(From the Archive) Superman (1978)

James Gunn's Superman (2025) is in cinemas right now, and is really good! It has a wonderful central performance by David Corenswet, and is as colourful as it is hopeful, and we need that right now. As I'm off this week, it felt like a good time to revisit the late Christopher Reeve's iconic performance in Superman (1978).

Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No, it's Verbal Diorama's Heroes Through the Decades miniseries, continuing into the 1970s!

Whether you know him as Clark Kent, Kal-El, the Man of Steel, the Man of Tomorrow, or just as Superman, that famous tights-and-cape combo emblazoned with the S on his chest is a symbol of a lot of things:

Hope, courage, freedom, love... truth, justice and the American way, and a movie with a rich history in comic books, that was made in part because of Zorro, and in another due to 1966's Batman.

The late Christopher Reeve is perfectly cast as both Clark Kent and Superman, in a landmark superhero film by the late Richard Donner. Donner's personality clashes with father-and-son producers Alexander and Ilya Salkind led to him being fired from Superman II, despite him completing reportedly 75% of the sequel....

This episode was originally released on 5th May 2022

Mentioned in this episode:

From the Archive

There's no new episode this week, so I thought you might be interested in revisiting this slightly older, but no less brilliant episode. Just bear in mind, this episode is several years old, it may not sound quite as polished as newer episodes, and new information may have come to light in recent years with regards to the making of this movie (please see above for the original date of release) Please enjoy this time capsule of an episode. Thanks for listening!

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