Superman: The Movie (1978) Warner Bros./Action-Adventure RT: 154 minutes (Extended Cut) Rated PG (comic book violence, language, some mild sensuality) Director: Richard Donner Screenplay: Mario Puzo, David Newman, Leslie Newman and Robert Benton Music: John Williams Cinematography: Geoffrey Unsworth Release date: December 15, 1978 (US) Cast: Marlon Brando, Gene Hackman, Christopher Reeve, Ned Beatty, Jackie Cooper, Glenn Ford, Trevor Howard, Margot Kidder, Jack O’Halloran, Valerie Perrine, Marc McClure, Susannah York, Phyllis Thaxter, Terence Stamp, Sarah Douglas, Jeff East, Maria Schell. Box Office: $134.5M (US)/$300.5M (World)
Rating: *** ½
It’s a bird, it’s a plane, it’s Superman: The Movie! It’s the one that started the quadrilogy of movies featuring the Man of Steel. Now, I’m sure that many of my readers have seen this genre classic. It’s been around for nearly half a century. Just the same, I’ll give you a brief synopsis of the film just in case there’s a few people out there who’ve been stranded on a desert island since 1977.
As the movie opens, Jor-El (Brando, The Godfather) and the elders of Krypton have sentenced three traitors to an eternal life of misery in the Phantom Zone, a fictional prison dimension which is where criminals are sent. They can see and observe everything that’s going on, but are unable to interact with anybody. Fearing that his home planet is about to explode, he puts his infant son Kal-El on a spacecraft and sends him to Earth because their yellow sun will give him extraordinary powers.
Three years later, the spacecraft crashes on Earth and the baby is taken in by Jonathan and Martha Kent (Ford and Thaxter respectively). Immediately, he shows that he’s not some ordinary baby when he lifts their car after Jonathan gets trapped underneath. Eighteen years later, young Clark Kent (East, Pumpkinhead) is a misfit at Smallville High School because of his mild-mannered personality. After Pa Kent dies of a heart attack. Clark is drawn to the barn and finds a strange, glowing, green crystal that compels him to travel to the Arctic where the green crystal forms the Fortress of Solitude. It’s there where Clark learns the truth about his origin and powers.
Jor-El, in hologram form, instructs him on the history of his home planet and how to develop and use his powers for the sake of humanity. Twelve years later, he leaves the Fortress and goes to Metropolis where he gets a job as a reporter for the Daily Planet. That’s where Clark (Reeve, Somewhere in Time) meets Lois Lane (Kidder, The Amityville Horror) for the first time thus beginning their very complicated relationship.
Now we get to the exciting part! Criminal genius Lex Luthor (Hackman, No Way Out) is up to something with his sidekick Otis (Beatty, Deliverance) and girlfriend Eve Teschmacher (York, A Man for All Seasons). It seems that Luthor has been buying up some worthless land near the San Andreas Fault. He plans to divert a nuclear missile right into the fault and cause California to fall into the ocean. Okay, that’s an interesting plan, but Luthor didn’t factor Superman into the equation.
At this point, I will stop describing the plot and focus on Superman/Clark’s social life. Clark likes Lois but is too bashful and awkward to ask her out on a date. Meanwhile, she’s in love with Superman and has no idea that her humble colleague and the Man of Steel are one in the same. Now riddle me this, riddle me that. How is it possible that nobody realizes that Clark Kent is Superman? Is it just because he wears a pair of thick glasses? Are the people that unobservant and dense that they don’t see it? I’m just saying.
ANYWAY, their meet-cute is one for the book. He swoops in and saves from plummeting to her death after a helicopter accident. Lois is one tough broad. She can handle almost anything; that is, until she gets into dangerous situations. Then she needs her knight in a red cape. What I want to know is what did she do before Superman came to Metropolis? It seems like she’s always putting herself in harm’s way just so she can get a good story and, hopefully one day, a Pulitzer Prize. Kidder has the right kind of spunk for this role. She has a flinty and fearless way about her.
This is the movie that made Christopher Reeve a star. The late actor previously appeared in a few episodes of the soap opera Love of Life and the submarine thriller Gray Lady Down (1978). Then he got the role of a lifetime for ANY actor. He’s the perfect choice to play both Clark Kent and Superman, it’s exactly the way I would see Superman. You can totally believe him as a mild-mannered news reporter (is that an oxymoron or what?) and as an upright superhero whose only objective is to protect the people of Earth. He does major things, but still has the time to help a little girl whose cat is stuck in a tree. Reeve gets it so right, it’s impossible to see any other actor in the role.
Jackie Cooper (one time Our Gang player) makes a great Perry White, chief editor of The Daily Planet. All he’s interested in is getting a big story and getting to it first so he can print a big headline. Marc McClure (Back to the Future) makes a great Jimmy Olsen, the eager young photographer who always seems to miss getting shots of the major things happening around him. And how can I forget Gene Hackman who looks like he’s having the time of his life portraying an evil criminal mastermind? In fact I will say that Donner made excellent choices all around when choosing his cast.
You’ll notice that I gave Superman: The Movie three and a half stars. Why not four starts? It’s because the first half of the movie tends to drag a bit. It doesn’t really get off the ground (pun intended) until Superman makes his first appearance. However slow it may be, it adds a special quality to the myth that is Superman. In fact, it’s almost an epic seeing the reverent way the screenwriters and director treat Superman. One of the writers is Mario Puzo who also wrote the screenplays for all three Godfather movies as well as the original novel. Donner would go on to direct The Goonies (1985), Ladyhawke (1985), Scrooged (1988) and all four Lethal Weapon films (1987-98). As you can see, there was talent on both sides of the camera.
While it’s not my favorite Superman movie, it’s still some damn good filmmaking. Nowadays, they make a lot of superhero movies, but none of them come close to evoking the sense of wonder that audiences had in ’78. The movie’s tagline reads, “You’ll Believe a Man Can Fly!”. At the time, the special effects were considered groundbreaking and in a way, they are. However, given what CGI can do now, it’s almost quaint to watch a movie whose effects are kind of cheesy. It’s the same reason many people prefer the original Clash of the Titans (1981) over the headache-inducing 3D remake.
In any event, Superman: The Movie is one of those movies that I regret not going to see when it first came out. I didn’t see it on the big screen until 1998. It was awesome to see it in that format finally. I suggest the extended cut of the movie; it adds so much more to the myth that is Superman.
