SUPERMAN (1978) Retrospective

Superman Teaser Poster

With the release of James Gunn’s Superman (2025), I decided to go back and watch the first big Screen incarniation of the character; Richard Donner’s “SUPERMAN: The Movie”. I have fond memories of this film as a kid, and was always taken by Christopher Reeves charamstic portriayal of big blue and his clumsy and dorky personaity as Clark Kent. Does it hold up? Let’s talk about it.

I really like the opening of this picture. The first Act serves as Superman’s origin, from the explosion of his home planet Krypton, which Jor-El actor Marlon Brando couldn’t have been bothered to pronounce properly, all the way to Clark deciding to leave his adopted home and family in Kansas. Speaking of the Krypton sequence, I love the sets, the costumes, the sort of aluminum foil-like look. It feels foreign, and the Zod imprisonment scene is great: GUILTY GUILTY GUILTY. Sadly, however, it doesn’t amount to much within the context of this film by itself.

During the Smallville section of the film, young Clark Kent actor Jeff East did an excellent job, and I agree with the decision of his voice being dubbed over by Christopher Reeve. It helps ease the transition between the actors on re-watch. After the sudden death of Jonathan Kent, Clark’s adoptive father, Clark decides he must become his own man and leaves Smallville for the first time. In his travels, he throws a strange green crystal on an icy terrain, and behold, the Fortress of Solitude spawns from the crystal, a mini version of Krypton. It’s once again an excellent set. How did Clark know he was supposed to do this specifically after his 18th birthday? How did Jor El know Clark would know what to do with the green crystal? I don’t really know, and I don’t think the writers knew either, but it makes for a visually stimulating moment. Maybe Clark sort of subconsciously knew since the film implies that an AI of Jor El was speaking to him and giving him some knowledge while on his way to Earth and maybe one of those bits of knowledge was that he should do this when he turns 18, which begs the question, if Jonathan never died, would Clark have done this regardless. Doesn’t really matter because at this point in the film, I’m immersed!

I find a very fascinating how this film for the first 40 to 45 minutes, has no Christopher Reeve, and it’s arguably the best written section of the film…more on that later.

Christopher Reeve is perfect in this role. When we see Superman flying from afar for the first time in the fortress of Solitide after Jor El has bestowed all the knowledge that Kal El should know, we see our very first glimpse of Superman. It isn’t a clear image, but it’s enough to let the audience know he’s become who we’re waiting to see, but we’re not quite yet ready to see it. In the meantime, we have Reeve’s performance as Clark, a bumbling, dorky reporter who nobody seems to like or respect for whatever reason, even though he’s a very handsome 6-foot-4, muscular man. Huh. Reeve gives his all.

When Clark does finally show up to Metropolis, which here is just New York City, and when it’s time for Superman to save the day, it hits like a bullet train! It is a wonderful, joyful scene. I love the setup; a dangling helicopter on the edge of a building, and Lois Lane, a reporter, Clark has recently met after scoring a job the Daily Planet, whom he’s got a bit of a crush on. It’s peril, and the civilians of Metropolis can only but watch. But wait, look up in the sky! It’s a bird! It’s a plane! No, it’s, SUPERMAN!

I especially love how, once Clark exits the Daily Planet and sees the disaster, as he prepares to suit up as Superman, the camera lingers on a telephone, and quickly then it pulls out, serving as a homage to how often in other incarnations of the Superman character, Clark would change to Superman in a telephone booth. Here, instead, he changes through the doors of the Daily Planet. I think it’s an excellent sequence, and I think John Williams’ score is outstanding. It really elevates Superman and every scene that he’s in; however, I don’t really think much else about the score is too much to ride home about, but wow, the main Superman score is fantastic, and there’s a reason it’s so iconic and has stood the test of time. After this heroic save with some pretty solid visual effects work, Lois asks her savior who he is, and Superman replies with two words: “A friend.”, He sure feels like one. He felt like mine when I was a kid watching a pirated version of this movie for the first time on a flash drive on my PS3 (eh-hem, I mean my legally obtained physical Blu-ray of this film).

