Hello everybody, Since Batman (1989) has it own thread, this thread is all about DC Comics movie which is a masterpiece, Superman The Movie.
I sadly never saw this movie on a big screen, I was a baby at the time, I can still remember when I first saw this movie when I was little, I just love it, to me at the time Superman was a father figure, and Christopher Reeve had a perfect face for the character, when seeing him, it’s so hard not to think of him as Superman.
John Williams music was amazingly perfect, if Star Wars music wasn’t enough, here’s Superman music, and it’s intro was one of a perfect beginning for a movie, I could never get sick of it. Also love the romance music of ‘Can you read my mind?’ With Superman and Lois flying. Such a classic scene.
I can’t wait to see everybody point of view on this Classic movie.
While I don’t always agree with this adage, in the case of Superman: The Movie, its 100% true: The first is, was and will always be the best.
Going-on 45 years since its original release (December 15th, 1978), Superman: The Movie is still the gold standard for all comic-based, live-action adaptations, DC or otherwise.
Its a towering, wonderfully entertaining movie and I can’t wait to see it on the big screen once again.
Director Richard Donner and his cast and crew made us believe a man could fly like nobody before or since. They will always have a lasting impact and legacy, not only with great comic-based adaptations but (and regardless of subject matter) fantastic movies as well.
I saw this while at school, which was some time ago, and I’ve only seen it in bits and pieces since then. It was playing during lockdown as part of a celebration and the theater it played at was the Alamo Drafthouse which I was curious about it, but by the time I got people to agree on the showtime, it was sold out. Tickets were also $18 which was another issue for some people, for an older movie, where we weren’t getting say 3D or Dolby or some other neat bit.
The movie is playing locally today and the rest of the week. We were debating going to see a show this afternoon playing at the Mall next to Universal Studios here in Hollywood, someone in our social groups collect Funkos and his friend collects Hello Kitty, and there’s free-standing exclusive retail for both there but we woke up to sunny, warms days after a week of gloom and everyone else decided to go spend it outside. I’ve tickets for the Tuesday evening showing, which I will stick to, and I’ll report back about it after wards.
I went to the event when they showed the anniversary re-release for the remastered The Iron Giant two or three years back and it was an interesting audience, a combination of families, young kids by themselves, young adults by themselves, and people my age. And that was a movie I had never seen in a theater, so that was a neat treat. I suspect that watching this movie in a theater will be the same thing, even if some of it will definitely feel off - the last time I saw something older in a theater where you couldn’t pause to get up for a snack or the bathroom, I remember feeling like the movie was slower paced than normal, which I think is simply being indoctrinated into the modern style, versus actually feeling like this is truly a bad thing or a negative thing. I forget what movie we saw, probably part of the Hitchcock festival I saw last year, but I suspect that’s how this will feel some of the time.
If I’m being honest, not only have I never seen this movie but despite all the praise it gets as the ultimate superhero film, I have almost no desire to see it. It’s just that all the clips I have seen from it look so unbelievably cheesy and campy, and not even in an Adam West Batman way where it knows how campy it is and just goes all out w/ it. This film really seems to be lacking a lot of self-awareness in just how campy it is, and that makes for a really cringey tone when they’re still trying to take themselves seriously despite that. And of course the effects just look terrible, and I can’t even really give it a pass for looking OK for its time considering movies like Star Wars were doing much better effects at the time that still hold up
I know it probably seems like I’m being overly judgmental to a movie I’ve only seen clips of, but I have a pretty good sense of what I like and don’t like in movies, and I just feel pretty confident that I’ve seen enough to know this isn’t for me. I’m sure I’d have at least some love for this movie if I had seen it as a kid and could at least have that nostalgic connection, but oh well. I know most people who have seen this movie have a lot more love for it, so more power to all of you
In all fairness it’s not cheesy or campy like Adam West Batman, they only added bit of comedy with Lex’s henchman Otis, I promise you it’s a good clean film, if you have HBO Max, you should give yourself a chance to see this movie along with Superman 2.
I’ve said this before but Superman The Movie deserves its own pedestal amongst works about the Man of Steel. It’s an amazing piece of cinema that, to many people all over the world, is the de facto depiction of Superman. Christopher Reeve’s performance was legendary, especially given the simplicity and seamlessness with which he acted the role. He made it look easy. Richard Donner’s direction not only made us believe a man can fly, but also lent gravitas to the more tender and emotional moments of the film. John William’s Superman theme… is probably one of the most beautiful pieces of music ever written.
Some moments I’d like to leave you with:
Opening credits. They don’t make ‘em like this anymore.
This one isn’t talked about much, but the saying goodbye to Martha scene gets me every time.
Reeve transforming from Clark to Superman & back really made one believe the “costume” could work. Superb acting by Reeve here.
The introduction of Superman to the world. The famous helicopter scene is the stuff of legend.
Probably my favorite sequence from the final act of the movie.
I saw it on December 15th, 1978, when it premiered in the US at the spectacular Loews Astor Plaza in Times Square. The 1500 hundred-seat “underground”–yeah, you had to go downstairs to your seat–theater, sporting the largest single screen in New York,
was packed that afternoon. And when Superman saved Lois Lane in the famous “crashed helicopter” scene, the place went nuts!! It was absolutely thrilling! I wish I still had my ticket stub, but I think I paid five bucks for admission. A tidy sum to see a motion picture back then, but obviously worth every penny.
Simply put, one of the greatest American films ever made!
As somebody who first saw the movie around 2013 it was really odd feeling to see the iconic helicopter scene, since it just seemed so mythical with how ingrained it is to pop culture.
I was going to post this but am glad to see someone else did so. I just rewatched the movie in a theater for the first time in well over a decade and my first ‘start-to-finish’ rewatch of the entire movie in a comparably long time as well, and I was wondering if I would find it too slow and too meandering/low key - which I think is merely a by-product of modern (post MTV’s height) cutting and editing leaning towards quick cuts and fast cuts, as well as quick and fast paces, particularly for action scenes, particularly now that so many action scenes are almost entirely CGI and very few, if any, are now done practically - and much of this movie was practical effects and it’s also an older movie. My recent experience in trying to watch some older movies, two of Brendan Fraser’s comes to mind as those I tried to recently watch via HBO Max, and I did think in parts they dragged and they were both far too ‘slow.’
However, S-TM did not, by and large, have this problem. Despite being a long movie on top of a long day, I didn’t feel tired during. This particular trailer has the problem of thinking it NEEDED to have quick cuts and fast edits and to speed up the pace, even if it has no relationship to what the actual movie is like or about, and will not at all relate to what watching the entirety of the movie will be like for someone whose never seen it before, watches this trailer, and then watches the movie from start to end.
However, the really worse thing about this trailer is that the decided to take an instantly recognizable theme music and replace it with CRAP. Sheer awful noise that has no bearing to the movie that will be seen by people, since it doesn’t even come from the theatrical release but is something the marketing department at WB actually had to pay someone to use. Someone, somewhere made this choice, and is getting paid to do this job. This is wrong on so many levels.
Here’s a link if you’re interested reading…
