Superman: The Movie, King and still reigning, remains the gold standard to which all comic book adaptations are still compared. A dynamic and grandly entertaining fantasy adventure that shows us just as much of ourselves as it does the titular character.
Since his birth in the late 1930's, Superman has been interpreted slightly differently for every generation since. In the 1940's, Kirk Alyn played the first movie Superman in several low-budget serials. Most were made cheaply, fast and the flying shots were all animated. In the 1950's George Reeves became a household name playing our hero in the very popular television series, "The Adventures of Superman", which ran for six seasons beginning in 1951, (a seventh was in the works before the untimely death of the Reeves in 1959) and is still seen in syndication today. For it's time, the series was well made, but watching it now, it's nothing of great substance; no time for angst or pathos for our hero. Strictly a mix of detective story and action adventure. From story to story Superman's villains were mostly thugs and mobsters, not one appearance from Lex Luthor or Brainiac. The 1960's saw nothing of memorable output other than a quirky 1966 Broadway musical called, "It's a Bird, It's a Plane, It's Superman!" Although the critics were rather kind, the show failed to catch on. The post-Reeve years had Superman return once again; one in animated form, the other two live-action. From 1993-97 ABC aired "Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman", it concentrated more on the two reporters romance than the Kryptonian. A rather drippy affair that was more in Adam West territory than true storytelling. Although Terri Hatcher as Lois was one of great inspiration, Dean Cain as Superman should have been shot. 1996 saw the single best animated Superman series to date, "Superman: The Animated Adventures", which took it's cue from the equally cool "Batman: The Animated Series" and explored the character's psyche once again. Like Donner's film, it shows us he's more than just an alien with cool powers, he's one of us and his need to save everyone becomes his obsession. 2001 saw the premiere of "Smallville", the modern take on a young Clark Kent and how he not only finds his destiny, but how he fits in this world of no heroes. Of all these variation and adaptations, Donner's original film and it's sequel stand the tallest, the best capturing the essence of the character. "Smallville" comes in a close second, but it's not really about Superman is it? The 1978 take on the Man-of-Steel is still the best with Superman flying higher than ever before. Like his journey to Earth, it was a long way to go, but without two key members, our memories of Superman could have been significantly different. The end result is a wonderful genre classic, but the ingredients were not always there. Thanks to Director Richard Donner and consultant Tom Mankiewicz, Superman's image emerged better than ever.
In 1973, the father-son producing team of Ilya and Alexander Salkind purchased the rights to make a big-budget Superman film. Production began in 1975, after the success of the "The Godfather" films, the producers hired Mario Puzo to write the screenplay. He wrote an engaging story, taking a lot of inspiration from the comic books and even the bible, but at 275 plus pages it was too fat. A clever idea was reached, (the same idea the Salkinds had used on their previous production, The Three Musketeers & The Four Musketeers) break the script in half, shoot the screenplay as one movie and release them separately. (the same trick used for LOTR and Kill Bill) First choice for director was Bond vet Guy Hamilton, but due to tax problems, he was forced to decline. Second choice was up-and-comer Steven Spielberg, the producers wanted to see how his "fish' movie turned out before making an official offer, but when Spielberg’s price proved too hefty his offer was rejected and former television director, hot off the success of "The Omen", Richard Donner was hired. Being a huge Superman fan, Donner accepted the job, under one condition, that the script be re-written; the stupid, campy elements be eliminated. Verisimilitude, or realism, became the production's mission statement. Donner felt that Superman was a piece of Americana and knew that if the material was not treated with reverence and respect, if the tone was not dead-serious, the producers would be flushing their $50 million investment down the toilet. For a time, the producers listened and jettisoned the poisonous elements to an otherwise excellent screenplay. If not for Donner, the audience would have suffered through Superman sitting on a john in Grand Central Station in his search for Luthor's lair. In order to gain access he has to pull the chain for the door to open.
One of Zod's cronies was named Kru-El, get it? Lex Luthor himself became a cowardly imp who when excited or scared ate Kleenexes. Of all these abominations, the most absurd had a strange cameo with a ridiculous punch line. While searching the streets for Luthor, Superman spies a bald guy, he swoops down to grab him. As he spins him around to reveal Kojack himself, Telly Savalas, uttering his then trademark line, "Who loves ya, baby?" ugh. With these idiotic sequences gone, Donner brought in another writer to beef up the emotional journey our hero must take. Playing up the seriousness of the material, Tom Mankiwietz uses parallels from the greatest story ever told-the gospel. Plunging head on into the drama, the screenplay emphasizes the echoes of the Christian story — a father in the heavens sends his only son to earth; the son’s earthly father dies; the son leaves home to do the work he was meant to do, to become a savior. Instead of just Americana, Superman suddenly becomes myth.
