Superman (1978)
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This film has been preserved in the National Film Registry in 2017. | ||
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 "You'll believe a man can fly."
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Superman (otherwise known as Superman: The Movie) is a 1978 superhero film based on the DC Comics of the same name. It is the first installment to the Christopher Reeve's Superman film franchise, and it was directed by Richard Donner and written by Mario Puzo, David Newman, Leslie Newman, and Robert Benton from a story by Puzo. the film stars Christopher Reeve, Marlon Brando, Gene Hackman, Jeff East, Margot Kidder, Glenn Ford, Phyllis Thaxter, Jackie Cooper, Trevor Howard, Marc McClure, Terence Stamp, Valerie Perrine, Ned Beatty, Jack O'Halloran, Maria Schell, and Sarah Douglas. In late 1973, Salkind had an idea of a Superman film, one year later, after a long, difficult process with DC Comics, the Superman film rights were purchased by Ilya, his father Alexander Salkind, and their partner Pierre Spengler. DC wanted a list of actors that were to be considered for Superman and approved the producer's choices of Muhammad Ali, Al Pacino, James Caan, Steve McQueen, Clint Eastwood, and Dustin Hoffman.
In March 1977, the film started its production and lasted until October 1978, and it was released on December 10 at he Kennedy Center in Washington D.C. and it was released theatrically, and the 15th, 1978 across the United Kingdom and The United States by Warner Bros. Pictures, and it grossed over $300.5 million dollars against its $55 million budget. The film received almost critical acclaim from critics, audiences, and fans of the DC Comics and its television series from the 1950s series of the same name. Superman has been widely considered to be the greatest superhero film of all time. After the release, Warner Bros. released its VHS with a 127-minute cut, before DVDs were released with a theatrical cut, a 151-minute director's cut and as well on Blu Ray with the 3-hour cut and as well with television release throughout a few decades after the release. As of 2017, the film was selected for preservation by the Library of Congress's National Film Registry. A sequel, Superman II was released in December 1980, just two years after the release of the first film.
Plot
The film begins in June 1938. The film opens to a child reading a comic book about the Daily Planet, the largest newspaper in the city of Metropolis. As the child reads, the shot dissolves to the real Daily Planet and up into the sky. The following title sequence moves through space and eventually reveals the planet Krypton, the home world of a highly-evolved race resembling humans and bearing a unique molecular density and structure, a result of the planet's gravitational strength and the radiation of its adjacent red sun. The planet is ruled by a Council of Elders, each representing a particular "clan" and bearing a crest of that particular House. The planet's greatest scientist, Jor-El, bears an S-shaped crest, the House of El. He is supervising the trial of three criminals caught attempting to overthrow the planet's government: General Zod, the planet's former defense chief; his henchman Non, a hulking killer unable to speak; and Ursa, a woman determined to exterminate men other than the man she loves: Zod. As the elders render a guilty verdict, Zod notes that the verdict must be unanimous, so Jor-El ultimately holds the key to their fate. Despite his disillusionment with the Council of Elders, Jor-El renders a conviction. The vast dome of the planet's capital city opens to the night, and a small extra-dimensional prison - the Phantom Zone - tumbles out of the sky and pulls the three criminals out of the trial room and into an eternity in dimensional limbo through space. While a frightened Ursa begs for forgiveness, Zod defiantly swears that he will have his vengeance on the House of El, even if it takes him a thousand years. However, Jor-El's more pressing concern lies in the orbital shift of Krypton; this shift is putting the planet into the fatal gravitational pull of its central star, a fact blithely ignored by the Council Of Elders. The leader of the Council forbids Jor-El from warning the larger populace or he will be imprisoned in the Phantom Zone himself. Jor-El promises to be silent and that he and his wife will not attempt to leave the planet. Jor-El chooses instead to construct a crystalline starship for his infant son Kal-El. Jor-El's wife Lara, however, is concerned, for the starship is programmed to take the child through a trans-galactic warp to a planet populated by primitive humans whose technological development is millennia behind Krypton, a planet that orbits a yellow sun, a planet called Earth. Jor-El, however, understands that the planet's yellow sun will give Kal-El superhuman powers, which will give him the advantage he needs to survive. Jor-El and Lara bid their child goodbye before Joe-El installs a green crystal into the ship, a crystal containing the very essence of himself and Lara as well as the knowledge of the entire universe. He then completes the assembly of the starship - just as the planet is pulled into a fatal plunge toward its red sun. The starship is launched and escapes the system scant minutes before the planet is torn open, collides with its central star, and both bodies are obliterated in a holocaust of fire and debris.
