I just got this for my birthday this week, and let me say, it's been worth the agonizing wait I've been enduring; anticipating this DVD release of "Superman" has fueled my days and nights for several months, and it finally showed up.

This is a beautiful beautiful DVD.

First of all, the source material is nearly flawless. Richard Donner (who later directed Goonies, the Lethal Weapon series, Maverick, Ladyhawke, etc.) directed Superman and most of Superman II concurrently, and has given us the best Superhero film ever made.

Comic books are a tricky thing to adapt. You have to somehow take a character that (in Superman's case) has been around in a serialized format since 1938, appearing at least 12 times a year, and who has become a generational superhero. Which parts of Superman's life do you choose to make into a movie? Which storyline do you use?

Donner split up the life of Superman into three areas:

1) The life of Superman's parents on Krypton, and why they had to send him alone to Earth.
2) The life of young Clark Kent being raised by his adopted parents in Smallville, Kansas.
3) Clark Kent's move to Metropolis and the meeting and relationships between Clark Kent, Lois Lane, Lex Luthor, and Superman.

The way the movie is set up, in fact, you don't even SEE Superman until an hour into the two-and-one-half hour film. This actually makes for a...slower...movie, but ultimately gives us a Superman with more depth than he achieves anywhere but the written (and drawn) comic book page.

The scenes on Krypton are amazing visually, and Marlon Brando plays Jor-El (NOT Ora-Jel), Superman's father. He's a scientist, a distinguished member of Krypton's ruling council, and has a large role in the first twenty minutes of the film in debating Krypton's future, sentencing criminals to eternal banishment, and saving Kal-El (baby Superman). He's compassionate and intelligent, and all of the Krypton scenes are validated by Brando's performance.

The Smallville period of Superman's life is well represented by a young Clark Kent who has discovered his powers and who struggles to fit in with his high school buddies, knowing that he has a larger destiny in store for him. We see the values instilled in him by his parents, Jonathan and Martha Kent, and see his reasons for both staying and leaving Smallville.

About an hour into the flick, we see him as Superman for the first time, and this of course is the real meat of the film. Without the first two portions leading up to it though, it would have been much less effective.

There are two big things that happen to Superman/Clark in Metropolis; meeting Lois Lane, and meeting Lex Luthor.

Christopher Reeve gives an unforgettable performance as both Clark Kent and Superman, being truly believable in both roles. He's so good, in fact, that the idea of casting a new Superman movie (which they're planning now) with any "known" actor is ridiculous, because they'll be compared to him. Nicolas Cage was lobbying for the part---UGH. Can you imagine? Nope. As the Mild Mannered reporter, he's great--never effeminate, never a parody of a person, but just simple Clark Kent from Smallville, Kansas.

And as Superman? Well, he IS Superman, isn't he? He can pull off the innocence and charm of the worlds First Superhero without being goofy. Innocent, yes. Cheesy in places, sure. But he seems comfortable becoming that icon of Truth, Justice, and The American Way. If they made that movie today, they'd find some way to politically correct him, make him flawed--an alcoholic or something. Superman ISN'T flawed. That's really the only problem with him. Ironic, no?

Margot Kidder's scratchy-voiced performance of Lois Lane is another unforgettable one; watch how she treats Clark as a "buddy"-slug-in-the-arm co-worker, and then how she instantly melts and falls in love with Superman. I know a lot of people can't stand the "can you read my mind?" monologue when they're flying over Metropolis, but hey, she's a cheesy girl. And I don't know of any cinematic death worse than when her car falls into the crack and fills with dirt....that's the worst death I can imagine, worthy of Superman flying around the world backwards to reverse time and save his honey.

Gene Hackman as Lex Luthor....he has just the right amount of intellect and ego, but then he surrounds himself with bumbling clods like "Otis," played by Ned Beatty. This is the only part of "Superman" that I HATE. HAAAAATE. In my opinion, Otis is the spiritual forefather of Jar Jar Binks, and if there were a DVD option to digitally remove all hints of Otis from this movie, I would pay more than a hundred bucks for that DVD. Ned Beatty's finest work was when he was being sodomized by the inbred toothless hicks in "Deliverance," and ever since he's been trying to regain that moment in the sun.

Luthor has a brilliantly evil mind, bored by his own intellect, and looking for a challenge. This is an interesting Lex Luthor, but I would have rather seen a bald Luthor who's a brilliant businessman and subversively evil, like the current Luthor in the comic books or the Superman Animated Series from a few years ago. But Hackman is fine.

Now for the DVD:

This is what DVDs were made for! Hours of bonus material that give you a lot more background on the movie, and how it became the amazing work it is. There are THREE different half-hour documentaries--the history leading up to the 1978 release of Superman, the making of Superman, and the Special Effects of Superman.

The documentaries have a little bit of overlap, but not enough to be boring....we see a lot of the casting of Christopher Reeve and Margot Kidder, how they "landed" Marlon Brando and Gene Hackman, and how they made Superman FLY. In the pre-digital age, it was an astonishing combination of miniatures, live effects, and bluescreen shots, and the result is a movie that in most places is more real than movies like "The Phantom Menace."

Other extras are the full-length director's commentary by Richard Donner, recent interviews with the director and cast, a music-only audio track highlighting John Williams' amazing score, deleted scenes (MORE Otis, which should stay deleted), screen tests for Lois Lane and Superman, and Audio Outtakes.

The best thing about this DVD? The movie is CLEAN. With all of the effects, some scenes would have a dozen plates overlapping, and all of the dust and little Freddies and stuff would be smooshed between the frames, making for a pretty grainy picture. All of that is gone. The images and sound are crisp, vibrant, and Superman wears the Red, Yellow, and Blue that made him the man he is.

There are also a few scenes restored--eight minutes have been re-integrated into the film, mostly on Krypton, but also including the scene with li'l girl Lois Lane on the train watching young Clark Kent race the train home to the farm in Smallville. They flesh out the Krypton scenes a little more, and nothing unnecessary or out-of-place has been added.

In all, I stand by my claim that this is a truly great American film, that should have seen a theatrical re-release. Maybe for its 25th anniversary or something. The epitome of Comic-Book films, it has yet to be bested; its sequel, Superman II, was also a great flick, but then III and IV were pretty stinky.

I recommend this movie to anyone who still wants to believe that a man can fly.



Recommended:
Yes

Viewing Format: DVD
Suitability For Children: Suitable for Children up Ages 8