Superman: The Movie - The "Donner" Cut

Wraith is a great editor and communicator of his passion and vision. I am very happy to have been able to make his acquaintance through this site and enjoy the vision of the edits of Superman he has clearly worked on as an ultimate labor of love.

I am reviewing and recommending this cut most of all, as paired with Bobson's Superman II Extended cut it does complete the vision for me of what I have looked for in a Superman edit all these years. Many attempts have been made at great edits, but I've often found them either 1) limited by source material, or 2) not quite grabbing the right combination of essentials that, for me, make up the experience.

Take the beginning of Superman. The entire Krypton and Smallville sequences, including the trip north, for me, set the standard for the entire superhero genre. I'm not the best one to say such things, since I don't watch superhero movies, don't care, couldn't be less interested, especially with the fact that it just seems like a frenzied fad more than anything else these days. But these films, especially these opening setpieces, are a world apart from the current trend in movies and occupy their own "fortress of solitude", as it were.

I prefer this edit over the Epic cut Wraith has done with the story because of an essential that's needed in the opening, and that is the first scene with Martha and Jonathan. It is not a long scene, but does give the film that bit so needed to develop the characters, especially as Jonathan has just two scenes - the 2nd being his very affecting death scene. I find these scenes incredibly poignant - both sets of parents played off the other - especially the dynamic of Jor-El and Martha as two sides of the same coin (Superman's actual mother doesn't have a lot to do). The reverence given to these scenes is incredibly important, and anyone who goes through a Superman edit must use Wraith's standard, as it keeps all of the essentials in tact.

The narrative develops perfectly, with the good balance of story vs needed humor (isn't Gene Hackman and Ned Beatty's chemistry a scream?), all that Margot Kidder-spoken song appropriately truncated (this was always a VHS-fast-forward moment). The buildup leading towards the big detonation moment doesn't feel forced, always easy to follow, and buffered with character scenes that do feel essential, even if they could be removed for narrative purposes.

The one edit in the entire experiment here that, for me, could use a little more tweaking (or just left alone from its original state) is the "truth, justice, and the American way" comment, which was edited out. The problem isn't the decision per se, although we could see it as a charmingly naive aspect of Kal-El's personality, especially when paired against Lois's exasperated response (she's correct!) The problem with the edit is the 'nod' after his "truth, justice....." moment - that extra beat takes us out of the moment, especially when we're so used to the 'trilogy'. It's awkward, but how else *could* it have been edited? Wraith does what he can with it, although, again, leaving it alone is still, especially in 2022, charmingly quaint for Superman in an old-fashioned kind of way.

But that's a nitpick. The ending - Superman taking the route as scripted, no world-revolving, etc. - works as it should (Lois's exasperation when he shows up post-time travel, in the original, doesn't make sense with her rant about gas stations blowing up, etc., if she was indeed now saved - the original had the explosions and all that alongside the earthquake, if I remember correctly.). Now, everything fits as it absolutely should. Superman saves the day but Zod & co are freed.

The pacing is the key here, as it is with Bobson's II extended edit. Everything left in the edit to pad the character development is essential (too many other fanedits jettison this stuff for the sake of time). We're not in any kind of hurry here, and Wraith understands this. The care put into the opening, even if it is 'truncated' compared to the extra bits in the 'epic cut', is evident (the little edits aren't noticed). I so cherish the beginning of Superman, everything leading up to Metropolis, and it's all carefully rendered, nothing jarring, nothing that takes us out of the moment.

Wraith, your edit here - Donner cut - is my go-to edit from here on. Thanks for fulfilling a long dream since the dawn of fanediting - to have a complete vision of Superman as Donner intended.

It's miraculous that the first Reeve Superman movies are hailed as some of the best superhero movies ever made given the circumstances surrounding the push of the 'panic button' by executives. With a few simplistic edits and a couple of touch ups, Wraith demonstrates just how unnecessary some of those decisions were. The picture would have stood up to scrutiny with it's original intention left intact.

This theatrical cut touches all the principle beats you need, a straight uncomplicated narrative without too much padding or overbloated sensationalistic stunts like shock value 'deaths' and time traversing twists. Everything has stricter verisimilitude and as a result, you believe all the more in what you're seeing.

Not much else I can say about this, it's not a radical reinvention of the wheel, it simply puts some toys back in the box, and leaves you wanting more to play with. An all time great simply made into the great it could have well been. Panic averted.

