A Review of "Superman" (1978)

*This photo was taken moment before Christopher Reeve collided with and destroyed
a very expensive and powerful PanaVision motion picture camera.*

Oh gosh. It's been a long time since I've talked about Superman, also known as Superman: The Movie released in 1978 starring Christopher Reeve as the Man of Steel. I mentioned that in my "Top 30 Favorite Movies" countdown that it was my favorite comic book movie ever made, and with good reason. Let's face it, every comic book movie being made right now owes something in some way, shape or form to Superman. If you don't think so then you're either a liar, an idiot, or both. Superman was such a milestone in pop culture cinema, but I'm often surprised at how many people forget about its impact on such popular things like the 20th Century Fox Marvel renaissance, or the Disney Marvel Cinematic Universe that everyone's popping chubbies for right now. You guys all realize the reason things like this exist is because of this movie, right? Like... if it wasn't for director Richard Donner's overly-expensive gamble on Superman, we may not have even gotten any other superhero movies until much, much later. Or if we did, their budgets would be far lower and therefore the outcome of much of these movies much, much bleaker. Let's analyze why this really, really, really big gamble paid off so well.

Superman watches an Amtrak train full
of kindergartners derail thanks to this
ludicrous idea.

The movie was written by the writer of The Godfather, Mario Puzo. Therefore, you know the scale and scope of this movie is already tipping the scales of "epicness". He essentially wrote the movie into an epic three-act play: the first act is on Krypton, the second in Smallville, and the third (and largest) in Metropolis. After probably the greatest opening credits sequence in any motion picture ever (Yes, even Star Wars), the movie shows the planet Krypton, where scientist and juror Jor-El (Marlon Brando) of the Kryptonian high council sentences General Zod (Terence Stamp), and his followers, Ursa (Sarah Douglas) and Non (Jack O'Halloran) to the Phantom zone. What is the "Phantom Zone" Basically it looks like if your relatives were banging at your window wondering why you locked them out? Imagine that, but floating through space. That's the Phantom Zone. Anywho, after this, Jor-El then tries to convince the rest of the Kryptonian high council that he believes that their planet will soon be destroyed when its red supergiant sun goes supernova. Despite his eminence, he fails to convince the other council members. To save his infant son, Kal-El, Jor-El launches him in a spaceship to Earth, a planet with a suitable atmosphere where his "dense molecular structure will give him superhuman powers". Shortly after the launch, Krypton's sun explodes, destroying the planet and killing the remaining Kryptonians.

"What do we do with this super-powered
baby we just found?"
"POSE FOR A HALLMARK CARD!"

After traveling for three years through space, Kal-El's ship crash lands on Earth near Smallville, Kansas. Kal-El, who is now three years old (obviously) is found by Jonathan and Martha Kent, who are astonished when he lifts their truck with relative ease. They take him to their farm and raise him as their own, naming him Clark after Martha's maiden name. Hence begins "act two" of this epic motion picture. At eighteen-years-of-age, soon after Jonathan's death from a heart attack, Clark hears a psychic "call" and discovers a glowing crystal in the remains of his spacecraft that Jonathan and Martha buried in the barn. It compels him to travel to the Arctic, where, after Clark tossing it into the snow, it builds the Fortress of Solitude. Inside, a hologram of his deceased Kryptonian father Jor-El explains Clark's true origins, and after twelve further years of educating him on his powers and his reason for being sent to Earth, he leaves the Fortress wearing a blue and red suit with the House of El family crest on his chest and becomes a reporter at the Daily Planet in Metropolis. Thus begins "Act 3". There, he meets and develops an unrequited romantic attraction to coworker Lois Lane (Margot Kidder).

"Chief! I need the day off. My anti-psychotics
just came in at CVS!"

Soon after, Lois becomes involved in a helicopter accident where conventional means of rescue are impossible, requiring Clark to use his powers in public for the first time to save her to the astonishment of the crowd gathered below, using the suit as a disguise to keep his identity as Clark Kent a secret. That scene is easily the best in the entire movie. The pacing, music, and build-up are all perfect. He then goes on to thwart a jewel thief attempting to scale the Solow Building, captures robbers fleeing police through the Fulton Market by depositing their cabin cruiser on Wall Street, and rescuing a girl's cat from a tree in Brooklyn Heights. He even saves Air Force One after a lightning strike destroys the port outboard engine, making the "caped wonder" an instant celebrity. Basically every bad thing you could ever want to have happen, it happens, but on a night where Clark feels the need to dress up in his Kryptonian royalty outfit and save the people again and again. Clark later visits Lois at her house the next night and takes her for a flight over the city in one of the greatest scenes in the movie, allowing her to interview him for an article in which she names him "Superman".

