Turkish Supermen Movies

Comic book superhero Superman, born in 1938 has also interpreted many times in Yesilcam Turkish Supermen Movies; “Super Adam” (Superman) (Cavit Yörüklü, 1971), “Super Adam Kadinlar Arasinda” (Superman Among Women) (Cavit Yörüklü, 1972), “Super Adam Istanbul’da” (Superman in Istanbul) (Yavuz Yalcinkilic, 1972), “Superman Donuyor” (Superman Returns) (Kunt Tulgar, 1979)…etc. There are also some examples such as; “Superman Dehset Saciyor” (Superman Spreads Terror), “Super Kadin Dehset Saciyor” (Supergirl Spreads Terror), “Supermanlar” (Supermen), “Uc Superman Olimpiyatlarda” (Three Supermen in Olympic Games)…etc.

In these Superman adaptations (rather imitations) the courage of Turkish Cinema is just astonishing and respectable, because of the efforts put in place, despite the technical impossibilities. While making a superman movie requires an army of crews, special effects (well, a bold budget in a word), and is a great challenge even for American Cinema; how come Turkish Cinema can dare this? So, the answer is simply the courage, and it probably comes from cheap Italian replicas, like “Three Fantastic Supermen” and the other old B films. Especially Kunt Tulgar’s “Superman Donuyor” is just an adventurousness! This film is not as popular as DKA’s, but is still a remarkable production, having lots of eager followers.

All Turkish superman films were independent adaptations, due to the low budget (rather no-budget), the concern of vernacularizing an American super hero and also indolence. For example; in “Super Adam Istanbul’da” (Yavuz Yalınkılıç, 1972), superman’s (Erdo Vatan) false personation name was not Clark Kent, it’s Kent Clark, and he was not a journalist, but a secret agent, whose mission is collapsing the mafia. The film has a very weak fantastic impression, and actually there is not so much relevancy between this film and the original superman scenario, except the name. Due to the technical impossibilities, superman does not fly, but does a lot of acrobatics and fist fighting, and there are no other super-hero enemies in the film.

Here is a dialog, like an excuse of the film’s low budget;

– “Why did you turned back by plane, while you could fly, Superman?”

– “Because, I only fly to the evil, my dear…”

There by the audience, who question the film; “why didn’t he fly? why did he board a plane?” have been gagged by this dialog.

So, let’s leave the other examples and come to the point; we hereby would like to say a few words about the movie “Supermen Donuyor” (Superman Returns) (Kunt Tulgar, 1979). Kunt Tulgar is the producer, director and the leading actor of the film, and also the scenario was written by his wife, Emel Tulgar; so occurred a household fantastic hero phenomenon. Kunt Tulgar told the story of making this movie as below;

“We, my wife, my father and I were watching the Superman movie in Paris in 1979. My father said “you must make a movie like Superman!” during the half-time. When we turned back to Istanbul, my wife tailored a Superman suit for our daughter’s doll. We made a background by a piece tracing paper, stretched on a wooden frame, and moved the doll on front of this background while taking a test recording by the camera. The result was positive; Superman was flying !.. My wife began to write the script immediately, and we finished the production in a short while. The film wasn’t sensational but successful; because somebody was flying for the first time in a Turkish movie!”

In order to ease the acceptance period of the film, Kunt Tulgar has used a Turkish name; “Tayfun”, instead of “Clark Kent”. Another difference is; Tayfun gains his super-powers in a humble cavern, instead of Tower of Power, due to the insufficient technical capability to build or form a scale model of such a tower, made of ice. Besides of these changes, the current of events and the other things are more or less the same as the original version; Tayfun became a journalist too, the parents expose that they’re not his real mother & father, and Tayfun leaves home to make his own way, and there is also a gleaming green kriptonit stone in this film. The fiction and acting is just a disaster, but Kunt Tulgar’s lunatic acts and mimics, reminiscent of Terminator, rather than Superman make the movie incredibly funny.