great info and great video - thanks! Nobody will care but me -- but I worked on the Canadian location shooting for the first SUPERMAN. We did all the Super Baby, Superboy Smallville stuff as well as the missile convoy and the beginning of Lois in the desert earthquake. We shot for over 6 weeks and never did a scene with Superman! I was there when the baby lifted the truck. Donner was great - making little Aaron feel like he was really lifting it! Aaron became an actor and stuntman and still goes to Superman conventions. Richard Donner was a wonderfully gifted guy. Too bad the producers screwed him over. The stuff racing beside and in front of the train was very difficult for Jeff East - hanging off the side of a truck going 40MPH miming running in the air! No CGI in those days! Such fun.
@@FameFocus I don’t know about the, “THE“ part! Yes, MacGyver was great fun as well my past keeps catching up with me! Thanks for your reply. You never know when you comment on something if anyone ever looks at this stuff. I was very lucky… Just out of high school at the time working as a production assistant. Fun fact… If you remember the scene where young Clark kicks the football practically into orbit? I kept that football for over 30 years! It was made of wood and fired from air cannon just on the other side of his foot when he made the kicking gesture. I sold it along with some other minor memorabilia at a prop auction in England a few years ago and got over $10,000! The lesson is keep everything you think it’s cool you just never know if someone else may want it someday 😏
@@MrRezRising Yes beautiful country - I grew up there. You may want to check out “Days of Heaven” - another film I worked on just before Superman. It won an Oscar for the beautiful cinematography. It really captures house stunning the light is there.
I still choose Reeve’s Superman movies over any other. Just because I was a kid when they came out and it takes me back to my childhood every time I watch them. Reeve is to me the best Superman of all. R.I.P. 🙏🏼❤️
I remember, I lived in Malta at the time I was working in some 3 star hotel and I was reading in some tabloid magazine that Christopher Reeves had fallen off a horse and broke his neck. Then the poor guy lived for 9 more years completely paralyzed from the neck down and had high hopes in the research in nerve healing and he personally invested money in it and it never paned out. Eventually he died from bed sores. The guy was amazing. His face literally was exactly a copy of the ideal comic version. You can never capture the comic fantasy onto film 100% but he was as close as we ever got. As an example, I have to admit, as a 7 year old kid I did not find him as masculine as I imagined Superman to be but still, it was an incredible experience watching him and no other Superman movie after him never got even close to having that kind of magic. Those were different times too. The US was a different country, Americans were different, Hollywood was different, people were more earnest, naive. I mean just compare the music that was coming out back then to what we have today. Something is lost. I can't explain what that thing is but it's definitely gone. Its gone from the US, and UK too and perhaps other parts of the world too. Whether computers and technology is to blame, politics, greed, maybe all of it together but whatever it is, its gone. Collectively, we valued life a lot more back then and we spent a lot more time in the company of others and we had to entertain each other. Granted things were not as easy and accessible at the whim of a swipe on the phone but maybe we ate from the tree of knowledge and now we are doomed.
Why do we have to make everything a contest? Saying who's best is subjective. Best to you may not be best to me. I like Reeve and I like Cavill for different reasons. I think they both did a great job.
If this movie had flopped there would be no Batman '89. The entire superhero movie franchise we enjoy today was made possible because of Superman the Movie. The historic importance this film has is monumental. RIP Richard Donner Christohper Reeve Margot Kidder and all those who worked on this film we have lost over the years.
CGI also requires the development of new techniques and tech. You think you could just take a copy of RenderMan from 1995, install it on a modern render farm and start churning out modern digital effects? Computers aren't the easy, magical boxes you think they are.
@@fireaza I just feel like it's a foregone conclusion that CGI can do anything because in essence, it's drawing. There's no limit to what can be drawn, the only question is whether it will end up looking realistic or like a video game. Most of the time, it looks like a video game that cost $200,000,000 to make. Half the time I don't think they're even trying to convince us that CGI characters and objects are real solid matter and animate it all in ways that calls attention to the unreality of it.
@@axebomber2108 As usual, it comes down to cost. You can easily get crap cgi in your film if you won't cough up the bucks for a great production house. Cgi is great for some things, not so great with others. The Thing Prequel would be a great example of how cgi won't fix a broken story, or make your movie scarier. Maybe next time DON'T show the monster...
Same. It conjures so much emotion which modern day super hero films fail to do. Then it was about superman the person. Now-a-days it's more about how spectacular the effects are.
