Superman

A real estate mogul who is willing to let hundreds of thousands of people die for his own materialistic gain? Did Donald Trump watch this movie and take the wrong message from it? Charming. That is the word I would use to describe this movie. Charming. I know he greatly disagreed with Snyder’s take on Superman in Man of Steel, but I feel there is more in common between Donner’s take and Snyder’s take than most would usually see. For me it is the mythic near fantastic take on the character that works in both versions for me. This movie has such a wonderful, almost sci-fantasy feel to it, that one can’t help but wonder if Donner took some subconscious influence from Star Wars: A New Hope. It is somewhat of a shame that this feel would be stripped back and removed for Superman II, but here it just feels right and works well. Christopher Reeve was the Man of Steel. His confidence, his aura, the kindness and gentleness that he portrays Superman with, endears you to the character and the performance. Whilst his Clark Kent does get a little bit grating with the nebbishness and the nasally voice, his overall performance is brilliant with a particular highlight being his dinner date with Lois Lane as Superman. His charisma in that scene rivals Henry Cavill’s in real life. The shifting of his body language when he’s about to confess that he is Superman, is one of the best physical performances in a superhero movie and one of the best displays of the two alter egos. The same cannot be said about Lex Luthor. Whilst I have nothing against Gene Hackman’s take on the character, he does get one of my favourite lines in the whole movie “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.”, I just feel that as a villain; he leaves a lot to be desired. There’s nothing wrong with the performance, I just feel that he lacks the menace that someone like Telly Savalas could've brought to the role. Maybe this is due to the writing or the direction, either way he is not my favourite Lex. The rest of the supporting cast, Kidder, Cooper, Perrine, McClure and Beatty are all brilliant. Kidder and Reeve have such incredible chemistry that you believe their characters' dynamics and that they are falling for one another. Cooper feels like a precursor to JK Simmons J.Jonah Jameson from the Raimi Trilogy. Beatty and Perrine both serve up some fun comic relief and they form almost a Three Stooges like symbiote with Gene Hackman’s Luthor. Despite Reeve not thinking much of him, his weird pronunciation of ‘Krypton’, the insane ideas he had for playing the character and him getting top billing, getting Marlon Brando as Jor-El was one hell of coup on the part of the filmmakers; however I do feel there is lack of energy from Brando’s performance and a sense of phoning it in. The cinematography by the late Geoffrey Unsworth is breathtakingly beautiful and makes some of the slower scenes at the beginning of the movie more bearable. The script is on top form with it being rewritten by Tom Mankiewicz adding some of his trademark wit and humour that helped usher in the Roger Moore era of Bond. The flying sequences are incredible, and yes they are dated by today’s standards, one can see how people would have believed that “a man can fly” as promised by the marketing material. Along with some fantastic model shots, the effects of this film still capture one's imagination nearly fifty years on. Though perhaps the most iconic part of this movie is of course the theme composed by the legend that is the great John Williams. Whilst it is overused and overplayed, watching this movie and listening to the theme over and over again, I can’t help but fall in love with it like some many people have done over the last near fifty years. Is it any wonder that this theme is beloved by so many? The rest of the score is equally as incredible as the theme and a particular highlight for me is “The Flying Sequence”, essentially the love theme for Superman and Lois. A beautiful, gorgeous soundtrack for a beautiful and gorgeous movie. Where the film does fall down in a few places is with some the visual effects and model sequences towards the end of the movie, though I am more forgiving that I normally would be as these were done by a different group of people when the ending of the movie was altered at the behest of Warner Bros (I think I can sense a dangerous pattern starting to form here). Luthor’s plan also leaves a lot to be desired, as in the grand scheme of things real estate serving as his main motivation and the reason as to why he is willing to kill hundreds of thousands of people; is just rather a bit of a letdown and a damp squib in the grand scheme of villainous comic book schemes. It feels more like the scheme of one of the less impressive Bond villains. Then again it is better than whatever Malekith’s plan was in ‘Thor: The Dark World’. The pacing is also another issue that works against the film with the first act being the slowest of the three, but as stated before the soundtrack and the cinematography help make those scenes more tolerable. Overall Superman(1978) is a wonderful movie. Just writing this review has put me in the mind to rewatch it again. Mayhaps this movie shall become something of a comfort movie for me in the future? Whilst I will always prefer Man of Steel and Zack Snyder’s take on the character to this one, this take will now always have a place in my heart and I now look back on my stupid dismissal of this movie when I was younger. Yes it is a tad overrated, but it’s still a phenomenal movie that I eagerly look forwards to revisiting someday soon.