SUPERMAN: THE MOVIE (1978)

This film was something of a white whale for me as a kid. I was always a fan of the Superman cartoons of the 90's, and knew that there was a live-action film made some twenty/thirty years prior, but I was never able to find it, strangely enough. I remember renting it from two separate video stores and both copies being worn down from excessive viewing. It wasn't until years later that I caught it on TV and fell in love with Richard Donner's take on one of the greatest characters to come out of the 20th century. 

It's still something of an anomaly among the superhero film genre in that it isn't a typical superhero film. It doesn't have much action or any fight scenes, per se. It's very romantic and very mythological. In fact, I would argue that the strongest moments of the film don't involve Superman at all and, instead, take place early on during the Krypton sequence and the erecting of the Fortress of Solitude.

The Krypton prologue wherein Jor-El (Marlon Brando) and Lara Lor-Van (Susannah York) is a wonderful, dreamlike sequence. Krypton's crystaline design feels overwhelmingly alien, yet warm and inviting. The decision to have Superman's trademark 'S' crest be something like a family sigil is a stroke of brilliance on the part of co-writer Mario Puzo (The Godfather). Despite his clear ambivalence towards the film, Brando performs as only Brando could, with a verbose tongue and regality.

This has always remained my favorite version of Krypton because it undoubtedly the most cinematic and truly alien. I love that it doens't resemble our world in any way, shape or form. I love the idea of crystal computers and crystal architecture. It's an inspired design.

While I love the film as a whole to this day, my favorite moments, for some reason, don't involve Reeve at all. The Fortress of Solitude, like Krypton, is an inspired design that both recalls Kal-El's enigmatic alien homeworld and the tipi-style tent of the Native Americans. The Fortress represents Clark's last link to his heritage, it's apparent the moment we see it signifies to him.

When Clark throws his glowing green crystal (the only remnant from his crashed ship), it's a wonderfully primal moment with amazing payoff. Up until this point, he's known nothing of his homeworld or his parents and the unanswered questions are beginning to get to him; Why did my parents send me away? Where am I from? What makes me different? Clark's journey from Smallville to solitude is an important, yet rarely explored aspect of the Superman mythos. It's a perfect metaphor for the transition from adolescence to adulthood. If only we could all step into our Fortresses of Soltiude and emerge as Christopher Reeve in-costume. Alas.

I love this film. I love for it its weirdness and sapiness and romanticism. You will never see another superhero film like this one, with more focus on character than plot, and not a single punch in sight. Don't get me wrong, it's a bizarre movie with more than a couple of cringe-worthy moments, but they all serve reinforce the fantasy element of Superman. Where, most of the time, Superman is used to tell science fiction and action/adventure stories, Donner takes a much more ethereal approach to the Man of Steel and, in my opinion, it works well.

Also, Superman says "excuse me" to a pimp.