The film features an ensemble cast including Marlon Brando, Gene Hackman, Jeff East, Margot Kidder, Glenn Ford, Phyllis Thaxter, Jackie Cooper, Trevor Howard, Marc McClure, Terence Stamp, Valerie Perrine, Ned Beatty, Jack O'Halloran, Maria Schell, and Sarah Douglas.
It depicts the origin of Superman, including his infancy as Kal-El of Krypton, son of Jor-El (Brando), and his youthful years in the rural town of Smallville.
Disguised as reporter Clark Kent, he adopts a mild-mannered disposition in Metropolis and develops a romance with Lois Lane (Kidder) while battling the villainous Lex Luthor (Hackman).
Before the planet's destruction, Jor-El and his wife Lara send their baby son Kal-El to Earth, where his unique physiology grants him evolving superhuman abilities.
With Otis and his girlfriend Eve Teschmacher, Lex retrieves it and traps Superman in his lair, revealing his plan to sink the western U.S., making his desert land prime coastline.
He sends it to space but misses the westbound missile, which triggers severe earthquakes in California, endangering landmarks like the Golden Gate Bridge and Hoover Dam.
Kirk Alyn and Noel Neill have cameo appearances (they played the parents of young Lois Lane in a deleted scene that was restored in later home media releases).
[22] In November 1974, after a long, difficult process with DC Comics, the Superman film rights were purchased by Ilya, his father Alexander Salkind, and their partner Pierre Spengler.
DC wanted a list of actors that were to be considered for Superman, and approved the producer's choices of Muhammad Ali, Al Pacino, James Caan, Steve McQueen, Clint Eastwood and Dustin Hoffman.
"[17][22] Though the Salkinds felt that Puzo had written a solid story for the two-part film, they deemed his scripts as "very heavy", and so hired Robert Benton and David Newman for rewrite work.
"[38] "We found guys with fabulous physique who couldn't act or wonderful actors who did not look remotely like Superman", creative consultant Tom Mankiewicz remembered.
He was told to wear a "muscle suit" to produce the desired muscular physique, but Reeve refused,[18][39] instead undertaking a strict physical exercise regime headed by David Prowse.
For scenes where Superman interacts with other people or objects while in flight, Reeve and actors were put in a variety of rigging equipment with careful lighting and photography.
[53] The highly reflective costumes worn by the Kryptonians are made of the same 3M material used for the front projection screens and were the result of an accident during Superman flying tests.
"[31] The Clio Award-winning opening titles were made with traditional optical animation using an innovative technique that combined a motion control camera with slit-scan photography.
As part of the film's 40th anniversary in February 2019, La-La Land Records released the fully expanded restoration of Williams' score on a 3-disc set, including the previously issued alternates and source music.
The first segment, set on Krypton, is meant to be typical of science fiction films and lays the groundwork for an analogy that emerges in the relationship between Jor-El and Kal-El.
The third (and largest) segment, set mostly in Metropolis, is an attempt to present the superhero story with as much realism as possible (what Donner called "verisimilitude"), relying on traditional cinematic drama and using only subtle humor instead of a campy approach.
"[60][61] Ironically, it is also in the Reeve films that Clark Kent's persona has the greatest resemblance to Woody Allen, though his conscious model was Cary Grant's character in Bringing Up Baby.
Salkind felt this was an important point in the film, since Superman, living under his secret identity as Clark Kent, is "telling the biggest lie of all time".
[24] Superman premiered at the Uptown Theater in Washington, D.C., on December 10, 1978,[62][failed verification] with director Richard Donner and several cast members in attendance.
Three days later, on December 13, it had a European Royal Charity Premiere at the Empire, Leicester Square in London, with Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Andrew in attendance.
The website's critical consensus reads, "Superman deftly blends humor and gravitas, taking advantage of the perfectly cast Reeve to craft a loving, nostalgic tribute to an American pop culture icon.
Although describing the Krypton scenes as "ponderous" ("Brando was allegedly paid $3 million for his role, or, judging by his dialogue, $500,000 a cliché"), Ebert wrote that "Superman is a pure delight, a wondrous combination of all the old-fashioned things we never really get tired of: adventure and romance, heroes and villains, earthshaking special effects, and – you know what else?
'"[79] James Harwood of Variety called the film "a wonderful, chuckling, preposterously exciting fantasy", and he further added: "As both the wholesome man of steel and his bumbling secret identity Clark Kent, Reeve is excellent.
As newswoman Lois Lane, Kidder plays perfectly off both of his personalities and her initial double-entendre interview with Superman is wickedly coy, dancing round the obvious question any red-blooded girl might ask herself about such a magnificent prospect.
"[80] Vincent Canby of The New York Times wrote in a mixed review, "The Superman comic strip has been carefully, elaborately, sometimes wittily blown up for the big-theater screen, which, though busy, often seems sort of empty."
"[82] Gary Arnold of The Washington Post wrote in a positive review, "Despite a lull here and a lapse there, this superproduction turns out to be prodigiously inventive and enjoyable, doubly blessed by sophisticated illusionists behind the cameras and a brilliant new stellar personality in front of the cameras—Christopher Reeve, a young actor at once handsome and astute enough to rationalize the preposterous fancy of a comic-book superhero in the flesh."
Until 2017, it was thought the quality of the extended network TV version was inferior to any theatrical or previous home video release because it was mastered in 16mm (using the "film chain system") and a mono sound mix done, as by the time the extended cut was prepared in 1981, stereo was not available in television broadcasts (16 mm television prints were, in fact, made and mastered on NTSC Standard Definition video for the initial ABC network broadcasts).
[101] The video release was visually restored by WB's imaging department, and, other than the opening and end credits (which are in true stereo), the film is presented in an enhanced version of the mono TV sound mix.