Member-only story
DILLON ON FILM
Superman: 45 Years On
The first great superhero film, directed by Richard Donner and featuring the peerless Christopher Reeve, remains a knockout on the big screen
Warning: Contains spoilers
“This is no fantasy.”
So begins Richard Donner’s Superman (1978), rightly considered the first great superhero film, from which the modern superhero genre was born. It features a first-rate central performance from best-Superman-ever Christopher Reeve, a brilliant supporting cast, and a screenplay with wit, action, and heart to spare. And that’s before I even mention John Williams’s legendary score. The film is currently on rerelease in UK cinemas, so I thought this an apt time for reappraisal, and to add a few of my personal memories tied up with it.
For those who have been living under a rock for the past 45 years, this tells the origin story of Kal-El; the last survivor of the planet Krypton. To escape the cataclysmic destruction foretold by his scientist father Jor-El (a notoriously overpaid Marlon Brando), Kal-El is sent to Earth as a baby by his parents (Susannah York plays his mother, Lara), where he is adopted by Jonathan and Martha Kent (Glenn Ford and Phyllis Thaxter). He assumes the name Clark, though his origin…
