i want you to hit me as hard as you can the year  is 1978. greece and animal house are two of the  

highest grossers of the year this couldn't be  further from the current era of superhero films  

reigning supreme over the box office but what's  that up in the sky it's a bird it's a plane  

no it's superman huh been a while with everything  that the dc cinematic universe has become  

over the last decade it felt like time to go way  back to the films that started it all so we're  

going back to the beginning and revisiting  all the colorful spandex flamboyant villains  

and a-listers along the way first up we've got the  one that started it all with dc revisited superman

dc comics has had a slew of successful superheroes  over the years they popped from the page with  

their bright colors and the time had come to see  them on the big screen while lesser serials had  

been released prior the most successful of which  being the adam west starring batman the movie  

it was finally time for a bigger superhero on the  screen enter superman and enter young entrepreneur  

ilya selkind salkind a mexican producer following  in the family business joined forces with his  

father alexander and pierre spangler to purchase  the film rights to superman in 1974. falkin's  

grand plan was to film the first two superman  films back to back this meant a longer shooting  

schedule but massive sets like the fortress of  solitude wouldn't need to be stored in between  

films or entirely rebuilt from scratch so the plan  seemed foolproof salkin just needed a director  

that could manage his vision or more appropriately  the budget the total budget for the film was  

set at 55 million dollars which translates to  over 200 million when adjusting for inflation  

so this was a very big gamble especially since  superheroes were not the known commodity that they  

are now and seeing as how they weren't exactly  established there weren't any directors to go  

to that had immediate first-hand knowledge  on how to properly make this kind of film  

given the innovation needed salkin looked to james  bond mainstay guy hamilton to direct the feature  

the deal fell apart however when production for  the film moved to pinewood studios in england  

and why exactly the move from cineceta studios in  rome because star marlon brando had a warrant out  

for his arrest so therefore could not be  in italy to film yeah quite the conundrum  

adding to the confusion was hamilton's recent  tax exile status meaning he was not allowed  

in england for more than 30 days which would  have put the production in a very bad place  

he was promptly replaced by richard donner  whose recent film the omen was a massive success  

mario puzzle david newman leslie newman robert  benton and tom mankowitz all had their hands in  

writing the screenplay with these being the  writers of such classics as the godfather  

bonnie and clyde and live and let die the movie  was off to a great start at least that's how it  

would appear puzzle's script was deemed to be too  long and detailed so he left after a second draft  

losing interest in the character benton and  david newman were then brought on to rewrite  

puzo's script and break it into two films  due to ben's commitments to the late show  

newman's wife leslie was brought in as his  writing partner considered much more modern  

and filled with campy humor the main problem still  persisted the script was too long when donner came  

aboard as director he brought mankowitz with him  to rewrite the script the wga was strict about not  

having more than four writers on the movie he was  relegated to the position of creative consultant  

despite the fact that in his own words he  didn't use a word from the prior screenplays  

but with the reworked screenplay by  mankowitz downer could now get to work  

finding his superman the list of studio approved  actors that were considered for the lead role  

is a who's who of hollywood with such giants as al  pacino james khan steve mcqueen and dustin hoffman  

but the glamour of getting into skin-tight  spandex was still a few decades off so most  

were uninterested once the hiring process  started an official offer was given to robert  

redford which he turned down this continued  with burt reynolds eventually paul newman  

was offered 4 million dollars to take on either  superman lex luthor or superman's father jor-el  

but still the offer was declined getting an  a-lister just wasn't in the cards so instead  

the focus shifted towards finding an unknown and  populating some of the other roles with big names  

after seeing hundreds of auditions christopher  reeve who had only appeared on tv shows like love  

of life and the wide world of mystery had managed  to impress producers enough to win the role  

he had both the physical attributes and  a certain boyish charm when playing clark  

oddly enough in order to get into proper superman  level shape reeve entered into a bodybuilding  

program supervised by none other than the physical  form of darth vader himself david prouse results  

that clearly paid off marlon brando was cast  as khalel's father jor-el and like many roles  

before it brando brought his interesting way  of doing things he notoriously wanted to do  

as little work as possible on set even convincing  richard donner to film during the rehearsal takes  

that's not even getting into his salary which  started at three and a half million but was  

increased after disputes with the producers  that had him removed from the second film  

in a somewhat odd move jeff east was cast as  a young clark kent despite being only five  

years younger than reeve why not just have  christopher reeve play the high school role  

as well with a little bit of makeup adding to the  confusion reeve dubbed over all of east's dialogue  

so you never once hear jeff's voice in the film  to make matters worse producers never informed  

the east of this during filming it's an odd  decision but it's honestly really hard to notice  

and works fairly well all things considered is it  showing off and somebody's doing the things he's  

capable of doing oh and i'm not going to criticize  the fact that these teenagers look like they're  

about 30. have you seen teenagers from this era  they look about 40. so if anything this is a win  

going back to the kent farm glen ford and phyllis  baxter starred as clark's parents jonathan and  

martha they're the two that shape who clarke  is so their conveyance of all things good is  

pretty pivotal to the story and given that this  period is given the least amount of screen time  

they really needed to make an impact early and  they nailed it when we get to the daily planet  

there's a whole slew of fascinating characters  each one more interesting than the last  

you've got the boss perry white played expertly by  jackie cooper he's a fast talker who's command of  

the daily planet newsroom makes the hierarchy  clear without a word needing to be spoken  

then there's teenage photographer jimmy olsen  while olsen was mark mcclure's most famous role  

some of you may remember him as marty's brother  in back to the future and last but not least star  

reporter lois lane played expertly here by margot  kidder kitter had been in films such as 92 in the  

shade and the phenomenal black christmas here she  gave lois all the qualities we would grow to love  