The tiny starship passes the Phantom Zone before accelerating on its journey to the planet Earth, with the voice of Jor-El providing the infant, who is aging as the ship proceeds, with knowledge. The ship finally reaches Earth in the year 1951 A.D. and plunges like a meteor into a vast wheat field near Smallville, Kansas - within sight of local farmers Jonathan and Martha Kent. Upon seeing the meteor the Kents discover the now-three-year-old Kal-El. Martha, believing the child is a gift from God, decides to adopt him. The child demonstrates that he is different when, as Jonathan is changing a tire on his truck and the jack slips, he innocently lifts the vehicle with his bare hands, saving his foster father's life. After the truck is thus repaired the Kents and their newly adopted son drive away, leaving the meteor behind - but as its energy fades out it is clear it will become significant to the Kents in due time. Some fifteen years pass and Clark, named for Martha's maiden name, is a student at Smallville High School. He is a water boy on the school's football team, and friends with cheerleader Lana Lang, but is frequently bulled by Lana's jock boyfriend, Brad Wilson. Clark knows of the vast power he possesses but is forbidden by his father from showing it - although, alone on a football field, he kicks a ball into orbit, then runs home by outrunning a speeding passenger train, and is seen by a young girl who tries to tell her parents; her mother, however, scolds young "Lois Lane" about telling tall tales. Clark returns home as Brad, Lana, and other students drive by, surprised that he arrived home so quickly. Jonathan, however, reassures Clark that he is on Earth for a reason and that he should not let others bother him. Clark thus feels better, but as he starts to play with the family dog, Jonathan suddenly stops, having lost feeling in his left arm. He then falls to the ground, victim of a heart attack. After Jonathan's burial the grieving Clark blames himself, "All those powers, and I couldn't even save him.". Some time later Clark is awakened early one morning by a mysterious noise, emanating from the barn. Clark enters the barn and finds the remains of the meteor, and with it the now-activated green crystal of Jor-El. Later that morning, Clark tells his mother that he must leave and head north. Martha, having known this day would come, urges her son to always remember her, and the tearful Clark vows to do just that as they embrace for one final time. Days later Clark reaches the North Pole, where he takes the green crystal and throws it miles into the distance, where it melts into the ice and begins construction of a gigantic crystalline fortress, a Fortress of Solitude. Inside Clark finds a matrix table of crystals; placing one into an aperture, he activates a dimensional communicator that reveals the preserved consciousness of Jor-El, his true father. Jor-El provides the youth with his true identity of Kal-El and takes his son on a journey through time and space to complete his maturation, educating him on the universe and on his purpose in life. When the journey ends, Kal-El has aged twelve years to the age of 30, although in the time-twisting of inter-dimensional travel the Earth has aged 22 years to the year 1978 A.D. The scene reveals the now fully matured Kal-El dressed in a red-and-blue costume with a long red cape and bearing his family symbol, ready to fulfill his purpose of protecting his new homeworld.
