“I owe an incredible debt of gratitude to John Williams; with out his music, Superman’s powers are drastically diminished. Consider me, should you attempt to fly with out that theme, you go nowhere.” —Christopher Reeve
The above assertion, mentioned at a 1993 celebration honouring the composer, applies not solely to the actor enjoying him but additionally to the character of Superman. Since Reeve flew onto screens in 1978, John Williams’ theme has been synonymous with essentially the most well-known hero in DC Comics’ secure, and it continues that legacy in “Superman,” which opens this week. So maybe it’s time to ask ourselves: Simply what’s it about that theme that retains it going past the movie that spawned it?
“One of many important issues concerning the movie to me,” Williams mentioned within the 2001 documentary “Making Superman: Filming the Legend,” “was that it was enjoyable and didn’t take itself too critically. The best way Richard [Donner] had directed it, and notably the way in which Chris and Margot [Kidder] performed the components, it had virtually this sort of theatrical camp to it that didn’t take itself too critically, and if one might strike a degree of theatre and sleight of hand and tongue-in-cheek within the creation of the themes, that it may be the suitable concept.”
Williams wrote seven totally different themes for “Superman: The Film,” together with a ravishing love theme and a nostalgic Aaron Copland-esque theme for the sequences in Smallville. But it surely’s the Superman theme that’s appropriately dominant. It’s made up of two sections: a strong fanfare performing as a precursor to motion and a name to arms, and an enormous and shiny most important theme that makes use of a three-note phrasing that sounds prefer it says “Sup-er-man.”
So when Clark Kent has to turn out to be Superman to avoid wasting Lois Lane from changing into a sidewalk Jackson Pollock, Williams performs an enormous rendition of the fanfare as he opens his shirt to disclose that massive “S,” creating a really iconic second. Subsequently, the principle theme performs with exuberance and vigour as Superman catches the falling helicopter, with the group beneath him doing the identical factor the viewers is doing: cheering. And it’s not simply the selfless heroic act we react to, it’s the fist-pumping triumphant music beneath it.
“Like all of John Williams’ nice themes,” says Tim Greiving, writer of the forthcoming guide John Williams: A Composer’s Life, “the Superman theme feels prefer it has existed for the reason that daybreak of time, and feels prefer it got here right here with Kal-el all the way in which from Krypton. An awesome fictional character theme, like an important pop music, feels inevitable and predetermined whereas additionally delighting our ears with a way of shock—and Superman’s theme does that in spades.”
Williams’ theme continued to soar throughout the three remaining Reeve “Superman” footage and past. “Supergirl” got here to screens in 1984, with the identical producers behind it: the notorious Ilya and Alexander Salkind. Jerry Goldsmith scored the movie and wrote principally new materials for the image, however he additionally discovered area to incorporate a short however reverent quote of Williams’ theme, in a scene the place the title character sees a dorm poster of Reeve’s Man of Metal. This continued in each live-action and animation, with Shirley Walker’s wonderful theme to the 1996 cartoon “Superman: The Animated Collection,” which additionally makes use of the “Sup-er-man” three-note machine. Though, to be honest, that phrasing was first utilized by Sammy Timberg within the 1941 “Superman” cartoons as produced by Max and Dave Fleischer, so it’s not particularly a brand new factor—Williams simply gave it that added oomph.
2006 noticed Williams’ theme return to cinema in an enormous manner, courtesy of Bryan Singer’s “Superman Returns.” A pseudo-sequel to the primary two Reeve footage, and featured a variety of homages to the movies, not least the variation of Williams’ themes by Singer’s common scoring associate John Ottman, who reintroduced the theme in an enormous most important title sequence similar to the 1978 authentic. Even Zack Snyder was initially desirous about utilizing Williams’ music for 2013’s “Man of Metal.” In 2022, storyboard artist Jay Oliva posted on Twitter that Snyder needed to make use of the theme, however Warner Bros. most well-liked a brand new method, finally hiring Hans Zimmer. “Zack and I cherished that theme,” Oliva mentioned, “however the studio wouldn’t allow us to use it as a result of they needed one thing new for this Superman. It turned out to be a superb factor as a result of Hanz’s [sic] theme was excellent.” Williams’ theme did seem briefly in “Justice League,” as scored by Danny Elfman, however this was reversed in “Zack Snyder’s Justice League,” which featured music by Tom Holkenborg.
Zimmer’s method to Superman was admirable, but it surely was doomed to fail as a part of a movie that didn’t appear desirous about taking the character critically. The darkish and gritty tone that many followers admire is ill-fitting for Superman, and as a lot as they inform us his “S” is the image for “hope,” there appears to be little or no of that within the precise image. In consequence, Zimmer’s music is way more pleasant away from the movie.
Gunn, nevertheless, didn’t hesitate to deliver John Williams’ theme again. “That soundtrack,” he informed Gizmodo in 2024, “was one in every of my favourite of all time. After I was a child, the factor I cherished essentially the most concerning the film was the music. That was the factor I took dwelling with greater than anybody else.” For “Superman,” Gunn recruited English composer John Murphy, who had scored “The Suicide Squad” and “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3.” However on the time, Gunn had not even completed writing. “He was one of many first folks I gave the script to, together with Peter Safran and a few others, in order that he might begin writing music for it. And I mentioned, ‘I need to use a model of the Williams theme, however I need to do our personal model of it.’”
Murphy’s model of the theme debuted with the primary teaser trailer in December—a extra concise model of the melody performed initially on electrical guitar earlier than being reprised with an orchestra and refrain. It feels recent and distinctive, however nonetheless definitively John Williams, a Superman for a brand new technology, however one which respects the place he’s come from.
“What’s actually wonderful is how that leads into quite a lot of different items,” Gunn mentioned. “A few of which come again to the Williams theme, however a few of that are purely John Murphy. It goes into that, comes again out, and it’s used superbly all through the film. And John has labored virtually continuous for the previous virtually two years, placing the rating collectively.”
It will seem that John Williams’ Superman theme isn’t going away anytime quickly. Maybe that is applicable for a world in a lot turmoil, the place audiences nonetheless require the escapism and symbolism his heroic acts deliver, as his comics did in the course of the Nice Melancholy. As George Lucas is so fond of claiming, it’s like poetry. It rhymes.
“The Superman theme,” says Greiving, “grew to become completely glued to the character, not simply because the film was so widespread and even as a result of the tune was so catchy, however as a result of it match Superman like a bespoke blue go well with. Williams so expertly cast the suitable melody for that character, the right melody, that we simply can’t think about him with out it.”