Me to i think if it wasn't for this film and superman 2 ever been made i would of liked the man of steel but as it happens i don't think the christopher reeve version will ever be over throne. However as we're now getting the man of steel 2 cavill did say he going to make his take a lot different to the way of the first film and by what he was saying sounded more like the reeves version. i do hope so we need that bit of humour and charm for superman and fingers cross maybe the original classic iconic theme to go with it and not just for the credit or end film but throughout the film i just didn't like the Hans Zimmer score
Another reason the movie did well was because it was fun. As a 10 year old, I was screaming and cheering in the theater and got a little dust in my eye when Pa Kent and later Lois died. Back when going to movies was a joy. I guess today this Superman would be consider "weak" or not badass enough. I thought he was awesome.
Superman the Movie is still the best superhero film. Nostalgia plays a big part, but it’s done so exceedingly well. Plus the acting by Christopher Reeve and that EPIC score. It’s iconic.
Absolutely! Great movie, and incredible, moving music. I love John Williams' music. Superman is my favorite of his works (followed *very* closely by Star Wars '77).
This movie here is what made me a life long Superman fan. R.I.P Christopher Reeves, Margot Kidder, Marlon Brando and everyone else that helped bring this movie to life. Thank you all for making a kid very happy when times were so bad for me.
You’re so right. Only those of us who were kids back then, know that magical feeling we felt while watching Reeve’s Superman. It’s hard to explain but it was a wonderful feeling.
Yes because they didn't have what we have today so they had to use the old fashion method of creative thinking and making things impossible to possible rather than relay on CGI and computers not saying its a bad thing but go's to show how much hard work went into the movie without it of course they had some help with green screens method and computers but wasn't so sophisticated
@@M.H312 Like it's hard? A rocket, a nav computer, no problem. And if we hadn't gone, Russia would've called us out on it. Both Project Artemis and SpaceX are going back. Hell, Elon's setting up a Mars colony.
The creativity back during the practical in-camera effects era' really was inspiring. That and the amazing dedicated actors & crew who really loved & cared about the material. Always a classic! Glad I showed my kids this before they got hooked into Marvel Avengers. As good as those movies are, there's something magical about the Chris Reeves Superman movies that never fades.
Christopher Reeve will always be the best Superman. I've always wanted to know how they did the flying effects. Really cool. Have to give them so much credit for being made back in 1978 and having great special effects.
The real trick to playing Superman is convincing the audience that everyone wouldn't instantly recognize Clark Kent as Superman, and that Reeves did really well.
"[They] truly wanted to believe in the story they were trying to tell. And THAT means we all did too" WOW! BRAVO! ENCORE! GOOSEBUMPS! Dang man, go write a novel. I'll read it!
And it remains the best Superman movie 44 years later. Part 2 was also great and now the Donner cut is on DVD so you can see how brilliant he was it was crazy to fire him but the Salkinds were lunatics their giant egos hated how Donner got all the credit he deserved.
I haven’t watched the theatrical version since the Donner Cut was released.
Год назад
Yes, there are flaws like the cape in space and you can tell by every scene that he is not really flying.. But they look honest, are made with so much love and just makes you feel good. Not one of all the CGI-overloaded Superhero-Movies with super duper choreography in fights etc. can give me that feeling I have with the movies from that time. They just feel good.
yes he was a lovely guy and it still sends a chill through me when i hear that great superman fanfare !! it was so tragic what happened to him in that accident but heartwarming to hear so many lovely comments about him from fans who will never forget him. have a nice day from the caped crusader.
He is the best Superman ever. Just a simple man , with great passion to the costume he wore. I wish his son had the same passion to carry on his legacy.
I was 10 years old when Superman: The Movie was released and remember seeing it in the theaters. What a perfect age I was for Star Wars, Superman and almost all the great pop culture, movies, TV and music of the 1970s and 80s.
Zoran Perisic was the Godfather of the flying process for the Christopher Reeves Superman movies. He won an academy award for his visual effects on Superman and was the inventor of the mirror/gimble contraption that made flying it possible. I had the privilege of working for him as an apprentice in the early 90's, and our credits (while I was employed with him) were Cliffhanger, and Batman Returns. Great guy and teacher.
The Zoptic Camera System. If you listen to the older guys on the film, like Roy Field, they want to take credit for the entire picture and give Perisic bupkiss.
@@dalethelander3781 That's the nature of the business. Some industry people won't hesitate to take recognition for someone else's work if they know that the inventor isn't around to speak up for themselves... and people are gullible enough to believe those claims because they're too lazy to research it themselves.
