Jezebel is Wrong, Superman(1978) is a Needed Masterpiece.
Normally, I wouldn’t waste my time refuting a blogger. Especially a successful blogger, just the thought of it triggers my imposter syndrome. When I spotted the headline “Time Has Not Been Kind to Superman, ” I knew I shouldn’t read it. Still, since the article dropped on the week of Superman’s 82nd birthday, it deserved a response. The piece begins, “This year, the granddaddy of the modern superhero movie, Richard Donner’s 1978 film Superman, turns 42. Watch it and you may find that it seems much, much older. It is a relic of a time when obvious blue-screening represented a sign that technology was bounding forward and when a little charisma, some pomade, and a good amount of spandex were enough to distract rapt audiences from ozone-sized plot holes.” One doesn’t watch Casablanca and come away disappointed that it wasn’t in color or mock the Wizard of Oz for the painted backdrops. After calling Superman “awkward, hokey, and cheap” he goes off to brazenly declare Oscar-winning screenwriter Mario Puzo, and director Richard Donner “bit off more than they could chew.”
The fact that the author can’t keep the basic facts of the film straight betrays his intentions early on. He opines that the origin story is “dumb,” citing the fact that Clark/Kal doesn’t learn of his powers until his teen years. Sir, did you miss the scene where Kal-El crashes on earth and is found by the Kents who then marvel at the child’s feat of strength as he lifts their truck with his bare hands? Or the conversation he has with his father as they’re walking to the barn about the special things he’s always been able to do? The author continues with many other thinly supported complaints, including jabs at the (Oscar-nominated)editing, and (Oscar-winning) special effects.
If the attempt was for anything other than trashing on something old, why bother to write the blog at all? The entire piece reads like he’s waving his dissatisfaction as a flag of superiority. We all remember that one guy from every college communications class who had to boldly announce that Citizen Kane isn’t that great. Cool, man. Nobody cares about your childish bullshit, find some genuine opinions and let people enjoy the things you’re too shallow to experience.
Superman is the first icon born from the original American art-form, comic-books. Compared to the darker or more human characters to come later like Batman or the Marvel superheroes, Superman can seem a bit old-fashioned from the outside looking in. It’s an IP that thrives on a naive lack of cynicism. This is no doubt what inevitably marred the hero’s cinematic return in 2013’s Man of Steel. The humanist ideals the character stands for are a cultural rarity, something everyone can rally around and be proud of. If you’ve never seen the 1978 masterpiece, I beseech you to do yourself a favor in these trying times and distract yourself with one of the most wholesome bits of escapism ever committed to celluloid.
After a short comic book history lesson on the Daily Planet, we’re thrust into space where, as the opening credits settle, we’re left hovering over a blazing red sun. The camera pans downward towards the crystalline serenity of Krypton. Swelling over this gorgeous setting is probably one of the most evocative pieces of music John Williams has ever composed. For my money, Superman is the composer’s greatest achievement, yes even above Star Wars, Jurassic Park and E.T. As the horns flare during that shot, I find myself moved to tears upon every viewing. Just listen to this at the 0:24–1:21 mark and try not to feel something. It is impossible.
Jor-El’s words will likely strike a chord with modern viewers. “This is no fantasy, no careless product of a wild imagination…you cannot ignore these facts.” Jor-El pleads with the Kryptonian council to act and save his doomed people, but they’re unwilling to listen, threatening him with jail time, his ideas are dismissed as he’s told, “Krypton is merely shifting its orbit.” With science denial popping up in every corner of the political ring, Jor-El’s anxiety resonates in a way it never did before, making the drama of watching these doomed parents act in desperation to save their only son more heart-wrenching as the destruction of Krypton is real for 21st-century audiences. We see the warning, we hope unlike Krypton we will not be too late but we share their fear.
The design of the Kryptonian planet and technology is absolutely inspired. Instead of opting for screens, flashing lights, and buttons; production designer John Barry has crafted something absolutely fantastical, seeming to be more from a realm of magic than science. The audience can easily believe the last son of this planet is capable of anything.
Much like Puzo’s other successful film series, The Godfather, at its heart, the Superman legend strung in the film is one about an American immigrant using his unique talents for his community. Puzo, being an immigrant himself, loved immigrant stories and it’s what attracted him to the project. Really, Jor-El is the mirror opposite of Don Corleone, the good or the bizarro version, to use the appropriate vernacular. “He’ll be odd, different, isolated, alone…” his parents say as they send Kal-El from Krypton into the second act of Smallville, Kansas.
