‘I’m here to fight for truth, and justice, and the American way...’
I’m not a big superhero movie guy (Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy aside) and so Richard Donner’s 1978 adaptation of Superman has never been on my radar until now. It is only because the excellent film history podcast With Gourley and Rust is covering the franchise that I decided to dive in with this first entry. And do you know what? It’s actually pretty damn good…
We know the story by now. It’s Superman for chrissakes. Christopher Reeve portrays the Man of Steel, Marlon Brando is Superman’s biological father Jor-El (he was paid $3.7 million despite only working 12 days and refusing to learn his lines) and Gene Hackman camps it up as Lex Luther. Elsewhere, genre legend Margot Kidder makes for an excellent Lois Lane.
It was a surprisingly rocky road to get this film made in the first place. The list of actors considered to play Supe includes Al Pacino, Clint Eastwood, Muhammad Ali, Sylvester Stallone, Paul Newman, Neil Diamond, Bruce Jenner and Arnold Schwarzenegger, before virtual unknown Reeve was cast. The script went through numerous rewrites (the original effort from Mario Puzo, writer of The Godfather was scrapped) before Tom Mankiewicz delivered a rewrite. Numerous directors were attached before the success of The Omen saw Richard Donner handed the job. Despite being a troubled production, the finished product feels suitably epic and was a huge hit upon release earning just over $300 million worldwide on its way to becoming Warner Bros.’s most successful film at the time.
Donner presents Superman as several different films combined to create a satisfying whole. The opening segement on Krypton is a space opera, then we have the sweeping vistas of Kansas for Clark Kent’s upbringing in Kansas, then some gritty ’70s realism in Metropolis, the meetcute with Lois Lane and finally the summer blockbuster conclusion. The film is also tonally disparate with the scenes in Lex Luther’s lair between Hackman and Ned Beatty’s bumbling henchman Otis taking on an almost slapstick feel while other moments, such as the death of Superman’s surrogate father, are handed with surprising tenderness. It’s a tough balancing act to pull off, and at times it doesn’t quite work, but it feels infinitely closer to the tone of what a comic book adaptation should be than the work of Zak Snyder, for example.
The ace in the pack in terms of acting is Margot Kidder. While Reeves brings profundity and gravitas to the titular role, he’s also a bit of a dork. Kidder imbues Lois Lane with an almost bohemian cool that helps to place the film in the ’70s and also adds a bit of colour to the many scenes that the two central characters carry alone. The many scenes of Lois Lane and Superman soaring above the Metropolis city skyline still look great, and most of the visual effects here, many of them practical or in camera, hold up beautifully (the film deservedly took home the Best Visual Effects gong at the 1979 Oscars).
I went into Superman with fairly low expectations. I’ve always found the Man of Steel a little dull in comparison to Batman and Spider-Man but I have to admit that even at almost two and a half hours, I was gripped throughout most of this movie – it’s still probably the best incarnation of Superman out there.