Taking it's cue from Donner's mantra of Verisimilitude, we know the film means business when Jor-El says, "This is no fantasy - no careless product of wild imagination." The film opens on Krpyton with Jor-El sentencing General Zod and his cohorts to the Phantom Zone. In a wild display of special effects, the villains are zapped into what looks like a floating mirror to be dealt with in part II. After sentencing, Jor-El is questioned by his colleges about creating a panic with his talks of the planets impending doom. Refusing the orders of his peers, he places his infant son, Kal-El in a spaceship and aims it towards earth just as the planet is ready to explode. Taking several years on it's journey, Kal-El is three when his ship crash lands and is discovered by the Kents, who instantly claim him astheir own.
Many years pass as we now see Clark as a teenager, played by Jeff East, but voiced by Christopher Reeve. He's an all American boy, clean-cut, loves his ma and apple pie, yet he knows he's special and not of this earth. By now he's discovered all the cool powers; super speed, stamina and his ability to fly. When his foster father dies, he heads to the artic circle in an attempt to find himself. With the green crystal sent along in his ship, he creates the Fortress of Solitude. There, he will do a Christ-like journey of self discovery and figure out his place in this world, learning about the histories of his home world and earth. Upon completion he will emerge as the hero, Superman.
Meanwhile as the Man-of-Steel is about to announce himself to the world, billionaire Alexazander "Lex" Luthor along with his bootlicking assistant Otis (Ned Beaty) and secretary, Eve Tessmacher (Valerie Parrine), hatch a plan to dump California in the ocean, making him the wealthiest man in the world. After buying up miles and miles of worthless real estate, Luthor schemes to steal a nuclear missile, detonate it in the middle of the San Andreas fault causing the worst earthquake ever sinking the golden state once and for all. When Superman gets wind of this his attempts to stop Luthor are predictable and even though our hero gets a souvenir from the ole' hometown as Luthor put it, a batch of poisonous Kryptonite, he's not out yet. While Luthor schemes, Clark Kent is ensconcing himself in the Daily Planet as their new mild-mannered reporter. He and Lois Lane become fast friends, but once she meets Superman, Kent is invisible to her. Her love for Superman becomes so blind she never connects the dots that the resemblance between Clark and Superman is uncanny. As the plot to stop Luthor is set in motion, the movie has fun with Superman lore. We see Clark outrunning a train, he catches a speeding bullet and of course one of the best entrances in all of film, his ability to leap a tall building in a single bound, of course while he carries Lois in one arm and a renegade chopper in the other. One of the films biggest laughs is when Clark, looking for a phone booth to change into costume, gives a disapproving frown to a kiosk. The film is so inimitably American, that it successfully taps into almost every known narrative genre, (disaster epic, crime story, romance, science-fiction, personal journey, broad comedy and spectacle) The films’ plot works so effortlessly, sliding back and fourth, that it could easily sit alongside other American masterpieces like “Amercian Graffiti”, “Grapes of Wrath” & “Citizen Kane” The screenplay is broken into thirds, we get to see three sides to our hero; Krpyton, Smallville and Metropolis. Each act has it's own distinct tone. The Kryptonian scenes have an old-English, very proper with a dead serious tone. Smallville has a bucolic, Norman Rockwell milieu with lush landscapes, huge vistas and wheat fields as far as the eye can see. Metropolis is Clark Kent all grown up, full of snappy one-liners and plenty of tongue-in-cheek humor moving at a much faster pace setting the stage for the world to meet Superman.
With the story set in place, the next task was to find the right cast, without it, the film would fail no matter how great the script. The producers and studio felt with such a large amount of money invested, they needed someone to give the production creditability. The first person we hear and see is Jor-El himself, played by Marlon Brando. It makes sense that a larger-than-life personality would be the father of Superman, although his performance is rather dull and for some reason he adopts a strange English accent. He never seems to earn his then unheard-of fee of $3 million for a mere fifteen minutes of screen time. Much more deserving in his paycheck is Gene Hackman, who is twenty- times more charismatic as billionaire Lex Luthor and is immensely entertaining as the cunning, over-the-top plutocrat. Some slag his performance for being too comical, but thanks to the actors perfect timing, it works wonderfully, not to mentioning being Hackmans most entertaining performance until "The Royal Tennenbaums." However the inclusion of Otis nearly derails Luthor as a effective baddie, although, he's the butt of nearly all of Luthor's jokes so that makes it up for it. As a trivial side note, every other Luthor interpretation since has had him as the conniving plutocrat, instead of his original incarnation of an evil scientific genius. Smallville being the best interpretation since. Some like to point out the performance is geared towards comedy than true menace, yet they forget he kills four people in his scheme to stop Superman. He feels more like the Joker than a Luthor, but it's still a great performance.