her fierceness her loyalty to the truth and  her puppy dog love for superman it's a great  

performance and there's electricity whenever  reeve and kitter are on screen together their  

famous flying scene is one of the most magical  of the movie and leaves a massive impression  

taking on the part of superman's arch  nemesis lex luthor was gene hackman known  

for movies such as the poseidon adventure the  conversation and the french connection luthor  

is superman's greatest villain so to have an  actor the caliber of hackman to encompass him  

is a dream come true unfortunately hackman didn't  quite see the role like it was in the comics  

or rather he didn't like the look refusing to  wear a bald cap until the final scene of the movie  

donner instead opted to style jean's hair  in various ways to make it appear like  

different wigs were in different states of  dishevelment the illusion works fairly well

working alongside lex luthor is his assistant  love interest eve tesmacher valerie perrin stands  

out because she feels like more than just lex's  girlfriend in fact she's pretty vital to the story  

finally we've got ned beatty playing otis who may  be just the dumbest oath of the henchman out there  

how luthor puts up with him i'll never know if  you've never seen superman the story is simple  

enough young kal-el escapes his dying planet  of krypton and crash lands in rural kansas  

now clark kent he's raised to be a good person  and sets off to use his kryptonian powers for  

the good of humanity only he's got one really  big problem lex luthor see ludor is all about  

money and power and going about getting them in  not so honest ways you can see why he wouldn't  

be a fan of supes like any good villain he has  a plan to kill superman with his one weakness  

kryptonite that way he can set off a massive bomb  on the san andreas fault line sending the coast  

of california into the ocean and making way for  new beachfront all owned by lexcorp it's honestly  

pretty genius i'll bite completely insane in the  midst of luthor's crazy scheme he manages to get  

lois lane killed this is when we find out that  superman doesn't just have super strength super  

speed bulletproof skin the ability to fly laser  eyes x-ray vision and freeze breath he can also  

turn back time and how does he do that well he  flies ridiculously fast around earth which causes  

time to go backwards because that's how things  work in this world and god bless him for it we  

get the very storybook ending of superman saving  the day and dropping lex luthor off at prison  

oh and we finally get a look at lex and his full  bald glory thank god for bald caps superman saved  

the day and the bad guy has been defeated it's  the most good versus evil way of storytelling out  

there and that's why it works so much heck that's  why the superman character as a whole work so much  

because sometimes we just really want to see  something good and pure doing what's right  

when it comes to the visuals there were loads  of amazing effects work done in the film  

take this shot of a young clark kicking  a football into the stratosphere  

these days it would have been entirely cgi but  here they actually stuck a cannon in the ground  

and then shot the ball out of the sky it's  extremely impressive then there's the flying  

which pretty much became the standard for any  sort of flying scene from here on out with its  

dynamic movement no more just hanging still in  front of a projector anymore that's not to say  

there weren't issues all of these effects  meant problems which often meant delays  

john williams has created some of the most  instantly recognizable scores ever and superman  

is no exception the opening credits as well as  this theme over top of it is absolutely iconic  

in every way while the studio wanted the film to  release in the summer months preferably in june  

for the character's 40th anniversary the massive  delays in filming pushed the film to december  

this delay also meant that they abandoned their  plan to film the sequel along with the first film  

despite the fact that they filmed over 75 of it  but just focusing on the original film they were  

able to push through and make its december date  when it finally made its debut it broke various  

profit records for warner brothers and it wasn't  just audiences that were enamored critics loved it  

in 2021 speak it had a 94 on rotten tomatoes  which is rarefied air superman's success actually  

carried over into awards season the amazing  special effects of superman were awarded with  

a special achievement academy award for visual  effects unfortunately despite its nominations for  

best film editing best sound and best original  score this was the only award the film received  

from the academy for many years superman was the  benchmark for how to do a comic book movie right  

christopher reeve is superman every person to  play the role since has been compared to him  

some entirely basing their performance off of his  but it's not just his superman that's so special  

the boyish charm he displays as clark kent and  shy body language or such a contrast to the cape  

doning superhero that you totally buy into the  fact that no one recognizes that these two people  

are the same 50 years from now people will still  be comparing whoever is playing superman at the  

time back to christopher reeve in the year since  a three hour television version was released that  

included extra scenes but this version has been  admonished by its director richard donner who  

refers to this version as nothing more than a work  print some fans however absolutely love this cut  

it gives you a little bit more insight into the  character of superman and honestly just gives you  

some really fun moments none of these scenes  are what you would call pivotal to the story  

so it's easy to see why donner isn't a fan of  them however with how much they add dimensions  

to the characters it's also easy to see why  fans have latched onto this cut of the film  

while it was only available in full screen for  many years fan demand and the luck of finding  

the original negative allowed warner brothers to  release a fully restored extended cut on blu-ray  

the cast of the film has shown up in  various dc projects in the years since  

reeve kidder and mcclure all showed up on the  superman origin show smallville as various roles  

unrelated to their prior characters footage of  brando that was shot for superman 2 was eventually  

used for brian singer's superman returns in 2006  which saw a return to the world of the first two  

superman films this year even saw the release  of the comic book superman 78 which exists in  

the world of reeves superman and gives us more  insight into the world molded by richard donner  

given donner's unfortunate passing this year  it's a wonderful tribute to both the director  

and all of the deceased stars from the film like  reeve and kidder despite it being 43 years since  

its release superman is as timeless as ever that's  due in equal parts to its wonderful direction by  

donner the stellar performances from reeve kidder  and hackman and those never before seen special  

effects they all combined to make one of the  greatest comic book movies ever made with all of  

the success of the original there was still the  matter of that pesky sequel that was already 75  

filmed but we're getting ahead of ourselves join  us next time same movie time same movie channel

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