superman1

The idea of the comic book movie is really one of adapting the medium of film to conform to the
energy and aesthetics of the comic books. In today’s modern movie industry, comic fans measure
a movie by how accurately it brings certain heroes and ideas from the pulpy pages to the silver
screen. However, there is one superhero film that took a comic book character and adapted the
superhero for the film and in marrying the two mediums and their respective mythologies created
what can only be described as high art.

I speak of director Richard Donner’s groundbreaking “Superman: The Movie.” Never before or
since has a comic book character been so subtly massaged into cinema and so perfectly. With
verisimilitude as his motto during production, Donner carefully and lovingly retold the mythology of
Superman without satire, unnecessary cheese or disrespect. He had top tier talent backing him up
too.

Acting legend Marlon Brando played Superman’s Kryptonian father, Jor-El. Glenn Ford starred as
Superman’s adopted father, Jonathan Kent. Gene Hackman portrayed Superman’s archenemy,
Lex Luthor, in an unforgettable performance. For Superman himself, Donner cast an unknown who
for generations to come will be the very definition of the Man of Steel, the late Christopher Reeve.

Donner did not betray the story at all. His confidence in the material adds to the film’s lasting
creative integrity. The planet Krypton suffers internal earthquakes and explodes, but not before
Jor-El is able to send his infant son away in a rocket ship. It lands on Earth where he is found by
the Kent Family and raised as their boy. Soon he discovers his amazing powers and travels to
Metropolis to use them to help innocent people. He takes a job as Clark Kent at The Daily Planet
where he becomes a mild-mannered reporter to hide his real identity.

Meanwhile, Lex Luthor is devising a scheme to destroy California with nuclear missiles so his real
estate purchases in the desert will become beachfront property and earn him diabolical billions of
dollars. His only threat is Superman and he is bent on destroying him.

Reeve is the perfect Superman. He absorbed the role and lived the values of the character. Never
once does he satirize his role. To date, his foil portrayals of Clark Kent and Superman remain the
most distinctly defined performances of the character ever. You really believe sometimes that he is
actually two different people.

Hackman is hilarious as the nefarious Luthor, the classic evil genius of the original comic books but with a comedic edge. Sometimes his dealings with his
cohorts, especially Ned Beatty as Otis, push the envelope of satire a tad, but it’s nothing to be concerned about.

The special effects are an amazing achievement. Rather than attempt the still-primitive blue-screen technology of the time, Donner opted to utilize the most
sophisticated front and rear projection processes available, and through meticulous cinematography and expense, created scenes of Superman in flight that are
testaments to the skill of optical cinematography. Many of these shots still hold up today.

Donner’s greatest accomplishment was the successful adaptation of Superman’s mythology into a film so beautifully shot that his attempt at paying tribute to
such a symbol of Americana has in itself become an icon of Americana. From the star-swept vistas of Krypton, to the sweeping wheat fields of Kansas to the
urban cityscapes of Metropolis, “Superman: The Movie” contains a profound dignity not only in how the story is told, but also how the story is shown.

They never made them like this. They never have made them like this since.