Practically anyone in America can complete the phrase “Superman stands for truth, justice, and (fill in the blank). Of course, the correct answer is “the American way”. But apparently, this simple answer managed to elude (or rather, be torpedoed by) the writers of the new Superman movie, “Superman Returns“. Jeanne Wolf’s Hollywood at Movies.com has the story:

In Superman Returns, editor of the Daily Planet Perry White says, “Truth, justice and … all of that stuff.” And I found out the omission was no accident. I went straight to the writers, Mike Dougherty and Dan Harris:

Mike: “When it comes to the American way, that’s tricky.”
Dan: “I don’t think ‘the American way’ means what it meant in 1945.”
Mike: “He’s not just for Metropolis, and not just for America.”
Dan: “He’s an alien, from Krypton; he has come to Earth to be kind of a savior for this world, not our country … And he has no papers.”
Mike: “What would happen with the immigration laws we have now?”
Dan: “I’d like to see someone kick him out!”

You can hardly blame those making the movie for keeping the international audience in mind, but Superman is the quintessential American hero, and one has to wonder how many people would have refused to see the movie simply because the phrase had been included. How much money would they have actually lost over three little words?

Alternatively, they could have shot a second version of that one scene for international audiences, and used the “all of that stuff” line. A few thousand dollars more in the budget, and higher receipts overseas for the effort, right?

But my speculation is that this is the work of a couple of “Hollywood types”, and the omission of the key phrase in Superman’s motto is no accident, and has nothing to do with offending overseas patrons. It simply has to do with the fact that they don’t believe in “the American way”.

TD