I've seen enough of these behind the scenes things to know that if a film is heavy on VFX, as this is, it takes a lot of skill and hard work to make what we see on screen happen. Back when I was a kid there was a documentary on TV featuring ILM during the production of Return of the Jedi and Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (it might even be on here). Fascinating stuff.
@@shanechannel7066 In 1976, Superman I & II were still in pre-production while the Salkinds waited for Cubby Broccoli to wrap The Spy Who Loved Me and vacate the 007 Soundstage at Pinewood Studios.
The ABC’s Version of Superman was incredible. I loved it so much that I could not sleep after watching it. I kept thinking I wish I could see it again. Lois Lane’s death did it for me and how Superman wept because he could not get to her in time. Superman then decided to turn back time and his Father appeared before and telling him that he cannot altered human events. This movie was deep for a Superhero movie. Let’s not forget that he also saved Eve Teschmacher from the lion’s den after Alex Luthor threw her in there. This was the best Superman Movie bar none.
I remember when this arrived in cinemas, it was an EVENT! It was that rare thing - a superhero being being treated seriously. Nowadays of course, superhero movies are a dime a dozen... some are good, some are bad. Some are "Howard the Duck". But the whole "event" aspect is impossible to recapture, so I feel lucky to have been around when "Superman - the Movie" came out!
You have to remember that Christopher Reeve was able to hold his body straight to and could do so for a long time, they covered a good deal of it in some of the documentaries they had done.
The blue screen green suit was recoloured digitally for the DVD release. Prior to that in the theatrical and home versions the suit looked very green in these shots.
I remember reading about that and noticing the suit appearing slightly turquoise. I don't think you can even find the original unaltered footage on RU-vid now.
@@axebomber2108 If you look at the theatrical cut bluray, the shot of him flying at screen while he's listening to Luthor's message, the suit is pretty green, it's corrected to blue in the directors cut.
Now we have references of how to do all this stuff. But in them days they had nothing. All this was made from scratch. This is genius. Improvisation at its very best. Genius
I was around ten when Superman came out and it was a magical time for a kid. Star Wars was a couple of years old, Superman came out, Black Hole came out, Space 1999 was on TV and Battle Star Galactica was not far behind. Then came out Indiana Jones, then ET, even Poltergeist... Amazing for a kid to grow up in...
I'll tell you this - having been a Superman freak since the mid-fifties, when I saw this Superman movie, at Mann's Chinese Theater on opening night, I was never more excited! Dwarfed by today's computer-generated effects, this was still a far cry for George Reeves in the tv version of Superman! Worked for me!!
Kristhoper reew con la tecnologia che hanno usato in man of steel, cavill gli avrebbe solo potuto allaciargli gli stivali a kristhoper reew!!!!!!, (Il mito assoluto!!, Il suo Superman era una cosa inarrivabile!, eleganza portamento espressività carisma!🔝🔝🔝🔝🔝🔝🔝🔝🔝🔝❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️✌️💪💪💪💪💪
This film was Epic - I cannot express the levels attained by this movie which in my view can never be met again. I really enjoyed the production secrets you revealed. Thank you, RIP Mr Reeves
The only real problem is the miniature work during the third Act. Most other F/X shots were amazing! Superman remains one of my all time favorite films.
Yes the greatness of the orginal 1&2 (and maybe 3) movies was a combination of factors, but wouldn't have been nearly as good without the masterful music
I think music in general is not mentioned often enough when it comes to some of the most successful movies and franchises ever. A great score can really complete the identity of a film, and when I remember the film many years later, it's often the score that comes with it. When I was a kid, I hummed the Superman theme every day!
As a kid watching this back in the days, of course we believe a man could fly. This was about the movie and superman saving people, nothing else mattered! RIP Christopher Reeves
Nice work accept at the end. When this movie came out the effect where new and high standard as i remember from those days, and everybody loved the Christopher Reeve superman version.
It's strange that they made so much effort and were so ingenious, and missed really basic things like his cape position in the burglar scene and the fluttering in space. I always wondered why his costume looked green in some shots, now I know! Thanks! The biggest compliment you can pay to these films is that 45 years later, they're still by far the best Superman films.
Awesome vid! I love coming across random movie effects vids like these. Being a huge comic, movie & super-hero fan this was right up my alley, lol. I remember watching the Reeve Superman films when I was little and they were indeed magical. Always cool to see how they did what they did without the modern CGI availability.
