 70 years of Big Blue into less than two? I don't THINK so.
It focuses primarily on the evolution of the character, and his various multimedia appearances. It takes him through highs (the first two Superman films, Doomsday) and lows (the various problems suffered by various Superman actors, SuperPup, Richard Pryor).
Before we saw the film,redeem147 mentioned to me the whole thing about how Superman was representative of America, to whicy I replied "Oh yeah? When did America split itself into red and blue halves?" She chuckled, but I pointed out that Superman got HIS red & blue halves back together on more than one occasion.
Interesting revelations included Superpup, which was an unreleased pilot of a furry show were the various Superman characters were all dogs played by midgets in suits; Superpup's secret identity? Bark Bent. It was also interesting seeing the various member's of DC's bullpen talking about the evolution of the character. I think it was MIke Carlin who talked about the day Superman 75 (the Death of) came out. He described it thusly: "On the day Death Of came out, nothing else newsworthy happened anywhere in the world."
It's enjoyable for both hardcore fans and the casually interested. It doesn't go as deep as I'd have liked, but I've been reading about Supes for a couple decades now, so there's a lot of history I'd have liked to have seen that wouldn't have been good to put into it.
I wonder, though, if this is the first time a documentary's narrator referred to themselves in the third person. Spacey refers to himself as the actor who took on the role of Lex Luthor, in the third person.
redeem147 and YHB headed down to the HotDocs festival to take in Look, Up in the Sky!, a documentary by documentarian/biographer Ken Burns about Superman, narrated by Kevin Spacey. It was an interesting film, even if it suffered from trying to too much in too little time. I mean, Burns gave 12 hours to a period of four years! Now he wants to squeeze almost 70 years of Big Blue into less than two? I don't THINK so.
It focuses primarily on the evolution of the character, and his various multimedia appearances. It takes him through highs (the first two Superman films, Doomsday) and lows (the various problems suffered by various Superman actors, SuperPup, Richard Pryor).
Before we saw the film,
redeem147 mentioned to me the whole thing about how Superman was representative of America, to whicy I replied "Oh yeah? When did America split itself into red and blue halves?" She chuckled, but I pointed out that Superman got HIS red & blue halves back together on more than one occasion. Interesting revelations included Superpup, which was an unreleased pilot of a furry show were the various Superman characters were all dogs played by midgets in suits; Superpup's secret identity? Bark Bent. It was also interesting seeing the various member's of DC's bullpen talking about the evolution of the character. I think it was MIke Carlin who talked about the day Superman 75 (the Death of) came out. He described it thusly: "On the day Death Of came out, nothing else newsworthy happened anywhere in the world."
It's enjoyable for both hardcore fans and the casually interested. It doesn't go as deep as I'd have liked, but I've been reading about Supes for a couple decades now, so there's a lot of history I'd have liked to have seen that wouldn't have been good to put into it.
I wonder, though, if this is the first time a documentary's narrator referred to themselves in the third person. Spacey refers to himself as the actor who took on the role of Lex Luthor, in the third person.
