One of the best opening credit sequences... - Superman (1978) Discussion

[–] q_leo_rahman 8 years ago

Definitely. John Williams's music makes it so incredible and exciting.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rk1aQx9hTaE

07/08/06... 786... the sentinel of Allah has arrived.

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[–] wordsatplaytoday 8 years ago

Thank you very much for the link to that.

Though I don't understand the very beginning with the curtain and the black and white segment with the kid voiceover and the comic book. Just how is that supposed to fit into the movie? I always found that a bit odd.

Damn, I'm good.

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[–] q_leo_rahman 8 years ago

Though I don't understand the very beginning with the curtain and the black and white segment with the kid voiceover and the comic book. Just how is that supposed to fit into the movie? I always found that a bit odd.

The curtain is for a big-screen cinematic effect.

The voiceover and the comic book are a homage to Supe's comic book origins.

07/08/06... 786... the sentinel of Allah has arrived.

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[–] CapitanJusticia 8 years ago

That's not just any comic book....it's 'Action Comics #1', the comic which marked Superman's first appearance back in 1938. The way the camera focuses in on a panel showing the Daily Planet which becomes 'real' and then pans up to outer space to introduce the opening credits is pure genius!

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[–] ak47wong (484) 5 years ago

Sadly, that's not actually Action Comics #1. The cover of Action Comics #1 shows Superman lifting a car, whereas the comic in the movie has a rocket ship and doesn't seem to match any real cover (there's a gallery here: https://superman.fandom.com/wiki/Action_Comics/cover_gallery). The real Action Comics #1 also doesn't have a picture of the Daily Planet in any of its panels, though I agree the dissolve from the comic Daily Planet to the real one is indeed genius.

(The page of ads shown in the on-screen comic book is in the real Action Comics #1 though, which is a nice touch.)

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[–] [deleted] 5 years ago

The idea and premise are both good. The music, is of course, legendary - it's heroic, energetic, melodic, atmospheric, and yet somehow cosmic and awe-inspiring.

The basic effect of the texts wooshing is nice, the sound effects are a bit too loud, though - but it bugs me that it doesn't properly SYNC with the actual text. The 3D texts do not QUITE form the actual text we see, it just crossfades lazily. This ALWAYS bugs me, it's such a glaring mistake.

(The endscroller texts are more interesting to me, with their nice depth-effect)

The 'flying through space' looks like they just filmed a sparkler, some chemical effects, and not much else.

They should've looked at some photos of actual galaxies, nebula, star clusters, etc. and tried to achieve the same cosmic brilliance, beauty and 'amazingness' (probably not a word) of actual space.

Compared to those photos (especially the hubble ones of nebulae), the intro 'space flying' seems very tame and underwhelming - compared to what it COULD have looked like (but then again, no one has dared even try something like that in movies, so I guess this is still 'best' in that regard), it's a bit disappointing.

There should've been more stars, and more actual depth-distance-stuff instead of things just suddenly appearing and disappearing and having that small amount of 'stars' flying towards us constantly (and even they don't seem to have much grandeur or distance that they easily could - how more awesome would it have been to be able to track one very tiny star becoming closer and closer until it's a large star whizzing by - but no, it starts big and close and whizzes by quickly and then another one does the same)..

Oh well, one can dream.

It's good, but it could use improvement in so many ways, it's about 10% from what they COULD've done (even back then), if they followed the specifications I outlined in this post. Or at least did their best to do so.

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[–] millsey72 (9761) 2 years ago

I always fast forward thru the opening credits. It goes on for too long

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[–] pjl69 (2544) 2 years ago

Its good, but The Wild Bunch opening credits are the best.

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[–] millsey72 (9761) 2 years ago

Its better today when many movies don't even have opening credits. Opening credits is very boring

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[–] pjl69 (2544) 2 years ago

I liked the opening of Die Hard with a Vengeance. Just few rapid images of New York and then kaboom!

But if I had to rank opening credits:

1) The Wild Bunch
2) Casino Royale (2006) - almost any bond movie would be fine
3) Legend (1985) director's cut, don't remember how the american cut fared, but it didn't have Goldsmith's score at least
4) John Carpenter's Prince of Darkness, oh boy they are long, ten minutes or more
5) The Last Boy Scout

I'm sure I forget now plenty of good credits... Superman is among them.

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[–] pjl69 (2544) 2 years ago

Oh yeah, Terminator 2: The Judgement Day has great credits sequence. And main credits are the best part of The Rock.

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[–] mikethemartian (6288) 2 years ago

When Superman Returns came out and copied the opening credits style it reminded me of being a teenager in 1978 watching the original opening credits.

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[–] ecarle (14979) 2 years ago

When Superman Returns came out and copied the opening credits style it reminded me of being a teenager in 1978 watching the original opening credits.

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That was a nice bit of nostalgia.

I loved the sheer audacity of the 1978 credits...the opening seconds of the movie are very quiet with the "small screen" black and white shot of the Daily Planet and then...the screen widens all the way, color comes in , John Williams music starts its quiet slow build and the names start "swooshing" back and forth across the universe and the music explodes into the main theme.

VERY exciting. I'll add this. The year before Williams' overture opened "Star Wars" but with THAT one, all the first notes came EXPLODING on the soundtrack at once, and then the rather "stately" Star Wars overture unfolded. With "Superman," the music and the credits built, and built, and built and THEN exploded into a much more exciting "musical chase" than the stately Star Wars theme.

And this: he only shows up for the first 20 minutes, but Marlon Brando was STILL enough of a "classic star" from Streetcar Named Desire to On the Waterfront to The Godfather to Last Tango in Paris ...that he gets the first acting name on the screen, and over the title (along with Gene Hackman; Christopher Reeve has to wait til AFTER the Superman title).

Brando said that he didn't much care for acting after a certain point in his life, or for movies -- but he seems to have made sure that he got top billing for 20 minutes of screen time in Superman.

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CONT

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[–] ecarle (14979) 2 years ago

The Superman credit sequence is just about my favorite ...

BEHIND three in a row from way back in 1958-1960:

When a famous "graphic screen titles artist" named Saul Bass married his influential modern visuals to a great musical composer named Bernard Herrmann so as to launch three great Hitchcock classics in a row:

Vertigo(1958)
North by Northwest(1959)
Psycho (1960)

..North by Northwest most anticipates the Superman credits with Herrmann's music slowly building, building and building before it explodes in a fandango set across "criss-crossing map lines and falling figures" that foreshadow the chase to Mount Rushmore ahead. I also love how the famous MGM lion roars not against his usual black background, but against the glowing green map itself.

Saul Bass only did three credit sequences for Alfred Hitchcock, but he was very busy with other people in the 50s and 60's:

The films of Otto Preminger all have great Saul Bass credits from about the 50's to the end of Otto's career.

And Bass did a Kubrick movie(Spartacus.) And the original Ocean's Eleven(the same year he did Psycho.) And "Its a Mad , Mad World." And way near the end of his life, a Scorsese movie: Casino.

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