Super-line Controversy
If you don’t read entertainment blogs as obsessively as I do, you may not be aware of the mini-controversy swirling around a single line from Superman Returns, in which Perry White utters the phrase, “truth, justice, and all that stuff,” irking both loyal Super-fans and political conservatives who favor the classic “truth, justice, and the American way.”
Take a look at this , who understands that the moviemakers want the film to do well even in countries that aren’t too fond of the U.S. right now, but who questions why any version of the line needed to be in the film in the first place. Why not just leave it out completely?
I actually liked the “stuff” line, since it deflated some of the usual Super-pomposity. It doesn’t just edit out the “American” bit; it makes it sound like, “yeah, yeah, we’ve heard all this before,” pointing out that a lot of Superman rhetoric is too earnest to be appealing today. In fact, I would have liked the entire film to have that attitude. But I don’t count, because I don’t like Superman. In the film as it was, I grant that the line didn’t really fit with the tone of the rest of the movie.
1 comment July 4th, 2006