Superman (1978)

 

“You’ll believe a man can fly” was the famous tagline that advertised the film Superman, and you actually do believe it while watching the film. The visual effects had to be top-notch for this story to work, and the filmmakers did an excellent job (for 1978, of course) in keeping the wires invisible to us in the audience. Christopher Reeve plays the caped superhero with a bit of charm and his alter ego, Clark Kent, as if he were a bit of a doofus, so it’s entertaining to witness the actor’s range. His haircut doesn’t necessarily do him any favors, but he certainly fills out the suit nicely, if you know what I mean, and I think you do. The film is loaded with lots of famous faces: Glenn Ford as Pa Kent, Superman’s adoptive father; the great Jackie Cooper as Daily Planet editor Perry White; and perhaps most famously of all, Marlon Brando at Superman’s father back on Krypton. Starting the film with the explosion of Krypton – and a side story about Jor-El (Brando) sentencing three criminals to the Phantom Zone just to set up the sequel – does let the film play just a bit the mythology surrounding Superman. We get to see his discovery by the Kents after his spaceship crashes on Earth when Kal-El was still a baby, and there are a few scenes about what it was like to be a teen (Jeff East) with superpowers. We even get to watch the creation of the Fortress of Solitude. It’s not until Clark arrives in Metropolis and meets Lois Lane, his colleague at the Daily Planet, though, that the film really becomes intriguing, and that’s perhaps my biggest (and, really, only) complaint about the film. It just takes too long to get going. We have to wait almost 48 minutes to get a glimpse of “the” suit, and an hour before the villain even shows up. Gene Hackman plays Lex Luthor, one of the greatest villains in comic book history, but the plot here doesn’t seem quite… ambitious enough? Luthor wants to steal two missiles to set off a catastrophic earthquake along the San Andreas Fault in order to destroy California. Maybe I’m too old-fashioned, but the comic book villains tended to have much bigger evil on their minds, didn’t they? Luthor is assisted by Ned Beatty’s bumbling Otis and Valerie Perrine’s Eve Teschmacher, neither of whom is a fully developed character. Aside from Reeve, the actor who gets the best material is Margo Kidder as Lois Lane. There’s some nice, playful banter between Lois and Superman, and watching her fly alongside the Man of Steel is a nice interlude (although that poem or song or whatever she has to recite in her mind? – ugh). The big moments of special effects – Superman saving a damaged airplane, him reversing time by flying incredibly fast around the world, even the destruction of the planet Krypton – are probably the reasons that most people remember this film fondly. Well, that, and believing a man can, indeed, fly.

Oscar Win: Special Achievement Award for Visual Effects

Other Oscar Nominations: Best Sound, Best Film Editing, and Best Original Score