Good news! Henry Cavill is on record saying that he wants Superman to be an icon of humanity, someone who represents the best in all of us - and they're working on a script for the next movie! It's most likely going to be done with a modern context rather than a throwback to 70's corniness, but it sounds like going to have heart like Christopher Reeve's original.
@@J-Wall I agree! Today's movie version of Henry Cavil Superman is Gothic @ best! Waaaaay too dark for what Superman stands for! Gothic and darkness works for Batman but Superman is supposed to be the polar opposite! Part of Superman's appeal to fans and audiences is that he's a Superhero of hope and inspiration. Someone to be admired. Henry Canvil recent versions DON'T CONVEY THAT!
I've just got the original Christopher Reeve Superman 1-3 in 2160p, the opening credits with the cast names flying towards the screen and music gave me goosebumps 😮❤😊❤😮😊❤
7:25 That scene of young Superman running was always more than a little wonky. Even as a kid, it was pretty obvious to me that he was hooked up to a rig.
Yeah. It’s because running faster, you’d still take the same amount of steps relatively. You’d just do it faster & the acceleration between steps would be much quicker. Here, just looks like he’s leaping funnily.
Very cool. I loved Superman movies as a kid, but never saw any behind-the-scenes stuff about them! I watched several shows about making special effects, but never saw even brief clips about Superman.
The irony of having all that CGI, watching it and thinking mmhh! I believed everything about the Reeves Superman, everything - except when he ran alongside the train, that never sat well with me (feet just never felt like they touched the ground). RIP Christopher Reeves, the one and only ❤
This reminds me of how George Lucas did the original Star Wars movies, starting with what was later named Episode IV. If you watch documentaries about how the special effects were made, you will find out that they had such complicated scenes for the space fights that the team had to develop new cameras almost from scratch to be used exclusively to record the sequences. This is how George Lucas had no choice but to create multiple companies for the lighting, audio and video. It was the craziest risk ever taken in Hollywood back in those days, and it was win it all or crash and burn down. Lucky for him and all of us... it was a success and billions of dollars later, Star Wars is the biggest space related franchise followed only by Star Trek, and somehow, Battlestar Galactica both the original series and the remained which was a big success. Cheers
It's hard to put into words just how important this film was to me as a kid in the early 80's, I was obsessed. The film score still raises goosebumps on my arms to this day and I remember how it made me feel then, it's like a time machine.
These movies were part of my childhood and, in my opinion, are still wonderful movies. It was less about bombastic effects and more about the human condition. The irony isn't lost on me. LOL
When I was a kid, I loved Howard the Duck. And as an adult, I love it even more because I get the sarcasm. It still brings a smile to my face. I think it is a really funny movie.
Just a note: they didn't color correct the turquoise suite until many years later. I remember watching Superman The Movie back in the 80s on HBO in the scene where he's stopping the flooding after the hoover dam collappsed and the suit was turquois.
Back in 1998, my wife and I were in a collector's shop in Las Vegas. They had an original black and gray tunic from the 50's Superman show, and a Chris Reeve "flying suit". It had slits in the back and the cape I assumed for wires. The place was filled with incredible things, but everyone stopped and drooled at the "Super Suits". There is a complete Chris suit on display at Warner Bros. It stands between a Lynda Carter Wonder Woman outfit and a restored 89 Bat suit.
Digital takes the fun out of it ! You can tell when its been digitized,before you could appreciate when it was done the old way you could appreciate the work they did with their hands.
The intelligence and creativity of these people to figure out a viable solution for every situation encountered is astounding! Oh, to have a brain that thinks like that.
I’m not gonna lie I had no idea that much technology and that many techniques were used to make these movies back in the day it’s actually quite amazing!
@@Jim26D yeah I was born in the late 80s so I am from the era where they still used a lot of mechanical and physical props and slowly started going towards CGI, I love technology but I do think CGI is way over used and a lot of times not properly to where it still looks really fake, I know it’s mostly used because it saves a lot of time not so sure about money but definitely time, oh the good old film days those are long gone now mostly.
I have to say that, despite some of the VFX aging badly, I really prefer this version of Superman to the modern ones. This seems more "real", where as in recent films you get CGI characters jumping around looking like something out of a computer game.
My fav Superman of all time no question. However, one of the things I always thought looked off with the flying (including back then when I was a young kid) was the cape. It's way too stuck to his body no matter what he is doing.