The town we see in the film looks more like something out of a John Steinbeck novel than anything you’d expect from the American 60s, which is when Clark’s teen years presumably take place. The character was born of the Great Depression, something both Mario Puzo and Richard Donner were no doubt old enough to have real living memories of. In those lean times, Superman provided a needed escape for everyone and continued doing so for children everywhere during WWII. The films’ dusty great plains roads stir a recognizable nostalgia in the mind and serve as an appropriate backdrop that honors the character’s roots. The big event of the second act comes to define our hero and gives him his motivation. “All those things I can do. All those powers. And I couldn’t even save him,” Clark says at his adopted father’s funeral. This line is repeated during the film’s climax when Superman has to make a decision between the people he loves, and the guidance of his Kryptonian father.
The filmmakers peel back some of the stylized veneer for the third act as Metropolis bears a passing resemblance to our own world without leaving the comic book framing set up in the opening shot. The city in Superman is gritty enough to make it feel grounded, but that’s more for juxtaposition with Clark’s kindness than for realism. This is highlighted in his relationship with Lois Lane who is regularly shocked as she tries to find one blemish on his otherwise sterling character. To her, his naivety is laughable but also disarming. You can see Clark begin to slowly inspire the people in his life to be kinder, to think of the other guy, and believe that people have some good in them. Of course, those are easier things to believe in when Superman is on the job. Still, it would have been easy for Donner, Puzo, and co. to pen a Superman tale where strength wins the day, but ultimately it is his ability to inspire compassion that brings Ms. Tessmacher to turn on Lex, allowing Superman to stop the nuclear warheads from wiping out the west coast.
Comedy is central to Donner’s vision, which is often seen in the way Superman is treated by women throughout the film. It plays like flipped script satire commenting on the way our culture often reduces important women. Many of Lois’s questions in her interview with the man of steel involve his physicality and have no real bearing on what he does. Ms. Tessmacher steals a kiss from the unconscious Kryptonian before freeing him from his chains. It’s strange that the first film in the genre seems to subvert the expectation set by every film to come after.
I’m typically a cynical guy. I work in a chemical plant with lax safety, I’m up to my eyeballs in debt, I’ve watched politicians, and billionaires evade consequences for their unethical actions my entire life. Like many Americans, crime, poverty, and police brutality are regular problems for my city. Gotham is more like my life than Metropolis. Still, watching Superman, I’m reminded to look for those glimmers of hope, the people with a flash of inspiration trying to remind us that we’re all here together, or as Superman says, “we’re all on the same team.” There are people in all of our communities working to build spaces that uplift everyone, often for no other reason than somebody has to. That’s true hope and when you remember to look for it in your life, you find it’s truly everywhere.
Superman is a film that recognizes that city living causes us to isolate, check out, and maybe step on each other’s toes once in a while; far too often, we forget those around us. Watching Clark deliberately humiliate himself to maintain his secret, or his complete lack of anger and frustration as the panicked city rudely zooms around him is striking to both the viewer and the characters in the film. Here is a man that has the God-like power to bring down nations, and chooses to spend his life as a mild-mannered reporter that moonlights by stopping crime and saving kittens stuck in trees. Through him, we’re reminded that there’s nothing stopping us from treating each other humanely and letting small irritations slide.
The opening lines of Superman speak of a time when an organization like the Daily Planet could be looked to as a symbol of truth and hope. It isn’t that I care that the Jezebel writer didn’t like the film, it is far from perfect, but he has nothing constructive to share in his takeaway. It seems to me we can spark better dialogue than, ‘I just watched this 42-year-old movie and spoiler alert- IT SUCKS!’ This kind of deliberate cynicism when used as a shorthand for discussion, or as a cudgel of superiority is rotting our conversations. It plagues every facet of modern blogging and journalism. If this is what American discourse has devolved into, then maybe we are like Krypton, a doomed society; and like Jor-El, we’re sending our hopes and dreams with the remains of our culture into a new world.
If you’re looking for entertainment to escape the weird unsettling times we live in, Superman is a great place to start. Jerry Siegel and artist Joe Shuster created the alien as a way to escape our nation’s toughest times and also to remind us how to be human. That was 82 years ago on the date. “They can be a great people, Kal-El, they wish to be. They only lack the light to show the way. For this reason above all, their capacity for good, I have sent them you… my only son.” Happy birthday, Superman.