SUPERMAN-THE MOVIE

(December 1978, U.S.)

For Richard Donner's SUPERMAN-THE MOVIE, I'd like to take you all back into the mind of the child who first saw it on the big screen in December 1978, nearly forty years ago (Happy Anniversary!).

Not since the 1976 remake of KING KONG had I such high anticipations for a new movie. I cannot claim to have had the same anticipations for movies like STAR WARS and CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND because they were unfamiliar territory until becoming popular in their own right. The character of Superman, like Kong, was already legendary. While I wasn’t a major fan or reader of Superman comic books, I did watch the 1950’s TV show with George Reeves everyday after school when it aired in reruns. Superman himself was unmistakable and now the first major motion picture for the big screen was on its way. When it played at a neighborhood movie theater only ten minutes from where we lived, my parents knew well enough they’d be responsible for taking their sons to see it (asking them was hardly necessary).

The movie started with an image, or perhaps an homage, to an old aspect ratio of movie theater curtains parting and the sound of an old projector displaying the words June 1938 (the year Superman was created by high school kids Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster) and a cover of Action Comics depicting art deco rocket ships and an exploding planet. A child’s voice told us of a decade during the Great Depression when the responsibility of the Daily Planet was to provide the public with truth and clarity. These words then yielded to some very powerful title images accompanied by the opening music of John Williams and inevitably building up into the immortal word that was SUPERMAN! Even at the age of eleven, when I was still too young to recognize or understand just how powerful opening credits could be when done effectively, I sat there in amazement, anticipating more…and more.

I was already somewhat familiar with how Superman came to Earth as a baby, but this was the first time I discovered the specific reasons to how and why. Although I’d understand years later with the sequel, the opening trial of the three Kryptonian criminals was confusing, if not unnecessary, to the story that followed. I was anxious to see what would happen to the planet Krypton following Jor-El’s ignored warning to evacuate all its citizens. When the baby of Kal-El first appeared, I remember my mother making soft, cooing noises at such an adorable infant. To watch a loving mother and father kiss their baby and say goodbye to him for the last time in their lives was, admittedly, sad. But excitement quickly overtook sadness. The rocket ship blasted off and Kal-El was safe for his new journey to Earth to one day become Superman. I kept thinking the planet Krypton would be destroyed and that would be it. Instead, the scene took its time and showed us the slow and gradual destruction of the planet's interior and its doomed people, who attempted to survive, in vain. The planet’s explosion was dramatic and final.

The journey of Kal-El’s ship was intriguing. Rather than just fly through space and eventually land on Earth, the scene, again, took its time and gave us specific details of the journey. First, the ship passed alongside the three Kryptonian criminals who’d been sentenced to the Phantom Zone which appeared as nothing more than a large sheet of glass. Then we saw close-ups of the baby listening to the recorded voice of his father already beginning to teach him the ways of the people of Earth. There were descriptions of the special powers he’d have (powers we in the audience already likely knew about from comic books and TV) and even a warning never to interfere with human history. Had I known at the time what the art of set-up and pay-off were in a professional screenplay, that specific warning might’ve had more meaning for me. When the three year-old Kal-El finally landed on Earth, met his new adoptive parents, and lifted up the truck that almost crushed Jonathan Kent, we knew things were about to get started and it was time for the true Superman to be born. As a child, it wasn’t always easy for me to appreciate or retain specific moments of powerful dialogue. To this day, however, I won’t forget a feeling of sadness and sorrow when, at Jonathan Kent’s funeral, young Clark Kent said to his mother, "All those things I can do…all those powers…and I couldn’t even save him." But as I mentioned before, feelings of sadness in a movie such as this are very quickly replaced by the sheer excitement of story and action. Young Clark Kent was about to journey up north where he’d create the Fortress of Solitude and discover just who he was and why he was sent to Earth. In what’s best described as an "out of body" experience (though I’d never heard such words when I was a kid), Clark was taken by his father, Jor-El, through time and space to not only fully comprehend his role on Earth as a powerful being from another world, but would also return as an older man by twelve years, his manhood and his colorful costume and cape ready for action.

