Superman *** (1978, Christopher Reeve, Margot Kidder, Gene Hackman, Marlon Brando) – Classic Movie Review 522

Though ambitious, costly, awesome-looking and entertaining, director Richard Donner’s 1978 first film in the original four-part Superman saga is also unfortunately pompous, pretentious and patchy.

The main assets are: (1) the late, great Christopher Reeve as The Man of Steel, charming and heroic as Superman and equally convincing as bespectacled newspaper reporter Clark Kent, (2) the pioneering Oscar-winning special effects and (3) John Williams’s memorable Oscar-nominated music score.

The downsides are:

(1) a slow, clunky start with an up-itself prologue on the doomed Krypton planet, including a desperately feeble, mumbling Marlon Brando cameo as Superman’s dad Jor-El in a bizarre white wig;

(2) too much heavy-going sincerity and too little campy send-up in Mario Puzo and David Newman’s heavyweight screenplay; and

(3) several misjudged, pantomime-style performances from an excellent and normally reliable cast of the likes of Gene Hackman as arch-villain Lex Luthor, Margot Kidder (Lois Lane), Jackie Cooper (Daily Planet editor Perry White), Glenn Ford and Phyllis Thaxter (Pa and Ma Kent), Trevor Howard, Ned Beatty, Susannah York (Superman’s mum Lara), Valerie Perrine and Terence Stamp (General Zod).

That’s three main pluses and three minuses, so we could be kind and call it a draw. Admittedly, if you’re playing the world’s greatest criminal mind Lex Luthor in a comic-book movie, you’ve got your work cut out and a bit of panto acting’s probably the best route to go. Hackman doesn’t really judge it well, though, and it defeated Kevin Spacey in the attempted reboot Superman Returns.

Heavily and clumsily edited at a draggy 142 minutes, the original release version of Superman doesn’t play like the best cut of the available material. An American TV version eventually restored 50 missing minutes and the 2000 restored version runs 151 minutes.

Superman received a Special Achievement Academy Award for its visual effects: Les Bowie, Colin Chilvers, Denys Coop, Derek Meddings. There were three other nominations (for Best Original Score, Best Sound, Best Film Editing for Stuart Baird). Reeve won a Bafta award for Most Promising Newcomer to Leading Film Roles. Geoffrey Unsworth’s cinematography and John Barry’s Best Production Design/Art Direction are outstanding, but won no awards.

Allegedly using cue cards to read his lines, Brando was said to have been paid a record $4million for his 10-minute role, a record at the time. Old-time stars Kirk Alyn and Noelle Neill (Superman and Lois Lane from the old 1948 Superman serial) play young Lois’s dad and mum here; Larry Hagman has a cameo as an army major.

The black outfit worn by Brando ended up at his LA home and was sold after his death at Christie’s New York auction house in June 2005.

Superman premiered at the Kennedy Center in Washington DC on 10 December 1978 and had a European Royal Charity Premiere at the Empire, Leicester Square in London on 13 December in the presence of the Queen and Prince Andrew. Costing an enormous $55milion, it became a box-office sensation, grossing $134.21 million in North America and $166 million internationally, for a total of $300.21 million worldwide. Superman was the second highest-grossing film of 1978, behind Grease, and became the sixth-highest grossing film of all time after its cinema run.

With the film’s success, it was immediately decided to finish Superman II (1980). Two more films, Superman III (1983) and Superman IV: The Quest for Peace (1987), were produced. Director Bryan Singer credited Superman: The Movie as an influence for Superman Returns, released in 2006, and even used restored footage of Brando as Jor-El. Superman II: The Richard Donner Cut also was released in 2006. The Superman franchise was rebooted as Man of Steel in 2013.

Margot Kidder (1948–2018).

RIP Margot Kidder (1948–2018), for ever Lois Lane.

RIP Richard Donner, director of Superman (1978), Ladyhawke (1985) and Lethal Weapon (1987), who died on July 5, 2021, aged 91.

http://derekwinnert.com/man-of-steel-film-review/

http://derekwinnert.com/superman-returns-2006-brandon-routh-kevin-spacey-kate-bosworth-classic-movie-review-1433/

© Derek Winnert 2013 Classic Movie Review 522

Check out more reviews on http://derekwinnert.com/