Only three years earlier the world had been terrified by the original Summer Blockbuster, the Stephen Spielberg masterpiece, Jaws, then in 1977 George Lucas amazed the entire galaxy with Star Wars, but in 1978 the world was treated to the most iconic comic book hero of all time, brought to life and it took our breath away.
This was the first one, the big screen super hero film that all others have since, and will probably always be judged against, and rightfully so, because of the impact it had. This film is the one that should always be the measuring stick for any other costumed crime fighter to hit the silver screen.
In 1974 producers Alexander and Ilya Salkind acquired the rights to the man of steel in a film, but Warner Brothers kept the distribution rights for the film. It was an enormous gamble, like the one Lucas made with Star Wars and/or the one Disney made with, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. The Salkinds had to produce and make the film, the Warner Brothers, if it was worth it, would write a check to pay them back and distribute the film and both would share in the profits (not sure how they had that split).
They were going to shoot in Italy with James Bond veteran director Guy Williams but when they had to move shooting to England, Williams was out. They cast Marlon Brando ($3.7M) as Jor-El, less than two weeks work and Gene Hackman as Lex Luthor, both were in the absolute peak of their careers at the time, this gave the film acting credibiltiy.
The author of, The Godfather, Mario Puzo was brought in to develop the story, which he and Williams had come up with a 500 page script.
Alexander Salkind had been impressed with Richard Donner's work on, The Omen, so he called him to ask, Donner was on the toilet when he got the call. Salkind said he would pay one million dollars (astounding for a director at that time) but for two films, Donner agreed, taking notes on the back of a business card from his hairdresser.
One of Donner's first calls was to writer, Tom Mankiewicz (Live & Let Die, The Eagle Has Landed) to repackage the script, quite the task. He decided to focus very heavily on the relationship between Lois & Clark and Lois and Superman, once the story landed in Metropolis, the remainder of the film and into the second revolved around that relationship.
All kinds of names had been tossed around to play Superman/Clark Kent, like Robert Redford, Paul Newman, Nick Nolte, and even Ilya Salkind's dentist came in and did a reading. Reeve was passed over by the producers over and over until they gave in, and one screen test it all it took. I'm going to do a whole other blog on Reeve later.
Leslie Ann Warren and Anne Archer read for Lois, but when Morgot Kidder literally tripped into the audition, she had the part.
The rest of the cast was stacked, Hollywood names hat nobody could ignore, Jackie Cooper & Glenn Ford were a couple of screen legends, Ned Beatty was seen as an up and coming but already known character actor, plus a man who would have a connection to the man of steel for decades, Terence Stamp.
The crew was like the cast, between them, there were over 80 Academy of Motion Picture Oscar nominations for those working on the sets, costumes and special effects.
Then there was the soundtrack, to this day, the measuring stick for a super hero sound, John Williams, who had/has done so many amazing soundtracks created a theme that still brings so many emotions to so many people, including myself, I can't hear that theme without tearing up or feeling a lump in my throat. When Hans Zimmer would write the new Superman soundtrack, he purposely made parts of it, like his new twist on the theme, match up to the beat and tempo of Williams great masterpiece.
This film has stood the test of time, to this day it still amazes
children who see it for the first time and gives them about as positive a role model style Superman as you can get.
When you line them up, this one still has to go into first place because it was the first one to really bring the magic to life in the character. Superman was created in 1938 by Jerry Siegel & Joe Shuster with influence from Wayne Baring but at that time, Superman didn't fly, he leapt over what was in his way. It wasn't until the Max Fleischer cartoon short, The Mad Scientist, that Superman took flight in 1941 and still took several months before it was worked into the comic stories themselves.
The film was made with a $55M budget and brought in $300M just in its first release, it was another mega-blockbuster for Hollywood. It built bridges and opened doors for other super hero films to follow, and in the 80s and 90s, we saw some spectacular ones, films that today's hero films could learn a lot from.
In 2006, what I thought at the time was a horrible film (that has since moved up to, watchable) Superman Returns, supposedly took over where Superman II left off, completely ignoring the existence of III and IV, an insult to Reeve, no matter what you think of those two films. But then in 2013, Man of Steel, really hit bottom of the barrel with a hollow and dreary performance that was followed by two more appearances of the same horrible actor from Man of Steel, the DCEU is in dire need of a reboot.
Of his role, Christopher Reeve said, "I was temporary custodian of a classic part of an essential piece of American mythology." "I took this as if it was a bible." It was that kind of commitment and deep hearted love & respect for the character that I believe made the film what it is, because if Reeve didn't believe it, he couldn't have made us believe it.
I was one of those starry eyed kids in the theater when Superman came out in the Christmas season of 1978 and to this day, the film made me believe that a man could fly.
We love you and miss you, Chris.
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