It's amazing seeing the journey from idea to innovation in movie making. I was a kid in the age of watching movies on TV where fins glued to lizards to make them into dinosaurs.😂 Great for an 8 year old in the 60's but it probably wouldn't even pass muster with today's 4 year olds. If you haven't seen the Donner cut of Superman, check it out, they removed some of Lester's silly gags that Donner didn't want and there are some deleted scenes too.
I saw Superman the movie when it came out. I was so hyped after I saw it (I was about 11 years old) I ran around the outside of the theater pretending I was flying. Understand that nobody had ever seen any thing close to the flying effects in Superman the movie up until then. WHOOO HOOOOOOO! It was amazing at the time. a few years later Starwars came out and I flipped. Thus the course of my life was permanently changed. George Lucas has most of my money but what a great part of growing up in the seventies.
The late 70s was a great time to be a kid. In the span of a few years we got Star Wars, Superman, Star Trek TMP, ESB and Raiders. Going to the movies back then was a joyful experience, even though I had to ride the bus 45 minutes each way, it was totally worth it!
'Superman the Movie' was an astounding cinematic achievement for 1977 motion picture effects and technology. I was 14 when it was released and it made me "Believe A Man Can Fly". You have to consider the fact that 1970's audiences had NEVER seen anything like it before.
There can be Only One SUPERMAN -- Christopher Reeve. He was, is, and forever will be, THE BEST of any Superman wanna-be's. He really embodied much of the best of Kal'El's characteristics, and so his performance rang so true for so many. How wonderful that we got to enjoy seeing him again before he passed, with his cameo appearances in Smallville.
"There can be Only One SUPERMAN -- Christopher Reeve." That's not only an insult to everyone who came before him and everyone who followed him, but even he was against the notion that Superman belonged to any one actor. He ALWAYS maintained that he was the temporary custodian of the role for his tenure, and to assert otherwise is a disrespect to Reeve himself.
Thanks for this great video. Even though they had some bad shots, I still think overall what they did looks better than the modern CG superhero films. Just like the work on the original Star Wars trilogy looks better than most of the new ones. These guys were masters of their craft. Aside from effects, I think The Greatest American Hero remains the best superhero because he was just a real man trying to deal with the great responsiblity he was given. And the TV series Incredible Hulk was probably #2 due to the similar humanity. Both shows were limited by budget but still great, which is something the new films mostly lack
I think TGAH used some of the same techniques as the Superman movies for the flying scenes, they just tended to look goofier because Ralph Hinkley didn't know how to fly properly and was a klutz.
@@axebomber2108 Thanks for sharing. Yes TGAH did use a lot of the same techniques and also had to look goofier as you said. They also shot shot flying shots on video instead of 35mm film so there is a noticeable quality difference in the show between the effects shots and the rest of the show. The exception to that was when they did stunt man landings or reverse film launches off a building into a air pad, or trampoline launches or him on top of a vehicle going down the street or the one time they actually used skydivers with concealed parachutes. I really wish that show had gone on another season. Cannell said it cost a million dollars to make Reeve fly which was most of their 1.5M pilot budget but they found a company called Magicam that was able to do it cheap enough. He said he knew budget would always be an issue and the viewer had already seen Superman so he hoped it they really sold the first flight hopefully the viewer would "forgive" them when some of the rest didn't look so good. I think they did a good job considering. Basically looked better than Lois and Clark 12 years later.
@@axebomber2108 Yep. By 1982 Zoran Perisic had a Zoptic Front Projection system set up in Hollywood which TGAH used in the third season. Also, see the flying motor cycle bit in Megaforce.
I saw this at the theatre in 78 and I remember being blown away. All I could think about was the movie for weeks. Was crazy. Back during a time when everybody would be talking about one or two things.
I was about 10 years old at the time I watched it in the theathers... I dreamed I was superman, flying everywhere for many day... perfect time to be a child..!
Hey, thanks for this marvellous video! It was very educational, informative, and entertaining! 👏👏👏👏 Many years ago I had a discussion with my friends at school about how did the movie-makers of the Christopher Reeve Superman era movies accomplished those awesome flying scenes, but one of my friends said that he didn't want to know because he felt it would destroy the illusion of movie-magic. I understand where he is coming from, in fact, I know quite a few people who share that sentiment, however, in my case it is an education because I am currently studying film making. Anyway, thanks again for this presentation and I look forward to seeing more of your videos! You just earned a new subscriber! 🙂 P.S. I love Superman 1, but Superman 2 is even better! 😉
