DIGG THIS ARTICLE. 1978, Turkey. Starring Tayfun Demir, Gungor Bayrak, Esref Kolcak, Yildirim Gencer, Nejat Ozbek, Reha Yurdakul, Seref Pekseker, Turgut Ozatay, Kadir Kok, Kudret Karadag, Yadigar Ejder, Yusuf Cetin, Cetin Basaran, Sirri Elitas, Ferhat Unal. Directed by Kunt Tulgar. Buy it from Xploited Cinema.

Before I start reviewing, I want to say thanks to Bill at Onar Films for all of the hard work, and perseverance through a ridiculous number of setbacks, that resulted in the DVD I watched for this review.

Horror films have historically been underrepresented in Turkish cinema, but to a degree that dearth is compensated for by an absolute plethora of manic costume dramas and crazy comic book-inspired films. The Turks have their own heroes, such as Karaoglan and Tarkan, but they also quite readily adapted foreign superheroes for the screen; as such, it was inevitable that they would come out with a Superman film. In fact, the 1960s and '70s saw other Superman films in Turkey before Supermen Donuyor was even conceived of--said conception occurring after Kunt Tulgar saw the then-recent Christopher Reeves film.

Those who've seen Turkish Star Wars will recognize the much-lauded orange-lettering-on-black-construction-paper credits technique that may or may not have been developed by Kunt Tulgar, or by his production company, Kunt Films. Soon after that, one is confronted with the fact that this is, indeed, the famous Turkish Superman film mentioned in Mondo Macabro which attempts to invoke a moving starscape by hanging Christmas bulbs in front of a dark cloth. To Kunt's credit, many of them are star-shaped, although the spherical ones are probably better approximations of an actual star. Fortunately, the stars in this universe seem to be different than the ones that you or I might know, because we're informed that people live inside the brightest one in the galaxy--that of Krypton.

Krypton, they say, is brighter than even the brightest emerald, which itself is the brightest of gems. Well, or it was that bright, until it exploded because of a mixture of some gases. You might be inclined to believe that any planet (or inhabitable star) so unstable as to contain its own chemical demise in its atmosphere (or corona, maybe) might not be long-lived enough to support, for instance, the evolution of life forms complex enough to save their children by sending them out to other planets in "rocket-like machines" with little samples of kryptonite. Well, it seems that you thought wrong, because by a combination of the opening narration (as we contemplate the Christmas bulbs) and the subsequent, "Son, y'know, we adopted you after you crash-landed in our backyard almost two decades ago" speech from Ma and Pa Demir, we learn that things played out something like that.

Superman here bears the name of Tayfun Demir (Iron Typhoon), a stage name developed for the film for both character and actor. Tayfun was a friend of director Kunt Tulgar's, and due to "shyness" requested a toning-down of any action scenes so as to limit any danger to his health and safety. Now, I've yet to see any Turkish stuntmen who remind me of Tony Jaa, but I should mention that back then, since Turkish films weren't budgeted to do much with special effects, most of the stunts you'd see were either camera tricks or, when that wasn't possible, just stuff that these guys really did. Rarely have I heard of "stunt men" in these cases; it seems that the actors tended to be expected to do their own stunts. The character has to jump onto a moving train? Well... then the actor probably really jumped onto a moving train. Is that really Cuneyt Arkin doing all that crazy crap on the back of a galloping horse? Well... probably, yes.

So since the leading man was uncomfortable with risking injury for the sake of the film, I must say that the fight scenes here are a bit less ambitious than in many other Turkish films of the period. Other Turkish action heroes tend not to be very convincing fighters either, but there's a flair to their ridiculous fighting styles that tends to possess its own conviction. By contrast, Tayfun Demir sometimes seems like he's never thrown a punch in his life, and is just too peaceful of a guy to learn. There's no use of crazy fighting strategies here; nor gymnastics equipment; one's own severed limbs are never used as weapons; and so on.

Of course, good use is made of some rubber knives and guns here and there, a couple of creative enough traps or death machines (including a guillotine with a conveyor belt), as well as a slide projector which becomes a multipurpose tool/weapon after krypton stone is inserted into it. Tayfun might not be the most impassioned fighter ever, and the fight choreography might not be the most creative, but there's no shortage of action nonetheless. Villains constantly fall through tables, crash into walls, and generally get roughed up by the valiant man with the S on his chest, and at the end of the day, I think there are only so many complaints you can mount against that.

Besides, the soundtrack keeps things moving. Except for a bit of the James Bond theme (played on what sounds like an out-of-tune guitar), I didn't recognize any of the mostly Turkish-disco/funk-sounding songs, but they'd constantly change. Jump cut? New song. Someone else enters the room? New song. The mood changes a little bit? New song.

I don't like doing plot summary-dependent reviews, but fortunately, the Superman mythos is so familiar that there's not much need for it anyway. Superman's name is Tayfun, and Turkish Lois Lane is called Alev, while Turkish Jimmy Olsen is Neci. Our villain is Erken, who is working on a scientific panel with Alev's father and some other men to try to discover the chemical "formula" for "krypton stone," which appears to be a sort of philosopher's stone. Alev's father sees it as an energy source which will solve the world's ecological problems, but Erken has other ideas. After jamming it into his hairdryer or projector or whatever that thing is, he can turn any metal into gold, and he can also defeat Superman. Erken tests the machine on a cat, too, and although it looks very clearly like a special effects artist (or probably just some guy) lights a fire and the cat runs away, I think we're meant to believe that it caught fire and then disappeared completely--possibly because of the confluence of some gases.

I can also add Supermen Donuyor to my list of Turkish films which use children's toys as props--in this case, a ken doll, complete with little costume and hairdryer-derived wind, is used for most of the flying scenes, which helps to explain why Superman's face is obscured by his arms in most of them. The ability to create the appearance of Superman in flight was apparently a pivotal technical conundrum for the filmmakers, and all told I think they did a better job than the makers of Puma Man, at least... Dolls can't really flail their arms like jackasses, after all. It looks decent enough as the dolls suspended in front of washed-out rear-projections of random crap in Istanbul techniques go, and unlike the rear-projections in Turkish Star Wars, none of these appear to be backwards or upside-down, though all of them are curiously blue...

Kunt Tulgar explains in the interview that the filmmakers (including his wife, who sewed the costumes) were very proud of the film when they first made it, but it now looks kind of banal. Perhaps. I mean, no, it's not very sophisticated or artistic, or innovative, or captivating. The film isn't really as brilliant as it tells us that emeralds and Krypton are, I must admit. On the other hand, it's got a ken doll flying around Istanbul, plenty of smashed tables and rubber knives, no shortage of heroism and villainy, and some very interesting ideas about astrophysics and geoscience. And moreover, there's something charming in its simplicity, where dialogue is stripped down to the very basics, and there's no irritating metacognitive winking at the viewer, nor any attempts to put a "new spin" on the tale; this is the classic tale of Superman, except for the ways that it's been adapted for Turkey.

As a final note, the Onar Films DVD treatment of this film is of the high quality befitting all of their releases. The interview with Kunt Tulgar is extensive and fairly wide-ranging, and the transfer looks and sounds better than most Turkish vhs dubs that I've ever watched. As far as I'm concerned, this disc belongs in your collection if you've got any interest in Turkish film, comic books, Superman, or just having a good time.

Labels: Action: Superheroes, Country: Turkey, Year: 1978