Metropolis, the greatest city in the world. At the skyscraper home of its largest newspaper, the Daily Planet, photographer Jimmy Olsen is shooting photos of a typically kinetic day in the life of the Planet, including ace reporter Lois Lane (who despite this status has a problem with spelling, frequently being corrected for misspelled words). Lois and Jimmy are introduced by the paper's grumpy editor, Perry White, to its newest member, a tall shy bespectacled news writer named Clark Kent. Lois is initially puzzled by the man's shyness and mild social clumsiness, and is particularly struck when the two of them are held up in a back alley by a gunman. Clark faints when the thug opens fire on Lois (the fainting is cover so Clark can catch the bullet in his bare hand, which causes the gunman to run), and in defending himself to Lois rattles off a listing of all the items in her purse. As Lois and Clark hail a taxi, walking past them is a white-dressed heavyset man munching on snacks and carrying a copy of the Planet. The man is tailed by Harry and Armis, two undercover cops, for he is Otis, an assistant for criminal genius Lex Luthor, and he is on his way to Luthor's secret hideout. The cops tail him to Metropolis Grand Central Station, where Harry sends Armis to get backup while he tails Otis onto subway Track 22 leading out of the station. Otis eventually finds an indentation in the underground tunnel and waits for a train to arrive. A doorway opens under the cover of the passing train, and after it is gone Harry goes to the doorway to try and figure out how to open it - a fatal mistake, for monitoring the scene from hidden security cameras is Luthor himself, who activates the doorway and violently pushes Harry into the path of another train. Luthor's moll, Eve Teschmacher, is appalled by the scene, but Luthor arrogantly and condescendingly reminds her that it is an inevitable by-product of his status as the greatest criminal mind of the latter 20th century, a status to which he takes egotistical delight. He tells her how his father (a cruel man who disowned Lex as a child), once told him that even if governments and economies collapse, people will still need land, and will do anything to get it. This has guided his criminal career ever since. When Otis arrives in their underground lair he is reminded of his clumsiness in allowing himself to be followed again. Thus he is given the unglamorous task of feeding "the babies," a group of unidentified unseen creatures in a vast pit used to dispatch intruders. Luthor's more pressing concern, however, lies in a story in the Planet that two nuclear cruise-type missiles with hypersonic speed are to be tested using live multi-megaton warheads soon. Luthor intends to use the missile test to fulfill the greatest real estate swindle in history.
Later that night, Lois Lane is scheduled to fly via Planet helicopter to Metropolis International Airport to greet Air Force One, but on the Planet's helipad she boards the chopper and when the chopper begins takeoff, a light cable breaks free of its bracket and in the updraft caused by the chopper snags its landing skids, breaks, and plunges the chopper out of control through the helipad's control shed and crashing onto the ledge. As police hustle panicking bystanders on the streets below to safety, Lois tries to crawl out of the chopper, but the ledge begins to crack and the chopper sags violently toward the street and Lois falls through, hanging on by a seat belt in the air. But amid the panic in the streets, Clark Kent emerges from the Planet and notices a yellow rain hat on the sidewalk. Upon recognizing it as one Lois was wearing, he sees the stricken chopper, and while those around him run for safey, Clark keeps his head, even while finding a suitable hiding place to change takes a bit of hunt in the vicinity. Running to another building down the street, Clark opens his shirt to reveal his emblem and then whirls through a revolving door at super speed to become effectively invisible and changes into Superman - to the awe and confusion of a nearby pimp. Superman takes off, just as Lois loses her grip on the seat belt and plunges towards the street below. Superman safely catches her and carries her upward. The chopper now breaks off the ledge and falls, but Superman safely snags it out of the air with one hand and carries it back to the Planet's helipad to the astonishment of the crowd below. When the awe-struck Lois asks who the stranger is, he merely replies, "A friend." She faints from pure exhaustion and disbelief. It is but the beginning, for Kal-El undertakes numerous feats of heroism - stopping a cat-burglar using gigantic magnets to scale the Solow Building, intercepting a boatload of bank-robbers, rescuing a cat from a tree, and rescuing Air Force One when a lighting strike shatters its portside engine and wing. It is but the beginning, for Kal-El undertakes numerous feats of heroism - stopping a cat-burglar using gigantic magnets to scale the Solow Building, intercepting a boatload of bank-robbers, rescuing a cat from a tree, and rescuing Air Force One when a lighting strike shatters its portside engine and wing. The next morning, he returns to the Fortress of Solitude and consults the spirit of Jor-El to convey the emotions he felt upon making his full power known. Jor-El urges him to be circumspect in his power and praises him for what he has learned so far. After that busy night, Superman dominates the news about this astounding man doing his good deeds with seemingly impossible abilities. Watching the news about the stranger, Lex Luthor sees his arrival as a natural challenge, considering that Superman would surely have the inclination and the power to interfere with his scheme, and the criminal mastermind vows to destroy all that the stranger represents. Perry White, for his part, makes discovering the red-and-blue stranger the #1 priority of the Planet and sends his entire staff scurrying to find any scrap of information about "this flying whatchamacallit." Lois, however, scoops everyone when she gets a note requesting a dinner date at her penthouse from "a friend." The dinner date takes place and as part of the interview, in which Superman astounds the cynical reporter with his sincerely kind, courteous and altruistic personality, Kal-El gives Lois a ride in the sky - a flight that becomes almost a romantic dance as the two begin falling in love. Kal-El returns Lois to her apartment and the two bid reluctant goodbye.
Lois quietly dubs him a true super man - and uses the term to identify the stranger in her subsequent front-page story. Luthor reads it and remembers a scientific theory; Superman's homeworld would be of a molecular construction that would be affected by the unique radiation of a yellow sun, and that meteors from Krypton upon landing on Earth would be affected to the point of emitting a radiation that would affect only Kryptonians. Such a meteorite was found in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Miss Tessmacher is skeptical, as even with "the rock," Superman could see them coming from miles away. But the interview hints at another weakness: Superman has difficulty seeing through lead. With their plan in place, they plan a trip to Ethiopia. Later, Luthor's gang go to work intercepting the two missile convoys used for the big upcoming test; using a variety of guises, they divert attention away from the effort to reprogram the missiles' directional vectors; Otis, however, misprograms one of the missiles, attributing this mistake to his arm not being long enough to write down the coordinates. Luthor violently attacks him for gross incompetence, but Miss Tessmacher calms him down while keeping the car they are in from crashing. The Planet learns that an unknown figure is buying up hundreds of acres of seemingly worthless desert in the southwest. Suspecting land fraud, Perry sends Lois and Jimmy to investigate. Had Clark showed more initiative and confidence, the assignment would have gone to him. As Perry shares a story about a "worthless meteorite" being stolen from an Ethiopian museum, Clark is struck by a piercing signal, a high pitched hum followed by the sound of every dog in Metropolis barking at once- it is Lex Luthor on a radio frequency only Superman (and the dogs) can hear. Luthor warns Superman that a poison gas pellet containing propane lithium compound is to be released into the air and kill the city's population unless Superman confronts him alone. Feigning a migraine, Clark sneaks away from his co-workers and jumps out a window, where he changes into Superman mid-flight and traces Luthor's signal to the street. He spins himself around and manages to drill through the ground and into Luthor's hideout, where he is attacked by the hideout's automated defense system - a wall of machine guns, then a wall of fire, finally a wall of liquid nitrogen that freezes the area. None has any effect on Superman, who casually walks through it all unharmed. Once inside the hideout, Superman demands knowledge of Luthor's gas pellet. Luthor lets the truth be known that it is a hoax, it was the only way to gain an audience with him. Luthor reveals his true plans for the stolen missiles; the first will destroy the San Andreas Fault, which will collapse the Western coastline of the US (namely California and its major cities) into the ocean and thus make the seemingly worthless desert of the west into multi-billion dollar windfalls. The second missile is designed to be a cover. Luthor boasts that nobody, not even Superman, can bring down both of them, and if necessary, he can detonate either warhead via remote.