Daily Planets' star reporter, Lois Lane, played by Margot Kidder nails it. Smart, brassy, ballsy, resourceful. A nice performance that shows equal parts feistiness and doe-eyed romance. She's dismissive and almost mocking towards Clark, but only has eyes for Superman. Her penthouse interview with Superman is her finest moment as she goes from the chain-smoking, hard-bitten reporter to a giggly, eyelash- batting junior high schooler, thus the love triangle is born. The films' best and single biggest masterstroke was finding the right Superman. Christopher Reeve, an unknown 27 year-old actor out of New York could not have been more perfect for the role. Even though his career as an actor was considerably slowed down by his paralyzing accident in 1995, Reeve became an even bigger hero in real-life than his iconic performance. Embodying everything we yearn and expect from our heroes, Reeve transcended his situation and lived the rest of his life with dignity, economy and grace. As perfect as his work is, his nerdy portrayal as Clark and the man-of-steel never got the credit it deserves. Adopting a slouch, klutzy demeanor and rising his voice a couple of octaves as Clark, we understand why Lois could be fooled all these years. Standing tall, speaking with a deeper voice, he imbues the character of Superman with a warm, wonderfully human soul. Not many actors could say the line, "I stand for truth, justice and the American way" without getting laughed at, even Lois throws him a cynical eye.
The scene that best showcases Reeve's talents is in Lois's penthouse. After having just interviewed Superman, Lois is still caught up in the moment. Having changed back to reporter mode, Clark, for an instance considers telling Lois his true identity. He straightens his posture, removes his glasses and speaks normally, like Superman...then he chickens out, puts his glasses back on and returns to his alter ego. It's a seamless elegant transition that underscores why so many revere this performance. The supporting cast is equally fine. Acting legend Glen Ford is strong and dignified as Jonathan Kent, Clark's foster father. One of the film's key scenes, best scenes, has Pa Kent shaming Clark for showing off in front of some classmates. They have a nice talk and Clark quickly realizes even though he can do all of these amazing things, he finds being himself to be the hardest thing of all. Jackie Cooper as Daily Planet editor, Perry White is excellent as the archetypal movie newsman. Speaking a mile a minute while chewing on a cigar and barking orders to anyone in earshot.
The films best character is the score itself. When the music reaches it's crescendo, we can actually hear it say SUPERMAN! A grandiose and majestic score that gives the film instant credibility as being something more than just a comic book adventure. Composed by John Williams, who single-handily changed movie music forever with his instant classics, JAWS, "Star Wars", "Close Encounters", "Empire Strikes Back", "Raiders of the Lost Ark," & "E.T", of all of his great work, this one is still my favorite. I love the Smallville themes. Never intended as a one time event, Superman was shot simultaneously with it's sequel. (Superman II was released in 1981 after years of production problems) Due to time constraints, production was shut down for a year so efforts to finish part I could make it in time for it's Christmas 1978 debut. When it premiered, audiences loved it, making it the highest grossing picture of the year and the most successful film ever for Warner Brothers, a title it would hold for over a decade. Critics too dug the film, most noticing John Williams magnificent score and Chris Reeve's indelible performance. For all the money spent and time consumed, every cent it is on display. In those days, fantasy driven stories were hindered by primitive effects and (or) costly budgets, but you would never know it by all of the epic set-pieces. Lex Luthor wants California in the ocean; instead of some cheesy model cars and houses being flooded, we see the plates in the earth shifting while Superman wrestles them back into place. Nothing is beyond reach as our senses are delighted with one amazing feat after another. For example: we see Superman chasing rockets, stopping floods, using himself as track to prevent a train from derailing and the most amazing feat of all, spinning the earth in reverse. Of course this throws logic out the window and opens a time-paradox can of worms the size of Texas, but if you are watching a movie about a guy in tights who can fly and THIS suddenly offends you, I have to say you are a moron! Splitting hairs is easy for some people it would seem. For the record, he is NOT spinning the Earth backwards, he is going backwards in TIME The Earth spinning was used to show what exactly he was doing. It's too far to turn back now don't let something so trivial ruin an otherwise great sequence that underscores how deeply Superman cares for Lois and how truly powerful he is, but chooses not to be in the grand scheme of things. It also represents the moment he chooses between his real dad's mandate of not interfering in human history and his foster dad's claim of "You are here for a reason." The first comic book film come to life, filled with equal parts adventure and romance, succeeds on every level. Sure, some of the effects are dated, but that adds to the charm, but at the time they were inventing as they went along. What makes this film soar high above all it's brethren is it's heart and soul. A character so pure and honest; so full of goodwill and decency, he melted the cold hearts of cynical moviegoers of the 1970's and continues to win audiences over today. A cornucopia of imagination, "Superman: The Movie" has earned the ranking of BEST COMIC BOOK MOVIE-EVER!