Richard Donner movies

Chris: The late, great Richard Donner, along with Steven Spielberg, Robert Zemeckis, Joe Dante and John Carpenter, directed my childhood. The Goonies, Superman, The Omen are the films I grew up with. Was it the same for you guys? Helen: Replace The Omen with

Ladyhawke for me. And I don’t remember a time before seeing

Superman. That was always there somewhere.

Dan: The Omen was always there, even though I hadn’t seen it. It kind of became myth, much like the film itself. There’s still that poem, which people think is in ‘The Book Of Revelation’, that they just made up for that film. I didn’t get to see it ’til a lot later because I was the kind of kid who got too scared by horror movies. Nick: I was weirdly late to

Superman. The Goonies was my entry-level thing. I talked to Chris Columbus recently and he said that that film would not get made these days. It’s weird and inappropriate for a kids’ film in a lot of different ways.

Helen: I would like to hope that we can get something that weird again. There’s death and booby traps and genuine distress and dangerous killers and inappropriate sexy bits, but it all comes together.

Nick: He was the king of casting. He assembled that group from the thousands of kids who auditioned. He cast Christopher Reeve. In pretty much every one of his films, he just nailed the casting.

Dan: He was great at bad guys as well. Gene Hackman has never been beaten as Lex Luthor. And Terence Stamp.

Chris: He directed Stamp in Superman and Superman II: The Richard Donner Cut. That’s an interesting wrinkle. For me, Superman II is one of the greatest superhero movies ever made, and the Donner Cut is held together by bits of glue and string in various places. So it doesn’t quite have the same impact for me.

Nick: What’s the best improvement that Donner made?

Dan: The scene where Lois shoots Clark to prove that he’s Superman. Reeve in that scene is absolutely brilliant. The way you see him go from becoming Clark to becoming Superman is like morphing, in a weird way.

Chris: He was so beloved of other directors. Bryan Singer basically idolised Donner so much that he remade

Superman as Superman Returns. Any success that film has is entirely built on the shoulders of the Donner film.

Nick: There are two things about him as a filmmaker and a person that explain why he’s revered: his sincerity and his humour. His humour never feels snarky. His films are sincere, earnest and have a huge heart. Superman takes itself very seriously, but it never feels thunderous and solemn.

Chris: Verisimilitude was the big watchword. Although there are absurd moments as well, you get the earnestness of the first 45 minutes on the farm, with Glenn Ford. I don’t think it’s arch. And it’s the same with The Omen, which is hokum of the highest level, but it’s played so beautifully straight. It draws you in.

Helen: With Superman in particular, he was creating a genre, and doing something that had not been done before successfully on the big screen.

Nick: And the producers still didn’t believe in it and they still threw him off.

Chris: They didn’t believe a man could fly.

Dan: His last film, 16 Blocks, is a sincere film.

Nick: I quite like Conspiracy Theory.

Dan: There’s a great gag in that where Mel Gibson realises they’re actually out to get him, and he says, “What was I right about?”

Chris: Let’s talk the Lethal Weapon series.

Nick: The question is, which is better: one or 2? I wrestled with that. One is iconic, but if I want to put a Lethal Weapon film on I put on 2. It’s got the house falling down, it’s got the great South African villains…

Chris: “DIPLOMATIC IMMUNITY!”

Nick: It’s such a ride.

Chris: The first one is great and the dialogue is fantastic, but it can be a bit dour.

Nick: The second one is funnier. And it’s got a lot of heart.

Chris: I also like the fact that the second one is more of a two-hander between Riggs and Murtaugh.

Helen: I don’t love Lethal Weapon 2. I didn’t like them killing Patsy Kensit, even before I knew the word “fridging”. And I found Joss Ackland’s villain so hissable I wanted to punch the screen. I like Lethal Weapon 3 because it built the relationship between the two of them and Rene Russo came in and was great.

Chris: I think 3 and 4 tipped the scales in favour of the comedy a little bit too much.

Nick: He used those movies to sneak messages in, about apartheid or anti-fur.

Chris: Check your kid’s head in case they’re the Antichrist.

Nick: I think the message of Ladyhawke is probably don’t date a hawk or a wolf.

Helen: Hey, it’s a really romantic film.

Nick: There aren’t many filmmakers who could’ve taken that plot and made something genuinely moving.

Helen: We need to talk about Scrooged.

Chris: He made two of the great Christmas movies. And he was named after one of Santa’s reindeer.

Dan: Oh my God, you’ve just blown this thing wide open.

Nick: Like Mel Gibson in

Conspiracy Theory.

Chris: “Which one did

I get right?”

Nick: The bit where Bill Murray orders little antlers to be stapled to the head of a mouse is one of the funniest Bill Murray moments.

Helen: Carol Kane as the Ghost Of Christmas Present is one of my all-time favourite small comic performances. Not small in terms of scope, but screen time.

Chris: What are our favourite Dick Donner moments?

Dan: The interrogation of Chunk, from The Goonies.

Nick: That’s Chris Columbus’ favourite scene as well. Helen: I like Lethal Weapon

when they throw their weapons aside and have a wrestle on the lawn. I find it hilarious.

Nick: For me, it’s Mikey’s speech in The Goonies. “It’s their time up there, down here it’s our time.”

Chris: I love the end of Lethal Weapon 2 where Murtaugh gets to dispatch the bad guy.

Everyone: “DIPLOMATIC IMMUNITY!”

Chris: “It’s just been revoked.” Helen: Superman, where Clark goes for his date with Lois.

Chris: He was such a crisp, clean, classical filmmaker. He didn’t resort to bells and whistles, until David Warner’s head is sliced off in The Omen,

and it’s replayed in slow motion like the winner in the World Cup final.

Nick: And there were quiet moments of showmanship, like a long tracking shot through the ‘Daily Planet’ office in

Superman. You don’t even see Clark Kent for 40 seconds. It’s an incredible bit of direction.

Chris: Right, enough squabbling. Let’s vote!