Our ongoing series reviewing the greatest Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror movies. Note that these reviews may contain spoilers.
Directed by: Richard Donner
Produced by: Illya and Alexander Salkind, Pierre Spengler
Written by: Mario Puzo, David Newman, Leslie Newman, Robert Benton, Tom Mankeiwicz, from a story by Mario Puzo
Starring: Christopher Reeve, Margot Kidder, Gene Hackman, Ned Beatty, Glenn Ford, Jackie Cooper, Marlon Brando
Original Release: 1978
Reviewed by: Sam Christopher
Rating: 5 out of 5 Stars (Highest Rating)
“Live as one of them, Kal-El, to discover where your strength and your power are needed. Always hold in your heart the pride of your special heritage. They can be a great people, Kal-El, they wish to be. They only lack the light to show the way. For this reason above all, their capacity for good, I have sent them you… my only son.”
Synopsis: Planet Krypton’s greatest scientist sends his son, Kal-El, to Earth to avoid Krypton’s destruction. Found by a Kansas farm family, the Kents, who name him Clark, the boy grows up to discover that Earth’s atmosphere and the radiation from our sun combine to give his alien body powers far beyond those of mortal men: flight, super strength, super speed, invulnerability, x-ray vision, etc. Taking a job at the great Metropolitan newspaper, the Daily Planet, Kal-El poses as the bumbling average guy, Clark Kent, in order to be in a position to know where he is most needed. There he meets the love of his life, Lois Lane, and his greatest enemy, Lex Luthor while becoming Earth’s greatest hero, Superman.
Comments/Review: Paving the way for the modern superhero film, Superman: The Movie was the product of years of fits and starts which began in 1973 when Illya Salkind first tried to get the rights to the character from DC Comics. The convolutions of the story of getting this film made are legendary. The list of actors considered for the title character alone is frankly amazing in retrospect. Clint Eastwood, Lyle Waggoner and James Brolin would have at least resembled the Man of Steel from the comics and Steve McQueen and Robert Redford might have made it work, but Al Pacino, Dustin Hoffman and James Caan? Muhammad Ali? Even singer Neil Diamond and bodybuilder (at the time) Arnold Schwarzeneggar tried to get the role. All of this before it was decided to cast an unknown in the role. And then there was the writing of the script. Sf and radio script great Alfred Bester (whose friendship with Harlan Ellison led to Bester’s name being given to Walter Koenig’s psi-cop on Babylon 5) was deemed not famous enough so the job went to Mario Puzo. Early on it was decided that a sequel would be filmed at the same time as this original picture so Puzo came up with a 500+ page script (that eventual director Donner would have completely rewritten before actual shooting began). As to the director, if the Salkinds had moved a little bit quicker they might have had Steven Spielberg but they wanted to see how his new picture did first. Jaws turned out pretty well but the director had already committed to making a completely different picture about aliens coming to Earth, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, before they could ask him. Sam Peckinpah, William Friedkin, Francis Ford Coppola and even George Lucas were considered before they settled on Richard Donner. After at first being rejected as being too skinny, Christopher Reeve won the role and beefed up through a workout program administered by David Prowse. The Salkinds, it seems, were enamored of Hollywood names, as their giving Marlon Brando what amounted to over $20 million for 12 days work and the aforementioned Bester sequence illustrate. After all of this, and plenty of other anecdotes I don’t have space for, they made the picture.
And what a picture! The posters said “You’ll Believe a Man Can Fly!” and that was no exaggeration. Whereas The Dark Knight is the best superhero film aimed at adults, Superman: The Movie is easily the best aimed at a younger audience. It may also be the most influential film ever in terms of its ramifications on the Superman character. It is the template for John Byrne’s post-Crisis revamp for the established DCU as well as having more to do with the Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman tv show’s take on the Man of Steel than we might think. This film is very much a romantic comedy within an adventure film wrapped around an sf premise. Reeve is perfection in the title role, portraying the bumbling Clark Kent and the confident though somewhat naïve Superman with equal aplomb. He does nothing onscreen to dull the illusion of fantasy, and his scenes with Margot Kidder (certainly not my first choice as Lois but they make it work well enough) are wonderfully sweet in their innocent beauty. That’s a word that crops up in thinking about this film more than any other: wonder. Everything here is meant to fill the viewer with wonder and it certainly works on that level. Superman’s first appearance in costume around the city of Metropolis alone is worth watching the whole film for, as is his flight with Lois, and, of course, his turning back time in order to save her.
But there are real world views expressed, too. The innocence and naiveté of Clark/Superman contrasts nicely with the more cynical edge of Lois Lane’s reporter and Perry White’s editor. At one point in the film, Superman tells Lois that he’s here to fight for Truth, Justice and the American Way only to have her snicker and respond that he’ll be fighting every politician in the country. And that’s part of the greatness of the story here, because the power and beauty of Superman’s view of life on Earth is shown to inform most of those around him, giving even the viewer a message he didn’t realize he was looking for. Granted, this message is lost on the terminally cynical Lex Luthor but even his attempted murder of millions of Americans so that he can own beachfront property has a certain whimsy to it when set in this film. (I have no doubt that Luthor being played by Gene Hackman has something to do with this.) In fact, everyone in this film is obviously from the cynical ‘70s save for the Man of Steel himself and his parents, both biological and adoptive. And Superman has a positive effect on virtually everyone with whom he comes into contact save for Luthor. Even Lex’s moll, Eve Teschmacher, is so affected by the Man of Tomorrow that she saves him from Luthor’s devious trap, removing the Kryptonite necklace from Superman’s neck after giving him a kiss. The Superman of this film is portrayed as having a near-magic power to make people act the best they can. He brings out the best in nearly everyone.
The posters said that we would believe a man can fly. This referenced the superior sfx in the film (for the time). However, as Chris Reeve himself would go on to prove through his own adversities, Man’s spirit is capable of soaring above the circumstances of the day and transcending the petty concerns of our physical realm. This film is about a man from another world who can do practically anything but it shows us that we are all from different worlds in one way or another and that we can all do virtually anything we set our minds to.
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