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Watching the original superman. Now it’s an old movie. But aside from a few brief moments that wouldn’t pass muster today, it holds up very well. The miniatures have a fairytale quality. And the chemistry between Margot Kidder and Christopher Reeve is off the charts.
I had forgotten that Stuart Baird, who edited Die Hard & other great action films, cut this one. He’s thought of as an action editor but he’s great with performance. So many wonderful moments of people glancing at each other as if they have a secret.
Think about what confidence it takes to make a Superman movie and delay the entrance of the actual adult Superman in the cape for a full hour. They gave him the Godzilla treatment. All that buildup. He can’t disappoint. And he doesn’t.
The key to the movie’s continued resonance is that it treats Superman as the best version of all of us. Many of the other characters seem stricken by his goodness and are forced to look within themselves and consider whether they have the potential to be as good as him.
I was moved by Valerie Perrine as Miss Tesmacher. The way she pleads with Superman to save her mother and then saves him – planting a kiss while he still has the Kryptonite around his neck because she knows he wouldn’t permit it otherwise – speaks to her compromised life.
It takes more nerve to do a sequence like Superman & Lois’s first flight then almost any modern superhero sequence I can think of. The bravest thing a big movie can do is be so innocent & sincere that it dares people to laugh at it.
It’s impossible to overstate how perfect Christopher Reeve is as Clark Kent/Superman. He seems to understand both incarnations of the character on a deep level. He takes it personally. He believes that he’s doing important work.
Another thing I noticed during this viewing is that Clark Kent/Superman loves Lois because she is independent & talented & has her own life, not in spite of it. There’s a moment where Lois contrasts herself with her sister, a wife & mother. The film doesn’t judge her negatively.
Of course, thinking about it, if you were Superman, and you had to be able to fly anywhere in the world on a moment’s notice to take care of business, you would definitely want to be in a relationship with an independent woman who had her own stuff going on.
The ending of that movie as a litmus test for me. I can’t have a conversation with anybody who thinks it’s too much or too “unbelievable” or too corny etc. It’s romantic as hell.
