SUPERGIRL the MovieThe Supergirl movie is a delightful fantasy-adventure for young Supergirl fans in the spirit of 1980's fantasy films. It is based on the classic Silver Age Supergirl and fits the feel of its period. In the movie Supergirl comes to Earth in a quest to save her world, not merely to escape its impending destruction. This results in a self-enclosed story in which Supergirl's goal is to return home, and save Earth along the way. This differs from the comics storyline, in which she adopts Earth as her new home and grows to adulthood having a strong civilian identity. While the Superman movies had a winking self-awareness which connected with the adult audience members, Supergirl and her nemesis, Selena, play it straight, with all the earnestness and seriousness of youth. The movie is more fantasy oriented than the Superman movies and has some of the supernatural feel of Supergirl's early 70's stories.
After starring since 1959 in Action Comics, Adventure Comics, and two short-lived series under her own name, Supergirl was launched to the big screen in 1984. A self-contained story which introduced her origins and first appearance on Earth, the movie stuck fairly closely to the spirit of the comics while presenting audiences with an exciting original adventure. Supergirl's costume, which had gone through a dizzying array of changes during the 70's and early 80's, was reinvisioned in a classic blue-top-and-red-skirt style that would become the comic's uniform for the next 15 years. (It's also the same costume as the very first trial "Super-Girl" who appeared a year before Kara's debut.)
Kara, daughter of Alura and Zor-El, has lived all her life in peaceful Argo City. This utopian society was built upon a chunk of rock that was once part of Krypton, and which its citizens moved to (or were thrust into) Inner Space after the planet exploded. Much of what she knows of Earth she has learned from her mentor Zaltar, an artist with a penchant for subverting the system. This includes "borrowing" one of Argo City's four primary energy sources, an "Omegahedron". When Kara loses the Omegehedron she feels responsible and impulsively climbs into Zaltar's nearby space globe and follows the orb as it breaks through the dimensional barrier to Outer Space. Her pursuit leads her to Earth, a strange planet where the friendly and not so friendly inhabitants give her frequent cause to flex her new superpowers while attempting to locate Argo City's power source. Her arrival is just in time, for Superman is on a peacekeeping mission light years away, and there is no one to stop a determined and increasingly powerful sorcereress with plans of nothing less than world domination. With the Omegahedron's power, there is nothing that can stop the megalomaniacal Selena - nothing except the most powerful woman on Earth.
The standalone SUPERGIRL movie offers us a very different view of the Super mythos and presents a picture of what a young girl might do if suddenly granted superpowers. As she samples the new-found delights this planet offers and tests out her new superpowers, young Kara comes of age and rises to the challenge at hand by facing her own inner fears before defeating her external foes. This movie stands apart from the four Superman movies, for the characters and situations are quite different, and should not be judged according to how it "fits in" with the other sequels. The score is a wonderfully inspired production by Jerry Goldsmith. In North America the movie never enjoyed the same commercial success as the first two Superman movies, due to Warner Bros. handing the distribution rights over to the fledging Tri-Star pictures, who cut the movie from its 124 minute runtime to 105 minutes. The story obviously suffered, and North Americans never got to enjoy the theatrical version which was so well received by international audiences. The movie was hugely popular overseas, especially in Japan, where a laserdisc release came out before the movie even debuted in North America. SUPERGIRL is special in being one of few fantasy adventure movies aimed at young girls, a vision the director, Jeannot Szwarc, worked hard to achieve in face of opposition from the studio.
The Supergirl Movie Downloads page has music files and scans from the soundtrack, scans of the Limited Edition DVD booklet, bonus features from the DVD, scans of the Japanese Movie Program, and a copy of the original screenplay.
On August 8, 2000 Anchor Bay Entertainment released the original theatrical version of SUPERGIRL for the first time in North America. Two versions were released: the 124 minute International Version, released theatrically throughout the world except in North America, and a never-before-seen 138 minute Director's Cut. (The original rough cut was 150 minutes.) Prior to Anchor Bay's VHS and DVD releases, only the heavily edited North American theatrical version had been released in the U.S. on VHS, and the amount of time cut made the movie almost incomprehensible compared to the International Version. The Director's Cut contains scenes and dialogue missing from the IV which enhance the story further. This is the longest cut known to exist, although no one knows exactly who created it, and the director had no knowledge of its existence. The elements for this 138 minute cut were discovered by accident in a container labeled "Do Not Use", and it is believed to be a cut intended for TV broadcast. Superman Cinema has an indepth Director's Cut Analysis which breaks down what was left out in the International Version, and the very few lines that were cut or dubbed from the Director's Cut. IMDB has a Supergirl Alternate Versions page with details of scenes not included in the director's cut or any other video release.
The International Version was released by Anchor Bay in full and widescreen VHS and on Region 1 DVD. The Director's Cut was initially released only on the Limited Edition DVD coupled with the IV, and later as a standalone disc. These DVDs are now out of print. Warner Bros. has acquired the rights and is reissuing the International Version on DVD on November 28, 2006, stripped of most of its bonus features (most of which will be made available on my Movie Downloads page).
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The 124-minute International Version. THX Approved. Features: Audio Commentary with Director Jeannot Szwarc and Special Project Consultant Scott Michael Bosco; "The Making of Supergirl" Featurette; U.S. & Foreign Theatrical Trailers; U.S. TV Spots; Original Storyboards; Still & Poster Galleries; Talent Bios. |
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The 138-minute, never-before-seen Director's Cut version that was struck from the original uncut negative. THX Approved. Released May 7, 2002. (No bonus features appear to have been included with this standalone disc.) |
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The 2-Disc Limited Edition DVD contains both above versions, plus a 16 page, full color bonus booklet. Only 50,000 copies were produced worldwide. |
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Warner Home Video 2006 Release. The back cover lists as features: Theatrical Trailer; "European Theatrical Version with 10 minutes of footage not seen in North American theatres" (i.e. the International Version); and "Commentary by Director Jeannot Szwarc and Historian Scott Bosco" which would be the same commentary as Anchor Bay's release above. Available at Amazon.com |
Varèse Sarabande released the original soundtrack (VCD47218) in the UK in 1984 but like many soundtracks it was not complete. The expanded soundtrack released in 1993 by Silva Screen includes the entire film score.
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