'Superman: The Movie' and the Real Genius of Director Richard Donner

The filmmaker behind the 'Citizen Kane' of super-hero films hid his brilliance right in front of his audience’s eyes

SUPERMAN: THE MOVIE. Source: WBD

Over the years, it’s become painfully obvious to me that SUPERMAN: THE MOVIE’s greatest filmmaking triumph wasn’t making 1978 audiences believe a man could fly. No, its greatest triumph was Richard Donner’s spectacularly understated direction. The film is one long series of technical and even emotional magic tricks, making it the CITIZEN KANE of super-hero films - but you rarely notice one is being pulled off right in front of your eyes. Because of Donner’s choices, the film remains a cinematic onion that relentlessly reveals secrets to anyone willing to look for them.

Consider this sequence, which concludes the “first date” of Superman (Christopher Reeve) and Lois (Margot Kidder). They return from their dreamy flight over Metropolis, Lois in a thin dress — and, apparently, pink underpants — miraculously not frozen to death by the upper atmosphere. She’s dazed, unable to believe she’s just been escorted through the heavens by a living god.

The magic begins at 00:00:40 in this YouTube video. Superman takes flight, and we follow Lois inside where, twenty-five seconds later, she answers her apartment door and finds Clark Kent there.

Did you notice anything about the shot?

It’s continuous, what is called a tracking shot.

And Donner doesn’t cut there either. He keeps going…and going…and going until at the 00:01:42 mark when Clark — or rather, Reeve (a Julliard-trained actor) — does something truly astonishing.

He quite literally transforms onscreen into Superman right in front of our eyes. Glasses, posture, and voice.

And that’s all it takes to make him an entirely different human being, which has convinced audiences for years — it certainly has me — that “glasses” are the only real disguise Clark needs to hide his secret identity.

It’s worth noting how perfectly executed this blocking of Reeve is, a mirror behind him so the door Lois passed through lingers there, a ticking clock  -  when will Lois return through it to find Superman waiting for her in her living room?!

Superman struggles for the next twenty-seven seconds about whether to reveal himself until, finally — still the same shot — he changes back to Clark at 00:02:09. Lois reenters, walks past Clark whom she hasn’t been listening to at all, still too distracted by her brush with Superman — ironically, the gosh-golly loser right in front of her now — and exits. Clark follows, ending the shot at 00:02:25.

That’s one minute and forty-five seconds after the tracking shot started.

In other words: in one shot, Superman turns into Clark, Clark turns into Superman, and Superman turns back into Clark — all as Lois weaves her way through his excruciating angst and Donner’s magic trick.

Richard Donner has certainly never been a flashy director — someone people like to reference as they dream of becoming a Hollywood filmmaker and, later, evolve their own cinematic aesthetic — but that’s always been a mistake, in my opinion. His real genius was always in how intent he was to always make sure you didn’t recognize that genius (magicians don’t want you to see them pulling off the magic trick, after all)…which is why SUPERMAN: THE MOVIE only gets more interesting with every viewing.

---

If this article added anything to your life but you’re not up for a paid subscription, please consider buying me a “coffee” so I can keep as much of this newsletter free as possible for the dreamers who couldn’t afford it otherwise.

---

My debut novel PSALMS FOR THE END OF THE WORLD is out now from Headline Books, Hachette Australia, and more. You can order it here wherever you are in the world: