Superman (1978) * * * *

Directed by:  Richard Donner

Starring:  Christopher Reeve, Gene Hackman, Marlon Brando, Margot Kidder, Jackie Cooper, Terence Stamp, Jeff East, Marc McClure, Valerie Perrine, Ned Beatty, Susannah York, Glenn Ford, Phyllis Thaxter

Superman is a joyous film.    Casting is everything and Christopher Reeve was, and remains, the perfect Clark Kent/Superman.     The recent Man of Steel and Batman v. Superman chose to show Superman as a nearly expressionless bore.    He takes no joy in what he does and seems oppressed by the weight of his own story.    If you can do something which no one else can do, such as run faster than a locomotive or leap tall buildings in a single bound, then isn't it kind of cool?     The 1978 version of Superman, and to an extent its next two sequels, understood this.    

We see the origins of Kal-el, who was born on Krypton to Jor-El (Brando) and Lara (York), and is sent away just before the planet explodes into oblivion.    His spaceship lands on Earth in the cornfields of Smallville, Kansas, where his adoptive parents, Jonathan and Martha Kent (Ford and Thaxter) stumble upon him and immediately recognize his great powers.    They teach Clark to keep his powers under wraps, mostly because they fear the world would not understand them.    However, soon Clark grows curious about his origins and treks to the North Pole, where a glorious ice palace called The Fortress of Solitude awaits him.    It is here he learns of his past and understands his purpose.    He leave the fortress as Superman, while keeping his superhero alter ego carefully hidden under nerdy, klutzy Clark Kent persona.

Superman fights crime, saves his co-worker Lois Lane (Kidder) from falling off the Empire State Building (she doesn't know he and Clark are one and the same), and soon encounters the dastardly zillionaire Lex Luthor (Hackman), who plans to use an atomic bomb to explode and sink half of California into the Pacific while cleaning up on the remaining real estate which he owns.    Yes, Lex Luthor doesn't want to rule the world just yet.    He has modest goals, which is to become a multi-zillionaire real estate mogul.

You may ask how come Lois Lane, who is supposed to be an ace reporter for The Daily Planet in Metropolis, can't tell Clark and Superman are the same man.    Clark sports glasses and wears his hair differently, but there is more.    Clark is such an affable putz there is no way Lois could ever mistake him for the buff, confident Superman.    Lois falls for Superman (and vice versa), while Clark has to pretend to be jealous.     The movie has fun with this "love triangle" as we see sly looks and smiles from Clark which serve as a wink to the audience.     Clark knows exactly what he's doing behind the hapless façade.

Gene Hackman is among the first movie villains who has all the fun.    He engages in hilarious byplay with his dim-witted assistant Otis (Beatty) and his sultry girlfriend Miss Teschmacher (Perrine), who is all in with Lex and his evil scheme...up to a point.   They live in a plush, modified underground train terminal.     She distresses at having a Park Avenue address 200 feet below street level.    "Do you know how much they are shelling out up there for a few measly rooms off a common elevator?", Lex reasons.    He is so busy making us laugh we occasionally forget he is the villain, until we see the sinister evil twinkle in his eye and his plot to destroy half of the West Coast.

Much was made of Brando's $5 million dollar salary (which was considered astronomical at the time) and he is in the movie roughly fifteen minutes while receiving top billing.     He shot scenes for the sequel which were edited out after the producers' dispute with director Richard Donner caused him to leave the project.     Good news though:  Brando's scenes can be seen in the special Richard Donner cuts of Superman and Superman II, which were filmed at the same time.    Donner doesn't rely heavily on visuals to create the world of Superman.    He prefers to keep it mostly grounded with humor and insight.

It became cool in the early 2000s for superhero films to give us scene after scene of painful soul searching from the hero; performing their daily wars against evil as more of a chore than a pleasure.   Where did Spider Man find the time to battle the Green Goblin when he is so busy looking perplexed and deep in thought?    Superman chooses its spots well in showing us the human side of Superman, especially when his loved ones perish and he, as an immortal, can only stand by and watch it happen.    "All of these things I can do.   All of those powers.   And I couldn't even save him," Clark says at a funeral in his teens, which thoughtfully provides him the impetus to do what he does in the climactic scene to save the life of another loved one.     Even though we have been inundated with countless superhero films and cinematic superhero universes, Superman remains among the very best of the genre.