The superman films were a big part of my childhood, watched many a time, less so as I got older but still present.

one of the last times I watched Superman was when I bought the epic 188 minute tv version, imported. it's didn't quite hit the same way as the special edition extended cut did. But I appreciate it's importance in terms of restoration and in wide screen *when we would have likely watched Pan and Scan version on tv back in the day) Anyway I digress.

Wraith has done a fantastic Job with this edit from a narrative standpoint. Krypton has always been one of my least favourite parts of the film and though some time is spent on it, it seems like only necessary time was spent here. maybe I'm misremembering but the destruction sequence seemed about 3 times longer when I was younger.

Onto young Clark, I always liked Jeff East - though its's hard to judge his performance when Reeves rerecorded his lines. I still am not fond of the train sequence as it doesn't look like he 's physically running faster than the train but that's not a visual fault I'd expect a fanedit to fix. We don't spend too much time with teen Clark overall, and I think that's the thing it's an hour before we see Reeve in the costume. The first hour just pretty much flies by. One thing I love about the first scene with the establishing shot of the Daily planet is the Fruit vendor outside, it just helps set up that that part of the Donner cut in II.
Things play out mostly as remembered for a while until the heroic deeds montage.- it was later where I was thinking about the cat in the tree and had to come back to the cutlist to check if it had been cut or if I was misremembering it as a sequence in Superman II. I didn't mind the scene for the reason that it shows Superman will take time out of being super to help someone with a problem no matter how small, but given how vicious the cat seems and the fact the girl gets smacked for "telling lies" I guess the bad reasons outweigh the good.
I loved that the date scene was shorter, again only a minute but what a difference that minute made. I'd love a revised version without any of Lois' inner monologue lol.
I couldn't remember the entirety of Lex's scheme, I remembered the car crash and the bridge, but not the squabbling in the ambulance in between.
Also I couldn't remember if Superman's makeshift dam was part of the theatrical cut or the special edition. The one thing I remember specifically being from the SE was the bullets ,fire and ice traps outside of Lex's base. On the one hand you wonder why he'd even bother trying, but on the flipside of that is maybe he wouldn't want Superman to be suspicious if he just arrived without any form of hindrance.

It's rare to find edits for Superman: The movie, I think the last one I watched years ago was the Up Up and Away edition which similarly truncated the time reversal and had Lois car simply stall- that's all I remember about that particular edit. I think the pacing here was great throughout. There was one part I forget where that had a little writing in the lower right corner, I thought it was a hiccup with the editing software but Wraith has confirmed this was intentional to confirm the source of the footage. I've amended the review to reflect this.

That small error aside, this was a great revisit to a beloved childhood franchise and made for a fantastic Sunday afternoon experience.
Thank you Wraith

Amazing edit, with no noticeable cuts or jumps. Ever since I saw the superior Donner cut of Superman 2, I've wanted a version of Superman 1 that fixes the inconsistencies between the two. This version does that, nearly to perfection. The only change I'd make is, since Lois doesn't die, there's little reason for her and Jimmy to travel West for the story, which really doesn't add to the narrative anyhow. We know what Luther is doing, as he's monologued to Superman. Her being in danger adds nothing as well. Plus, her realizing that Clark could be Superman at the end of the movie creates an inconsistency, as she has the same epiphany at the beginning of Superman 2. I don't fault the editor, as the intention is to get as close as possible to the film as originally intended by Donner.

Overall, a fantastic edit, with the only change I'd make for sure is cutting Lois realizing that Clark could be Superman, and the one I'd possibly make is removing Lois and Jimmy from traveling West. But neither of these inclusions takes away from the great experience of the edit.

I've already watched the 'epic' cut by Wraith, which combines Superman I and II as it was the original intention by Richard Donner. This cut is essentially the first part of that edit, as it follows the original Donner's narrative on the events of Superman I. So, it is the ideal companion to the Donner's edit of Superman II (or similar fanedits). Gone are the duplicate time travel sequence and the fate of General Zod & Co. is shown as a link to the events in Donner's Superman II.

Editing is, as always, top notch. I also appreciated that this version of the cut maintains the original sequence fo the Kripton's destruction, instead of using the too-CGI scene from Superman Returns used in the Epic cut. I think this fits better with the visuals of the movie.