What follows is a bit of a montage sequence where we see Superman enacting several acts of Heroism, stopping robbers and petty crime, and he even saves a kitten from a tree. This montage is Superman at his core, and Christopher Reeve shines as this character. His charisma makes you wanna smile, makes you wanna be a hero.

Superman later offers Lois an interview, and here is where my problems with this perfect film that I love with all my heart lie. Superman, this alien from another planet who has bestowed knowledge of the greatest minds, is telling a woman whom he just met and has a little crush on everything about him, his home planet, why he’s here, and most stupidly, what his weaknesses are. This woman whom he’s known for maybe a week at most. It doesn’t seem plausible to me, not by the standards this film has so brilliantly set up. This tell-all exclusive to Lois is how the film’s 3rd act villain, Lex Luthor, is able to initially thwart Superman, with both Kryptonite and Lead. Lazy writing. But before I talk more about Lex, I want to briefly tell y’all what I think about the Superman & Lois flying scene.

It’s weird, it’s odd. I get what Donner was trying to go for, but the scene would probably work equally as well if they’d just let the absence of dialogue speak for itself; Lois is mesmerized, awestruck! We see it, we don’t need to hear it, especially not with the kind of dialogue they’re having Margot Kidder say.

I also don’t like the explanation of kryptonite in this film, and sure, it’s a made-up rock and I’m more than certain that the culture even in 1978 knew that a green rock was Superman‘s weakness, but its place in this film isn’t implemented very well. I must admit the Lex Luther villain motivation was kind of lackluster. He’s just an evil real estate guy who wants to get more land for himself, so he enacts a master plan where 1 of 2 missiles will hit California, enabling him to buy the new land that’ll become available to him. I don’t know I just don’t find that compelling or interesting in the least bit. Perhaps that was timely in 1978 in the same way with how Gunn’s 2025 Superman reboot they’ve effectively fictionalized Isreal and Palestein, but it strikes me as a very dated and odd motive to say the least and I suspect the 2025 superman will have a similar issue with it’s dated themes going foward, but that’s not to do with this film. Otis and Lex, as a pair, have a comedic relationship again where Lex is the smart one and Otis is a fool, and Miss Tessmacher, who ends up saving Superman, which in turn, causes Superman to save the day. This film is not trying to exist in any world similar to our own.

Also, I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the weird sexual assault scene against Miss Tessmacher when Lex and Otis sabotage the missiles. Whoa! That’s a super strange and uncomfortable scene. I guess it just went over my head as a kid, but as an adult, it’s certainly something that I question why it was implemented in this film in the first place.

Superman fails at stopping both missiles, and Lois Lane dies, and Superman chooses to turn back time to prevent Lois’ death. Both at the beginning and end of the picture, Jor-El tells Kal-El that it is forbidden to interfere with the course of Human History, but he just does it anyway and faces no consequences. It’s a great visual, don’t get me wrong, but with that instruction from Jor-El in my mind, I question the decision to have that be forbidden in the first place when this is the climax of the movie. Superman brings Lex and co to jail, and flies up to space and smiles towards a camera, a cute ending to a flawed but iconic motion picture.

I think a lot of the flying sequences in Superman have aged well. I especially like the visual of Superman turning time backward. I can understand why producers asked Donner to end the 1st film with that visual, and sure, the way the timeline works here is not have timelines work in a lot of contemporary stories, but I think you give this film a very fantasy-like quality, sort of whimsical quality that I like. This film exists in a semi-satirical version of our reality, not quite exaggerated, not quite realistic, but it’s satirical.

Overall, I enjoyed my rewatch of Superman: The Movie. It’s not a perfect film. There are a lot of flaws narratively and plot threads that have no consequence, but it’s a fun movie, one that I’m happy to say, while very dated, still makes me feel like a kid in 2025 in ways most movies just don’t.