Never forgetting the familiarity of Superman’s story as seen on TV, the arrival of Clark Kent at the Daily Planet in the city of Metropolis (which I could clearly recognize as being filmed in Manhattan), and his introduction to Lois Lane and Jimmy Olson seemed almost routine at this point. Mild suspense and dialogue clearly were leading to something much bigger in which the world would finally recognize the existence of Superman. Such expectations finally paid off during the helicopter disaster sequence at the rooftop of the Daily Planet in which Lois Lane began to fall to her death. Not to worry, though – Superman was on the way. What happened next is important to me because for a brief moment, it changed the way I looked at my mother. For as long as I could remember, I’d never seen my mother get excited, joyous or giddy watching anything fun on the screen that would normally bring out the kid in us (she was just that damn serious!). But when Superman showed up in flight to save the falling Lois Lane, grab hold of the falling helicopter and fly them both up to safety, my mother (along with the rest of the audience), clapped her hands and cheered with genuine laughter and excitement. I’d never seen her exhibit this sort of fun at the movies before and I don’t think I ever saw her do it again after that (I suppose the powers of Superman extend beyond what we’re familiar with, even to someone like my mother). Superman was here, and now we’d watch him live up to his full potential with a series of daring rescues (including the old, silly cliché of the cat stuck in the tree) and chases. By the time the Daily Planet was committed to exploiting Superman’s arrival, Lois Lane was also just as committed to getting as close to Superman as possible. During their interview at her rooftop apartment, it seemed as if they were just killing time with each other when what they really wanted was to get closer. Their flight together through and above the skies of Metropolis was not only visually beautiful, but also touching in the way we could hear Lois’ voice-over recite a poem entitled "Can You Read my Mind?" The story also knew when to be a little silly for the sake of slapstick fun. Meeting Lex Luther, his sidekick Otis and his girlfriend Ms. Teschmacher were meant to make us laugh, and I’m sure we did. But I’ll still never forget the reaction I had when I first saw Ms. Teschmacher wearing the sexy black outfit that revealed a large portion of her breasts. Remember, I’m eleven years-old now and the fantasies of the opposite sex are just starting to build. This was only natural, of course, but a woman like Valerie Perrine in the late ‘70s certainly helped to move it along...

During the second and final sequence of Superman’s daring exploits and rescues, it was thrilling to watch him show up when he was needed during California’s major earthquake orchestrated by Lex Luthor. Never did the strength and power of the man seem more obvious than when he laid down his own body in place of the broken train track and allowed it to safely pass over himself. Even though I never doubted the power of his superhuman abilities, I was still stunned, nonetheless, to watch this man raise the land’s infill to protect and repair the San Andreas Fault Line immediately following the start of the earthquake. Yes, it seemed that there was nothing Superman couldn’t save or fix. For a time, however, that may not have been completely true. When all was finally settled down, it appeared that Lois Lane had died during the course of the quake. Wait a second, could this be possible? Was Lois really dead? Like Rocky Balboa losing the big fight at the end of ROCKY, this just didn’t seem possible or fair, even for a movie. When Superman arrived at the scene seemingly too late, even he couldn’t believe it. He let out a scream of rage and fury that I never thought a righteous man like himself was capable of. What followed next, I couldn’t possibly understand the theoretical physics of at the age of eleven, but it appeared that by flying at an unimaginable speed, Superman could rotate the planet Earth in the opposite direction and physically turn back time. By doing that, the events of the quake and those who suffered from it, including Lois, would be undone and all would be safe, despite the fact that Superman had ignored his father’s previous warning that he was forbidden to interfere with human history. I suppose sometimes even a man like Superman had to disobey his own daddy in order to do the right thing and save the woman he loved.