"I'm going to send him to a planet he
can't refuse."

Meanwhile, during all of this, criminal genius Lex Luthor (Gene Hackman) learns of a joint U.S. Army and U.S. Navy missile test. He then buys hundreds of acres of worthless desert land and reprograms one of the warheads to detonate in the San Andreas Fault, sinking California and leaving Lex's desert as the new West Coast. A pretty cockamamie scheme considering some of the shit Lex has tried to pull in the comics, but I mean still evil enough even by Lex's standards. However, knowing Superman could easily stop his plan, Lex deduces that a meteorite found in Addis Ababa is actually a radioactive part of Krypton, and after he and his accomplices Otis (Ned Beatty) and Eve Teschmacher (Valerie Perrine) retrieve a piece of it, Lex lures Superman to his underground lair, reveals his plan and exposes him to a mineral from the meteor, Kryptonite, which weakens Superman greatly and relinquishes him of his superhuman powers. Lex further taunts him by revealing that the other warhead is headed in the eastbound direction toward Hackensack, New Jersey. Teschmacher is horrified because her mother lives in Hackensack, but Lex does not care and leaves Superman to a slow death by drowning. Knowing his reputation for keeping his word, Teschmacher rescues Superman on the condition he will deal with the New Jersey missile first. Superman diverts the eastbound warhead into outer space, but can't reach the other missile in time, and it explodes in the San Andreas Fault. Superman mitigates the effects of the explosion, getting rid of the fallout and shoring up the crumbling Earth, but the aftershocks damage the Golden Gate Bridge and cause the Hollywood Sign and the Hoover Dam to collapse, endangering lives and ultimately forcing Superman to step up his game for the first time in his superhero career.

Rumor has it... they confused the Kryptonite prop
with a chunk of real nuclear waste and Gene
Hackman soon became impotent.

While Superman is busy saving others and successfully adverting the effects of the missile blasts in several parts of the country, Lois Lane's car ends up falling into a crevice from one of the aftershocks. It fills with dirt and debris and she suffocates, dying. Angered at being unable to save her, Superman defies Jor-El's earlier warning not to manipulate human history, preferring to heed Jonathan's advice that he must be here for "a reason". He accelerates around Earth so quickly, the force of his flight backwards around the Earth actually rotates her the opposite direction, rewinding time, to save Lois. After successfully saving Lois by rewinding time and heading both his fathers' advice in his head, Superman sets about bringing Lex and Otis to prison for their crimes. The prison warden thanks Superman for his efforts to save the country, after which he flies into the sunrise for further adventures.

So what makes Superman such a classic? Well, almost everything about it. The pacing is equivalent to The Godfather, which makes the movie epic in scale and presentation. The actors? Of course. The legendary Marlon Brando as Superman's Kryptonian father, Jor-El. Gene Hackman, another legend, as the villainous Lex Luthor. Christopher Reeve, a man we all know and respect, as the Man of Steel himself. Jackie Cooper as Perry White, the chief editor as the Daily Bugle with his whit, anger, and abrasive hilarity. Margot Kidder is Christopher Reeve's perfect Lois Lane, witty, cunning and snarky. What else makes the movie so classic? Obviously the score. John Williams was just off the success of Star Wars and followed it up with what I consider to be his third-most iconic score in his history, contending with Raiders of the Lost Ark for 2nd place. The main title march, the motifs for the big helicopter rescue, the music over the introduction to the planet Krypton in the beginning; it's all some of Williams' finest work and it deserves recognition. All piggybacking on the shoulders of then relatively new director Richard Donner, who had only done The Omen before this and would go on to do The Goonies, all four Lethal Weapon movies and Maverick as well. You throw all this together, and you've got what I, as well as many, not only consider to be the greatest Superman movie ever made, but also the greatest comic book movie ever made. This was not only a legendary product of it's time, but it was a mixture of the right music, the right actors, the right writers, the right director and the right producers all at the right time rolled into one; this movie is one of a kind. Legendary. Storied. Fabled; whatever you want to call it. Henry Cavill? Brandon Routh? They do good Superman impressions... but Christopher Reeve is Superman. Watch it immediately if you haven't.

Oh, and once again enjoy the greatest opening credits to any movie anywhere. Just because it's John fucking Williams.