Facebook Twitter Instagram YouTube
    Nostalgia Central
    • Home
    • Blog
      • Lists
    • Television
      • TV by Decade
        • TV – 1950s
        • TV – 1960s
        • TV – 1970s
        • TV – 1980s
        • TV – 1990s
      • Comedy
      • Drama
      • Kids TV
      • Variety
      • News & Sport
      • Advertisements
    • Music
      • Music by Decade
        • Music – 1950s
        • Music – 1960s
        • Music – 1970s
        • Music – 1980s
        • Music – 1990s
      • Artists – A to K
        • Artists – A
        • Artists – B
        • Artists – C
        • Artists – D
        • Artists – E
        • Artists – F
        • Artists – G
        • Artists – H
        • Artists – I
        • Artists – J
        • Artists – K
      • Artists – L to Z
        • Artists – L
        • Artists – M
        • Artists – N
        • Artists – O
        • Artists – P
        • Artists – Q
        • Artists – R
        • Artists – S
        • Artists – T
        • Artists – U
        • Artists – V
        • Artists – W
        • Artists – X
        • Artists – Y
        • Artists – Z
      • Artists – 0 to 9
      • Genres
      • Music on Film & TV
      • One-Hit Wonders
      • Playlists
      • Online Radio
    • Movies
      • Movies by Decade
        • Movies – 1950s
        • Movies – 1960s
        • Movies – 1970s
        • Movies – 1980s
        • Movies – 1990s
      • Movies – 0 to 9
      • Movies – A to K
        • Movies – A
        • Movies – B
        • Movies – C
        • Movies – D
        • Movies – E
        • Movies – F
        • Movies – G
        • Movies – H
        • Movies – I
        • Movies – J
        • Movies – K
      • Movies – L to Z
        • Movies – L
        • Movies – M
        • Movies – N
        • Movies – O
        • Movies – P
        • Movies – Q
        • Movies – R
        • Movies – S
        • Movies – T
        • Movies – U
        • Movies – V
        • Movies – W
        • Movies – X
        • Movies – Y
        • Movies – Z
    • Pop Culture
      • Fads
      • Toys & Games
      • Fashion
      • Decor
      • Food & Drink
      • People
      • Technology
      • Transport
    • Social History
      • 1950s Year by Year
      • 1960s Year by Year
      • 1970s Year by Year
      • 1980s Year by Year
      • 1990s Year by Year
      • Events
    Nostalgia Central
    Home»Movies»Movies by Decade»Movies - 1970s
    Movies - 1970s Movies - S 4 Mins Read

    Superman: The Movie (1978)

    Share
    Facebook Twitter Pinterest WhatsApp Reddit Email

    This first of four mega-movies (and definitely the best) about the comic book hero from the planet Krypton is both the perfect fairy tale for grown-ups and an exciting cinematic marvel to bring out the child in every age group.

    Two years in the making, at a reported cost of $35 million, Superman more than lived up to its promotional ballyhoo at the time of its release.

    It is the work of scores of dedicated artists and craftsmen (the end-title credits list more than 400 names belonging to everyone from process photographers to helicopter pilots) whose combined efforts took comic strip art to a movie zenith.

    To say that the film was heavily pre-sold would be one of the decade’s understatements. The merchandising of Superman products was quite awesome – from books to lunch boxes, from posters to cereal bowls, from badges to pyjamas.

    Director Richard Donner manages to humanise the mythological Superman, shaping and sharpening every fantasy element to surpass science fiction.

    Donner went back to the source material for the Superman comics originally created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Schuster, and a flock of talented scriptwriters fleshed out the story.

    This is the saga of the baby, evacuated from his own planet Krypton before it explodes, and sent whirling through a myriad of galaxies on a flying star until he lands in the prairies and wheat fields of America to be discovered by a pair of farmers (Glenn Ford and Phyllis Thaxter) who raise him into manhood.

    Deriving his strength, wisdom and power from another sun more dazzling than anything in our solar system, Superman heads for a big city called Metropolis (looks like New York – no prizes for guessing where the exteriors were shot), where he lands a job as mild-mannered reporter Clark Kent on the Daily Planet.

    He falls head over biceps for dingbat city room doll Lois Lane, and uses his superior gifts to fight for “truth, justice and the American Way”.

    There are loose ends (a group of villains on Krypton led by Terence Stamp, threaten an eternal curse then never reappear, Superman breaks his father’s rules forbidding him to tamper with human history) but they all fall into place in the sequel, Superman II (1981).

    What we have to thrill to in the meantime are some of the most stupendous special effects ever seen on the silver screen: a daring helicopter rescue while Lois hangs precariously from the ledge of a skyscraper; air disasters; earthquakes; tidal waves; and a nest of screwy bad guys (Gene Hackman, Valerie Perrine, Ned Beatty) who live two hundred feet below Grand Central Terminal and aim a 500-megaton bomb at the heart of Los Angeles.