Just over two hours later, SUPERMAN-THE MOVIE could not have ended better. The world was saved, Lois Lane was saved, Lex Luthor and Otis were going to jail and the human race seemed to have a better understanding of itself and its safety, because as Superman himself put it, "We’re all part of the same team." Yes, Superman was here to stay - on screen, on lunchboxes, on trading cards and in our popular culture. It was a moviegoing phenomenon that could’ve easily rivaled STAR WARS. It was pure fun, magic and something I didn’t want to end. In February 1982, SUPERMAN had its television premiere on the ABC Sunday Night Movie. It featured additional footage over the course of two nights. By the end of the first night’s airing, the movie stopped short when Lois Lane fell from the helicopter, creating a cliffhanger-type of effect for the end of part one. The next evening, there was a brief recap of what took place the night before and the film continued from where it left off. Some of this new footage included a Kryptonian security officer ordered to hunt down and capture Jor-El for excessive energy use, Superman subjected to machine gun fire, a giant blow torch, and frozen ice while walking through Lex Luthor’s underground hideout and a little girl revealed to be Lois Lane aboard a moving train watching a teenage Clark Kent through her binoculars as he’s running at a speed faster than the train. Some scenes which included Lex Luther playing the piano just before he lowered Ms. Teschmacher into a den of lions seemed completely pointless and stupid. By the time I reached my high school teens and finally owned an uncut copy of the movie, it had been restored to its original theatrical version, which was fine by me because by that time, the extra TV footage left very little impression on me. I understood the ineffective waste of time additional footage brought to most motion pictures that were already considered great as they were. Apparently, I was already asking the question of why Hollywood and television couldn’t just leave well enough alone. As the old saying goes, why fix it if it ain’t broke?

How far we’ve come since the original SUPERMAN; three sequels within the original franchise, a 2006 reboot by Bryan Singer and three MAN OF STEEL films. It’s easy to claim that the recent Superman films of the 21st Century are more exciting and offer harder, more fast-paced action than its originators. But the story of Superman, in my opinion, remains a deeply spiritual one of a man from another world trying his best to fit in among people who may or may not fully understand who and what he is. The first MAN OF STEEL film of 2013 does accomplish this in an admirable and effective manner, but there’s a true sensitivity to Christopher Reeve and his performance in the first film that I’ve never let go of all these years. It begins with a strong spirit of family that is most evident in the speech that Marlon Brando's Jor-El makes to his infant son just before taking off on his journey...

"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 eyes, as your life will be seen through mine. The son becomes the father and the father the son. This is all I, all I can send you, Kal-El."

That spirit of family continues in 1950’s Smallville in a picture-perfect setting that would’ve made famed artist Norman Rockwell proud. Knowing full well he’s adopted, Clark Kent is, nonetheless, a content boy as seen through the trusting relationship with his Earth father, Jonathan, and the tender relationship with his mother, Martha, at the time he decides he must leave her to pursue his destiny.

There’s also an interesting underlying sexual content to SUPERMAN that I was too young to recognize as a kid. Back then, I didn’t understand Lois Lane’s almost desperate need to know Superman by asking him if he was married as her first interview question, as well as her second question of "How big are you?" when what she really meant to ask was "How tall are you?" I didn’t understand her implications in having him confirm if the rest of his bodily functions were "normal". I didn’t understand that she was basically making sure that Superman did, indeed, like women (and liked pleasing them orally, too, I suppose) by asking him, "Do you like pink?" Well, as movie audiences would’ve fully expected back then, Superman answered, "I like pink very much, Lois." Ah, the hidden sexual and subliminal messages you come to realize as you get older.

Above all, SUPERMAN-THE MOVIE remains a delightful combination of old fashioned ideas like heroes, villains, romance, swashbuckling adventure, and groundbreaking special effects that doesn’t feel old or dated. It’s pure fun and entertainment for a man as myself who’s never considered himself an expert (or even an amateur) of the comic book genre. I don’t take such stories too seriously and seek to only satisfy my cravings for fun, but with also the right touch of intelligence, charm, and wit. Unlike some of the unfortunate sequels that followed, the film does know when to take itself seriously, in particular with gifted and veteran actors like Marlon Brando and Gene Hackman, while still knowing just when to be cute and fun, without being over-the-top campy. It’s a film that still takes me back to that glorious moment back in 1978 when I learned that my mother, if she truly applied herself, could have just as much fun at the movies as her two boys did when the right moment struck her.

Thanks for that brief moment, Mom!

Favorite line or dialogue:

General Zod (to Jor-El): "Join us. You have been known to disagree with the council before. Yours could become an important voice in the new order, second only to my own! I offer you a chance for greatness, Jor-El! Take it! Join us! You will bow down before me, Jor-El! I swear it! No matter if it takes an eternity, YOU WILL BOW DOWN BEFORE ME! BOTH YOU, AND THEN ONE DAY, YOUR HEIRS!!!"