Superman: The Movie (Widescreen)

The tagline for the 1978 film "Superman" was that "You'll Believe a Man Can Fly!" but the impressive thing was that audience were willing to accept a relative unknown in the role of the Man of Steel. Reeve did not even get top billing; in fact he was billed third behind Marlon Brando as Jor-El and Gene Hackman as Lex Luthor. Yet the whole movie hinged on Reeve, not only as the heroic Superman but as the purposefully bumbling Clakr Kent. Of course it was a put on and with Reeve it was clear, as it would become in the DC comics about "Superman" after this movie came out, that Superman was the real person and Clark Kent the faux identity (I also liked the idea that in addition to the glasses on/off variable Clark and Superman part their hair on opposite sides).

Richard Donner filmed "Superman" and a lot of "Superman II" at the same time and at one point it was apparently supposed to be one giant movie (think "The Three Mustketeers" and "The Four Musketeers"). But there is decidedly a sense in which "Superman" is three different films. The first, taking place on Krypton, is a solemn and almost sacred recreation of the events that led Jor-El to put the infant Kal-El into a spacecraft and send him to Earth to survive the death of Krytpon. The second, set in Smallville, Kansas, is pure Americana as young Clark Kent (Jeff East) has to deal with the idea that he was literally put on Earth to do something more important than score touchdowns, a lesson imparted by Pa Kent (Glenn Ford, in a wonderful bit part that deserved at least serious Oscar nomination).

However, most of the film takes place in Metropolis and has a decidedly comic tone that is different from the first two parts. Clark Kent is a klutz, Perry White (Jackie Cooper) a blowhard, and Lois Lane (Margot Kidder) cannot spell. Hackman's Lex Luthor has fun going over the top, playing out his grandiose plans to his dumb and dumber tag team, Miss Teschmacher (Valerie Perrine) and Otis (Ned Beatty). No wonder Reeve's Superman comes out of this one looking so good; he is clearly taking what is going on in this movie far more seriously than anyone else. The sequence in the film is when Superman follows up his rescue of Lois with a series of heroic deeds that go from saving Air Force One to rescuing a cat up a tree. Certainly this Superman has more of a sense of humor than his predecessors, although clearly in an All-American sort of way. The ending is big in a comic book sort of way, but all the larger than life stuff is grounded in the moment when Superman weeps over the body of Lois.

Watch "Superman" and "Superman II" again some time to remember how good Reeve was in the role. But to honor his memory skip the third and fourth "Superman" movies. If you want more of Reeve then go check out "Someone in Time" (another instance of where his acting ability overcomes the problems of believing you can "think" yourself back in time), "Deathtrap" and "The Remains of the Day." If you want more of the Superman mythos the first two seasons of "Smallville" are out on DVD, which connects nicely to the second act of this film, while if you catch repeats of "Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman" you can see the stars finally get uncrossed for the love triangle that was made up of only two people.

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