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 1978 PG / Superhero Action Directed by: Starring: |
- You'll Believe a Man Can Fly!
Summary Capsule
- An alien sent by his parents to our earth to save his life flourishes under our yellow sun and becomes... Superman!
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Kyle's Rating: Okay, let me try this again
Kyle's Review: I already reviewed Superman this morning before I started working, because I had watched it last night but fell dead asleep as soon as the end credits rolled. That first review was mostly positive, but it certainly wasn’t the enthusiastic slobbering that some comic geeks often give the film. There were only a couple personal attacks, a few vitriolic comments about weaker production elements, and a long string of profanities that I just threw in to see if Justin actually reads these things before they get posted. I will allow only one criticism of that first review: it was extremely well-written. Astonishingly so. But that’s to be expected, I suppose.
Listening to that theme in crystal clarity (gotta love the iPod; I now can understand a lot of my favorite rap artists’ lyrics without research!) helped me realize it’s pretty much impossible to trash 1978’s Superman and really mean it. All my gripes and negatives are still legit (I’ll get to a couple in a little bit) but it remains a magical facet of my childhood. My Super Powers action figures (including Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman) often waged their wars against injustice with Superman playing in the background; I even remember liking not only Superman II but also Superman III! That’s a fact only a true fan or a true psychopath would publicly admit! (Superman III being, in very many ways, very very bad.)
I don’t know if I grew out of some Superman phase, or if when the summer of ‘89 came along the hardened heroes of Batman, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, and License to Kill helped usher me into my “mature” “adult” “morally questionable” modern incarnation.
Still: there’s a little Superman inside of us all. And what a logo! Better than the bat? Probably not. But it’s close.
The Superman film series actually reminds me of television program The OC. At it’s worst (the Oliver episodes for The OC, parts III and IV for Superman) it’s atrocious, and watchable only out of some strange iteration of schadenfrude. At it’s best (each season’s premiere and finale for The OC, the first Superman and lots of Part II) it’s so good that you can’t help but watch and love it, (mostly) ignoring any blemishes and defending it with a passion. Maybe The OC is better than Superman. Maybe! I’ve only seen a few episodes of Smallville, and it’s okay, but I can tell you for sure that the actresses who play Lana, Chloe, and Lois are amazing. Wow! I don’t know about their acting (who are these people? Kristen Kreuk, right?) but that cast is super... super-attractive.
Ha ha! See what I did there?
Maybe Superman is boring. In the comics he’s still got life in the right creative hands (Grant Morrison, anyone?), on cartoons he’s humorous and thoroughly modern, and they’re making a new movie/remake/sequel/thing that will probably be atrocious. Let’s face facts, yeah?
But I urge you, if you have never seen this film or if you haven’t seen it in a long time, to do something: do not see it! Wait for the new one! Why not, really? I think it’s less than a year away, so unless you’re incredibly impatient what’s the big deal? It hasn’t killed you until now to see it, so just go occupy yourself with other stuff until summer 2006.
That’s my suggestion, just because I think no matter how Bryan Singer’s film turns out, it will help put the first film into perspective; giving it a nice shine in the process. The original is slightly dated, but it has a winning Gene Hackman as Lex Luthor, a magnetic Marlon Brando as Jor-El, and Christopher Reeve is simply amazing as Clark Kent and Superman. I mean absolutely amazing: whether he’s inhabiting the bumbling Kent or the supremely confident Superman, he’s perfect. The wit and humor are greatly appreciated, but his emotional outburst after a late plot twist is always stunning, no matter how many times you see it. It’s hard to look cool in that costume, but Reeve never looked even slightly goofy. Amazing.
I was going to end with an amusing attack on Margot Kidder, who is monstrous as Lois Lane. Some people believe that her non-traditional looks, her flinty personality, her cig habit, and her displayed glee at writing newspaper stories steeped in sex and violence make her the sort of interesting woman that Superman would go for. I tend to think she’s more of a villain that Superman should be battling in the streets. But I’m really shallow like that.
Instead, I’ll say that the combination of Reeve’s iconic performance as the iconic hero and John Williams’ triumphant score provide movie magic that endures. For all the flaws of this film, as long as Reeve or Hackman or Brando are on-screen, it’s hard not to get caught up in the epic fun. This is old school summer blockbuster stuff, bright and polished, and even though the overall quality dips as the running time progresses you just can’t help but feel ultimately entertained. I think that if you were to rent it and watch it tonight you wouldn’t notice the strange ‘80s fashions or ‘80s plot conventions or terrifying ‘80s hairdos. You’d just enjoy your self immensely, and get lost in the epic, complex world of Superman.