    The explosion of Krypton fills the screen with thousands of ice daggers that freeze the landscape, and the flying sequences, in which the suspension wires have been individually brush-stroked out by hand, frame by frame, are pretty amazing, too. As special effects go, Superman is in a class by itself.

    superman_022

    Marlon Brando is excellent as Superman’s father (he earned $3.7 million for what looks like quite an effortless cameo), Christopher Reeve is a likeable presence as both the Man of Steel and butter-fingered Clark Kent, and Margot Kidder provides just the right confusion for Lois Lane – at times a relentless journalist out to get her story at all costs, and other times a kittenish nitwit, losing her cool over a guy in a Halloween costume.

    John Williams wrote a smashing score that wisely incorporates the theme from the TV series, and real Superman buffs will get a charge out of a brief guest appearance by Noel Neill, the original Lois Lane, shown briefly on a speeding train looking properly befuddled.

    Oh . . . and the predicted newspaper headlines devoted to the untimely deaths of teenagers leaping off tall buildings in blue capes in a Superman frenzy did not come to pass!

    The original choice of director was veteran British James Bond director Guy Hamilton. However, the film – originally intended to have been filmed at Cinecitta Studios in Rome – was moved to Pinewood Studios in Buckinghamshire, UK. Unfortunately, Hamilton was a tax exile and could not return to England to work on the film.

    Superman/Clark Kent
    Christopher Reeve
    Lois Lane
    Margot Kidder
    Jor-El
    Marlon Brando
    Lex Luthor
    Gene Hackman
    Otis
    Ned Beatty
    Perry White
    Jackie Cooper
    Pa Kent
    Glenn Ford
    Non
    Jack O’Halloran
    Eve Teschmacher
    Valerie Perrine
    Vond-Ah
    Maria Schell
    General Zod
    Terence Stamp
    Ma Kent
    Phyllis Thaxter
    Lara
    Susannah York
    Jimmy Olsen
    Marc McClure
    Ursa
    Sarah Douglas
    Lana Lang
    Diane Sherry

    Director
    Richard Donner

    Related Posts

    • Sleeping Beauty (1959)
      Sleeping Beauty (1959)
      Based on Charles Perrault's enduring fairy tale, this was Disney's most expensive cartoon to date, costing $6 million and taking…
    • Jaws (1975)
      Jaws (1975)
      "You're gonna need a bigger boat!" Summertime in Martha’s Vineyard, off the coast of Massachusetts: Breaking away from a hippie…
    • Supergirl (1984)
      Supergirl (1984)
      After a power source for the community of Krypton survivors is accidentally whisked to earth, Kara Zor-El (Helen Slater), cousin…
    • Toomorrow (1970)
      Toomorrow (1970)
      Long before her Grease (1978) and Xanadu (1980) starring roles, Olivia Newton-John starred in this bizarre flick as lead singer with a groovy British pop band…
    • Black Christmas (1974)
      Black Christmas (1974)
      Bob Clark's imaginatively nasty low-budget Canadian slasher traps a group of college students in the snow-dusted sorority house of Sigma…
    • Big Wednesday (1978)
      Big Wednesday (1978)
      Quentin Tarantino once said that surfers don't deserve Big Wednesday. Perhaps this was a hangover from his days working in a…
    • Scars of Dracula, The (1970)
      Scars of Dracula, The (1970)
      Christopher Lee thought this was his weakest Dracula sequel, but Hammer horror fans like it because the Count has more…
    • Last Movie, The (1971)
      Last Movie, The (1971)
      After the huge success of Easy Rider (1969), director Dennis Hopper could have made any movie he wanted. Sadly he…

    Share. Facebook Twitter Pinterest WhatsApp Reddit Email
    Previous ArticleSuspect (1987)
    Next Article Superman II (1981)

    Comments are closed.

    Follow us
    • Facebook
    • Twitter
    • YouTube
    • Instagram
    You May Also Like
    • Henry’s Cat
      1 9 8 3 – 1 9 9 3 (UK) 65 x 25 minute episodes […]
    • Trouble With Girls, The (1969)
      It’s 1927, and smooth-talking Walter Hale (Elvis Presley […]
    • 1986
      January 01 – Spain and Portugal join the European Economic […]
    • Caine Mutiny, The (1954)
      Nominated for seven Academy Awards in 1954 (including Best […]
    • Class of ’74/Class of ’75
      1 9 7 4 – 1 9 7 5 (Australia) 290 x 30 minute episodes […]
    • Ms. magazine
      Ms. magazine first appeared in 1972. Edited by noted feminist […]
    Twitter Feed
    Please note


    Nostalgia Central covers the period 1950 to 1999 and contains some words and references which reflect the attitudes of those times and which may be considered culturally sensitive, offensive or inappropriate today.
    Popular Tags
    1969 1970 1971 1972 1973 1975 1976 Action Figures Amicus Arcade games Australia Beach movies Beatles Blaxploitation Board games Britpop Canada Crime Disney Doo-Wop Elvis Presley Girl groups Glam Goth Hammer Heavy Metal Irwin Allen Labels Merseybeat Mod revival Motown New Romantic New Wave NWOBHM Oi! One-hit wonders Power Pop Pub rock Punk Radio Scotland Ska Soul music Sport Surf music
    Search Nostalgia Central
    Copyright © 1998, 2022 Nostalgia Central
    • About Nostalgia Central
    • Contact
    • FAQ

    Type above and press Enter to search. Press Esc to cancel.