Thirty Years? ALREADY?

As a little tyke, my birthday was celebrated in the usual way: cake, party games, presents, little pals, etc. However, as I grew older, my parents would pop for a movie for me and a few friends. Kinda modest by today's ever-escalating entertainment standards for kid birthdays, but as a budding movie fan...I loved every minute of it.

As the last of those fondly-remembered "movie birthdays", I celebrated my 13th birthday by seeing a movie that had opened only six days earlier on December 15th, 1978. Superman: The Movie, as you might imagine, completely blew the minds of my friends and I. From the opening "comic book scene" to the closing scene's "smiling fly-by", we were transfixed by the movie's epic scale and surprisingly "serious" take on the character. Remember, my generation marinated on campy, low-wattage superhero movies and TV shows...so the big budget majesty of Superman was the first time we realized that the world of fantasy really could "come true" if there was enough money, talent, and willpower behind it.  No, we didn't quite "Believe a Man Can Fly" (as the movie poster proclaimed), but we did walk away believing that more of this kind of wide-eyed spectacle was in our future.

Now, thirty years later, comic book movies are better than ever...with the promise of even better stuff to come.  But for me, that singular moment when fantasy blurred into reality (or a sort of pseudo-reality) was that 13th birthday exactly three decades ago. Yeah, Star Wars had blown my mind in another way a year and a half earlier, but with its lightsabers and planet-obliterating Death Stars, it didn't have nearly the "feel of the real" (or, in fancy-speak, "verisimilitude") that Superman did. 

So, to everyone associated with Superman: The Movie...especially director Richard Donner, the brilliant composer John Williams, and the late, great (and fondly remembered) Christopher Reeve, thank you for that special afternoon thirty years ago and all the inspiration the movie's provided ever since.

Comments

[Rick]

Just wanted to say Happy Birthday.

[Pat Curley]

I loved Superman the Movie as well, and for many of the same reasons; I was so accustomed to cheesy superhero adaptations that it stunned me that movie makers could actually do it well.

One thing did bug me, though, and that was the bit at the end where Superman goes back in time to save Lois. Weisinger had specifically ruled that out time travel to change history in a Superboy story that was often referenced in the Silver Age.

[Mark Engblom]

Yeah, the time travel/turn back the world bit was probably the lone sour note of the entire movie when I saw it for the first time (the Otis stuff wasn't particularly entertaining as well).

And, hey Rick, thanks!

[John Trumbull]

I saw Superman: The Movie when I was 6 years old, and it's still my favorite comic book movie. It's the movie that made me fall in love with movies, and will ALWAYS be the definitive Superman movie.

[greyman24]

I remember my father taking me to see that movie. It's one of my first memories (I was 5 at the time).

The screen of that movie theater was inset...a weird and unfortunate detail that often messed with the quality of the picture. But, at the time, it seemed amazing. It made it like looking into a diorama...peering into another world.

Also remember finding one of my father's Playboys, many years later, featuring Valerie Perrine. But that's another story...

[Mark Engblom]

Yes, as newly adolescent boys watching the movie, Valerie Perrine was definitely one of the headli...I mean HIGHlights of the movie.

[Dan Lietha]

Happy Birthday Mark! I'm playing the John Williams Superman theme on my iTunes in honor of your birthday as I write this note. Yes, that was a movie BURNED into my memory too. The music takes me back in time and I don't even have to fly around the earth to make it spin backwards to do it! Now I want to go and find my copy of the movie and watch it. It'd be fun to watch it with you sometime and we could geek our over it together. Happy birthday again and have a great celebration!

[Grumpy]

...with the promise of even better stuff to come.

Notwithstanding A.O. Scott's insistence earlier this year that The Dark Knight was the peak and that it's downhill from here on in.

[zetaman]

Ach... I was born like a month before. And very strange I came across this blog because I just bought the Superman Box set for myself as a Christmas present.
The first Superman movie I saw was actually Superman 4. But they played the extended versions of the first, second and fourth movie a lot when I was a kid. The helicopter scene will always be the best scene of all time. The timing of the music along with the multiple quick views of Superman flying up. Awesome.