Oh, but don’t rent it until next summer. Just for the fun of compare/contrast. Old versus new. I think it’ll be fun!
 Superman gets a part-time job working for Amtrak
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- There are approximately two hundred different versions of Superman that have been screened and/or shown on television over the years. I think there is a rather comprehensive “special edition” DVD that is currently for sale, but I’ve also heard that there will be better DVD versions for all the films released in tandem with the new Superman Returns. We’ll see.
- Lex Luthor is quite obviously wearing a whole lot of crazy wigs throughout the film, but it’s not until the end of the film that he’s shown as being completely bald.
- Jor-El, and subsequently Kal-El (Clark), has the best Kryptonian crest. And great hair, really!
- The voice of the air traffic controller who is directing the helicopter to the roof of the daily planet belongs to Christopher Reeve.
- Clark Kent's hair and Superman's part on opposite sides.
Is It Worth Staying Through End Credits?
Sure, because that is one excellent John Williams score! And depending on whether or you’ll see “Coming next year: Superman II” or stuff like that, you’ll know whether you’ve been watching the original theatrical version, the European version, the 1980 ABC version, or something hand drawn by a monkey.
Unnecessary Background [some sources: Wikipedia]
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Superman first appeared in Action Comics #1 in 1938, becoming one of the comic scene's first superheroes ("The Man of Steel"). Created by Joe Shuster and Jerry Siegel, Superman was originally Kal-El from the planet Krypton, which got blowed up real good. He survived due to a timely space capsule that shot him to earth as a baby, where our yellow sun soon gave him many super abilities. He grew up as Clark Kent (under adopted parents), became a reporter for the Daily Planet in Metropolis, and moonlit as Superman whenever the mood hit him. Supes has a secret base, called the Fortress of Solitude, located in the Arctic. His powers include near invulnerability, flight, super-stamina, a force field, x-ray vision (negated only by lead), telescopic vision, heat vision, super-hearing, super-hypnotism, super-voice, super-breath, super-speed (sometimes giving him the ability to travel through time), super-strength and super-intellect. Superman's main weakness comes from chunks of his home planet called Kryptonite, which affect him in various ways (green is fatal, red makes him weird, gold removes his superpowers), and he's also vulnerable to magic and psionics.
Intermission! [some sources: IMDb]
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If you venture over to imdb.com and look up “Superman,” you can read all about the various (and too complex to get into here, for me) versions of this film that have existed over the years. Of course, it’s not until you deal with Superman II that you get into controversy, hurt feelings, and lots of anger between fans and creators.
Steven Spielberg was offered the chance to direct this film, but the producers balked at the salary he asked for. They decided to wait until they saw how "this fish movie" (Jaws) that he had just completed did at the box office. The movie was a huge success, and Spielberg went on to other projects.
Christopher Reeve worked out so much during the making of the film that the traveling matte shots taken of him at the beginning of the shoot did not match the later shots, and had to be re-taken.
The development of the best method to show Superman flying was a long period of experimentation. The methods attempted included simply catapulting a dummy into the air, a remote control model airplane painted as the character and simply animating the flying sequences. The producers settled for a combination of back projection and specially designed zoom lenses that could create the illusion of movement by zooming in on Christopher Reeve while making the back projection appear to recede.
Gene Hackman initially balked at wearing a skull cap to portray the bald Lex Luthor, preferring instead to wear a series of increasingly silly wigs, designed to point out the obviousness of Luther's baldness. Hackman eventually relented, agreeing to wear the skull cap in one scene, his last in the picture. The wigs worn by Luther throughout the film are visible in his underground lair during the bathing sequence.
The credits sequence cost more than most films made up to that point.
The movie's original ending had Superman saving California, restructuring the San Andreas fault and then throwing the second missile into space which cracked the Phantom Zone and releasing the three super-villains. Superman turning the world around was originally conceived as the ending of Superman II to make Lois forget Superman's secret identity.
Marlon Brando refused to memorize most of his lines in advance. In the scene where he puts infant Kal-El into the escape pod, he was actually reading his lines from the diaper of the baby.