Superman notices a box made of lead which he assumes hides Luthor's detonator. But when he opens it he is struck by a massive weakness, for the box contains the Ethiopian meteorite - Kryptonite, fitted to a chain necklace that Luthor drapes around him. He takes great delight in reminding Superman that despite his aura of invincibility, a normal human has found a way to beat him. Superman asks if Luthor even cares about the second missile's target (the one misprogrammed by Otis) which is revealed to be Hackensack, NJ, before Luthor drops him into his pool to drown. Luthor, however, has made a fatal mistake, for due to Otis' misprogramming, Eve Teschmacher's mother lives in Hackensack. While Luthor and Otis monitor the errant missiles on their hypersonic flight, she pleads with Superman to stop the Hackensack missile first on his mission; he agrees and she frees him. Regaining his power, Superman blasts through the mammoth ceiling of the lair, into the sky, and on a direct course west. He tries to stop the first missile over Kansas but it dodges him, and he must overtake it and force it into space - just as the second missile detonates the San Andreas Fault, setting off an omnicidal quake that is like the destruction of Krypton all over again, a nightmare that doubly drives Superman as he flies underneath the Earth's crust to stabilize the land. However, the aftershocks prove no less deadly, and Superman flies all across the area rescuing people from the ensuing disasters. But amid his enormous feats of heroism, one person in particular needs help. Amid the aftershocks, Lois's car runs out of gas in the middle of a desert and is swallowed by a massive fissure, effectively burying her alive. Superman eventually senses she is in danger. He finds the car and pulls it out of the ground. He quickly takes Lois' body out of the car, but is too late. She has suffocated and died. Superman tearfully kisses her, and then lays her body down. He stands over it silently for several moments. Superman screams a thunderous roar of anguish and then rages into the sky. He hears the voice of Jor-El, which reminds him that he must not interfere with human history. Recalling his failure to save Jonathan ("All those powers and I couldn't even save him"), he becomes absolutely determined to save Lois. Pulling together all of his power and strength, Superman flies around Earth's perimeter faster and faster eventually reversing the planet's rotation and pulling time back with it. He soon fixes it back to its original direction and uses the extra time to get to Lois before her car is buried. Afterward, Superman delivers Luthor and Otis to a maximum-security prison to hold them pending trial. Once there, Superman, happy that his self-appointed neverending battle has had a satisfying beginning, looks to the audience with a wink and a smile as he flies off for more adventures.
Why It'll Can Fly
- To start with, It is widely considered to be one of the fantastic ways to start the superhero movie genre in the late-1970s, In addition, it is the kickstart of the live-action Superman movies that is managed to be faithful to the source material from the comic books. There are more reasons down below.
- In addition, this is one of the first successful superhero films to date, before the release of X-Men in 2000.
- The opening scene. The film begins with a comic book and it starts off a fantastic and exciting theme song that was composed by John Williams, and we see that Kal-El is sent to outer space, leaving all of the Krypton's population falls to their deaths and explodes is an exciting way to start the whole film.
- Christopher Reeve was very good a Superman after all for many reasons:
- The soundtrack that was composed by John Williams is one of the best parts in the entire movie.
- Even though it is meant to be an action superhero film, it takes a break and has a nice romantic theme film.
- The story is amazing, as it does follow the movie of how Clark Kent became Superman and become love interest with Lois Lane.
- Superman who is played by Christopher Reeve is very likable and memorable.
- Richard Donner who is a director of The Omen did a fantastic job directing the movie. He knows how to follow the source material from the comic books and sometimes the television series of the same name.
- The special effects are pretty good, even in late 1970s standards.
- Gene Hackman did an amazing job portraying a villain named Lex Luthor.
- The film has a great, mix of humor, action, and suspense, which is very accessible for the superhero film.
- The movie has very memorable scenes, such as the scene where Superman and Lois Lane fly in the sky, a massive earthquake all over the West Coast scene, and even Superman's scream at the end.
- The ending is great, Superman delivers Luthor and Otis to prison before flying into the sunrise for further adventures, with a nice space shot during the credits.
Bad Qualities
- Some of the flight effects and classic comic-inspired costume haven't aged well.
- There are some unlikeable characters like Brad Wilson (a rip-off of Flash Thompson from the Spider-Man comics).
