The greatness of Richard Donner’s 1978 film “Superman” lies in a rare quality which has been seldom equaled during last five decades. Masterfully balancing itself between earnest gravitas and a witty sense of humor, the movie not only entertains us a lot but also makes us care about the story and characters – even when it is wryly recognizing the inherent silliness in terms of story and character.

As revisiting the film during this evening, I marveled again about how effortlessly it moves back and forth between comedy and drama while never losing any of its unadulterated sense of fun. The first act of the film, which is the origin story of its titular hero, is quite serious to say the least, but then the rest of the film exuberantly takes off from that, and then these two very different parts flawlessly complement each other as engaging us more along the story.

Superman, who often disguises himself as a meek urban newspaper reporter named Clark Kent, is played by Christopher Reeve, who has all the right qualities for playing his famous role. While I must point out that he is not exactly a colorful or charismatic actor, Reeve is equipped with plainly wholesome boyish qualities inarguably perfect for his role, and he also does a good job of making his character’s disguise look fairly believable. Yes, all Superman does for being Clark Kent is simply changing his clothes and then wearing glasses, but, as shown from a brief but funny moment at one point in the middle of the story, Reeve adds some subtle acting touches for making this a bit more convincing at least during our viewing.

The movie spends nearly a third of its running time (145 minutes) on building up the background of its lead character, but this part seldom bores us as patiently following his well-known origin story. The opening sequence, which is unfolded on his doomed home planet, is still magnificent with enough sense of awe and wonder, though Marlon Brando, who plays Superman’s father, seems contented with merely lending his immense presence despite getting paid a lot for that (He also did like that in Francis Ford Coppola’s “Apocalypse Now” (1979), by the way). The following segment, which is about Superman’s relationship with his adoptive parents on the Earth, is somber but poignant as eventually becoming the humble heart of the story, and it is also compelling to observe how these two contrasting segments resonate with each other a lot around the finale.

Once Superman is ready to introduce himself to the people of the Earth around the middle act of the story, the movie embarks on its tricky dance among a lot of stuffs including fantasy, adventure, and romance. While it is surely fun to see how Superman often defies the laws of physics via his almost unlimited superpower, the movie always remains grounded in its fairly realistic modern world and that is actually not so far from what Christopher Nolan achieved in his Batman trilogy. Sure, Superman and Batman are different from each other as much as yang and yin, but both Nolan and Donner handle their respective superhero characters as seriously and realistically as possible – even though they also often recognize how silly their respective superhero characters feel at times.

Around the narrative point where Superman makes his first big public appearance, we are more immersed into the world inhabited by him and many other main characters including Lois Lane (Margot Kidder), a plucky young woman who is also one of Kent’s fellow journalists in the Daily Planet. Right from the first encounter at their workplace, Superman comes to like Lane a lot, but Lane becomes more attracted to Superman after being dramatically rescued by him, and this certainly leads to a amusingly complicated circumstance between them – especially when Superman makes a big important choice as Kent rather than Superman later in the story. Kidder and Reeve instantly click well with each other from the beginning, and Kidder is also commendable for bringing an ample amount of brash spirit to her strong female character. Seriously, how often do we actually come across a genuinely strong female character in superhero flicks these days?

Needless to say, any superhero film can only be as good as its main villain, and the film has Lex Luthor (Gene Hackman), who is Superman’s arch-nemesis and also about to commit the “crime of the century” as your average supervillain. While his sardonic performance mostly leans more on comedy here, Hackman, who sadly passsed away early in this year, is still deliciously diabolical, and Ned Beatty and Valerie Perrine provide some extra humor as Luthor’s henchman and secretary. These three talented performers give some of the most amusing moments in the film, and they remind me again of how sour and cheerless many of those villain characters merely are in recent superhero movies. 

Around the expected climax part which provides a lot of action and spectacle as expected, we are thoroughly engaged in what is being at the stake for Superman thanks to the first-rate efforts from Donner and his crew members including cinematographer Geoffrey Unsworth, who sadly passed away not long before the movie was released in 1978, editor Stuart Baird. Yes, some of the special effects in the film may look a bit dated, but they look and feel a lot more realistic than the CGIs of many recent Hollywood blockbuster films, and the sense of fun and excitement is all the more amplified by the Oscar-nominated score by John Williams (How the hell this another great score of his could lose to Giorgio Moroder’s tacky electronic score for Alan Parker’s “Midnight Express” (1978)?) 

Despite the considerable passage of time, “Superman” firmly remains on the top of its genre territory along with a few equally great superhero films such as “The Dark Knight” (2008), and the rather dwindling qualities of many of the subsequent Superman films such as Zack Snyder’s “Man of Steel” (2013) only remind us more of how special and precious it really is in many ways. In my inconsequential opinion, there never was or will be anything like it, and I can only hope that it may actually inspire something really good someday.