The scene where Superman leaves Lois on her balcony and then Clark is heard knocking on her door was filmed in one continuous take. Christopher Reeve had to leave the scene as Superman and enter the door of the apartment as Clark Kent, which was physically impossible in such a short amount of time. To accomplish the shot, the footage of Superman flying away was filmed first and then played back with a projector. When Lois waves goodbye to Superman, she's waving goodbye to a movie screen. She then answers the door to a "live" Christopher Reeve dressed as Clark Kent.
Groovy Quotes
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Jor-El: [bidding his son farewell, as Lara looks on] You will travel far, my little Kal-El. But we will never leave you... even in the face of our deaths... the richness of our lives shall be yours. All that I have, all that I've learned, everything I feel... all this, and more... I bequeath you, my son. You will carry me inside you all the days of your life. You will make my strength your own, and see my life through your own eyes, as your life will be seen through mine. The son becomes the father, and the father the son. This is all I can send you, Kal-El.
Lois Lane: Any more at home like you?
Clark Kent: Uh, not really, no.
Lex Luthor: It's kryptonite, Superman. Little souvenir from the old home town. I spared no expense to make you feel right at home.
Lex Luthor: This is Lex Luthor. Only one thing alive with less than four legs can hear this frequency, Superman, and that's you.
Lex Luthor: [discussing the Addis Ababa meteorite] To us, they are just meteorites. Fair enough. But the level of *specific* radioactivity is so high, to anyone from the planet Krypton, this substance is *lethal*!
Otis: Wait a minute, Mr. Luthor. You mean, fire and bullets can't even hurt this guy, but this stuff here...
Otis, Miss Teschmacher: [in unison] ... will kill him!
Lex Luthor: Doesn't it give you, like, a shudder of electricity... to be in the same room with me?
Miss Teschmacher: Not like the shudder *you're* going to get when you try laying that rock on him. He can see you coming for miles with those super-peepers of his, remember?
Lex Luthor: [obviously, he's already thought of this] "Oh, Lord... You gave them eyes, yet they cannot see." Nor can Superman, through *lead*.
Miss Teschmacher: He... can't... see... through... lead!
Lex Luthor: And Kryptonite will destroy him. Any questions, class?
Miss Teschmacher: Lex, why do so many people have to die for the crime of the century?
Lex Luthor: Why? You ask why? Why does the phone always ring when you're in the bathtub?
Jor-El: [at the Fortress of Solitude] So, my son. Speak.
Young Clark Kent: Who am I?
Jor-El: Your name is Kal-El. You are the only survivor of the planet Krypton. Even though you've been raised as a human, you are not one of them. You have great powers, only some of which you have as yet discovered.
Superman: Easy, miss. I've got you.
Lois Lane: You, you've got me? Who's got you?
[Superman and Lois are standing on opposite sides of a large planter]
Lois Lane: What color underwear am I wearing?
Superman: [looking] Hmmm...
Lois Lane: Oh, I'm sorry, I embarrassed you, didn't I?
Superman: Oh, no, no, no, not at all, Miss Lane, it's just that this planter must be made of lead.
Lois Lane: Uh, yes it is. So?
Superman: Well, you see, I, uh, I sort of have a problem seeing through lead.
Lois Lane: Oh, that's interesting.
Lois Lane: [Writing] Problem seeing through lead. Hmmm. Uh, d-do you have a first name?
Superman: What do you mean, like, uh, Ralph or something?
Lois Lane: No, no, I mean like...
[Walks away from the planter]
Superman: Pink.
Lois Lane: Huh?
Superman: Pink.
[Lois walks back to the planter]
Superman: Um, sorry, Miss Lane, I didn't mean to embarrass you.
Lex Luthor: [to Otis] Do you know why the number two hundred is so vitally descriptive to both you and me? It's your weight and my I.Q.
Lex Luthor: [about Otis] It's amazing that brain can generate enough power to keep those legs moving.
Otis: [Otis enters the room] I'm back, Mr. Luthor!
Lex Luthor: Oh, yes. I was just talking about you.
Lex Luthor: Some people can read War and Peace and come away thinking it's a simple adventure story. Others can read the ingredients on a chewing gum wrapper and unlock the secrets of the universe.
Superman: I'm here to fight for truth, and justice, and the American way.
Lois Lane: [Laughs] You're gonna end up fighting every elected official in this country!
Soundtrack Review
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Simply amazing. John Williams has never been better. Not for Star Wars, not for anything. Wow! So iconic. I highly recommend getting at least the main title theme; it’ll pick you up no matter what time or what mood you find yourself in!
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This review page was last updated on 11.28.05
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