Reception
Critical response
The film was widely acclaimed by critics, audiences, and fans of the Superman series, and it is considered to be the greatest superhero film in 1978. It film holds a 94% rating with a "Certified Fresh" on Rotten Tomatoes, based on 68 reviews, with an average rating of 8.08/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "Superman deftly blends humor and gravitas, taking advantage of the perfectly cast Reeve to craft a loving, nostalgic tribute to an American pop culture icon." On Metacritic, it has an 80/100 resulting in "generally favorable reviews", based on 19 reviews.
Roger Ebert gave the film four out of four stars. Although describing the Krypton scenes as "ponderous" ("Brando was allegedly paid $3 million for his role, or, judging by his dialogue, $500,000 a cliché"), Ebert wrote that "Superman is a pure delight, a wondrous combination of all the old-fashioned things we never really get tired of: adventure and romance, heroes and villains, earthshaking special effects, and -- you know what else? Wit". He praised Reeve, stating that he "sells the role; wrong casting here would have sunk everything", and concluded that the film "works so well because of its wit and its special effects". Ebert placed the film on his ten best list of 1978. He would later go on to place it on his "Great Movies" list.
Box office
It went on to gross $134.21 million in North America and $166 million internationally, totaling $300.21 million worldwide. Superman was the highest-grossing film of 1978 in North America and became the sixth-highest-grossing film of all time after its theatrical run. It was also Warner Bros.'s most successful film at the time.
Trivia
- The movie was filming in New York City on the night of the 1977 blackout. The New York Daily News was able to publish despite the blackout, because the film company let the newspaper use their generators. Richard Donner humorously remembers that Geoffrey Unsworth believed he was the cause of it all, due to the number of equipment he was using.
- Gene Hackman flatly refused to shave his head or wear a "bald cap" to play Lex Luthor. To get around this issue, Hackman's own natural hair was styled differently from scene to scene to give the appearance of him having changed hairpieces. Numerous hairpieces are visible in his underground complex. Hackman relented and wore a skullcap in one scene, when he is taken to prison by Superman. It is visible when he angrily rips off his hairpiece to address the prison's warden, who questions who he is. Hackman was also forced to shave off his mustache, which he was keen on keeping at the time.
- Originally, the helicopter scene was simply going to have Superman save Lois from falling. Later, Richard Donner decided to have the helicopter drop and the modified scene was called "The Double Jeopardy Scene".
- The film was planned in three years, and shot in two. At the height of filming, over one thousand full-time crew on eleven units were spread over three studios and eight countries. Over one million feet of film was used, and it had the highest production budget of any film at the time.
- The helicopter scene was intended to be shot on the top of the then Pan Am building, until a real-life accident on the heliport killed several passengers as well as a pedestrian from a falling helicopter blade on May 16, 1977.
- This was the second highest grossing film of 1978, behind "Grease" (1978).
- The highest grossing "Warner Brothers" movie of the 1970s. The next decade, the highest grossing movie for "Warner Brothers" would be another "DC Comics" hero, "Batman (1989)."
- In October 2017, decades after the Extended Television Cut last aired - a version with a running time at 3 hours - this version was prepared by Warners and released to Blu-Ray. This version has over 40 minutes of new footage, scene extensions, alternate music cues and much more screen time between Lex Luthor, Miss Teschmacher and Otis. This version was prepared by the producers who were able to negotiate payment for running time, rather than a flat fee, hence their decision to include much that Richard Donner had cut out from its theatrical cut.
- Steve McQueen was considered for the lead role. He was ultimately rejected for being out of shape.
- The search for an actor to play Superman began in 1975 and ended with a press announcement on February 23, 1977, just thirty-five days before filming was due to begin.
- Jerry Goldsmith, who scored The Omen (1976), was originally set to score the film. Portions of Goldsmith's work from Capricorn One (1977) were used in the teaser trailer. He dropped out over scheduling conflicts, and John Williams was hired.
- Carrie Fisher, fresh off the success of Star Wars (1977), was considered for Lois Lane.