Practice of Film Criticism 2024: Harry Molloy on Superman (Richard Donner, 1978)

https://notesonfilm1.com/2024/10/07/practice-of-film-criticism-2024-harry-molloy-on-superman-richard-donner-1978/ ‘You’ll believe a man can fly?’  was the tagline of Superman the Movie (1978) the use of the word ‘can’ rather than ascribing a quality to the film creates a world of possibilities for the feature.  Superman as a film represents a dream-like possibility of a perfect man who can defy gravity, lift anything, and run at incredible speeds, and the film revels in the utopian idea of this man who has everything. This edition of the Film Criticism podcast will discuss how the film expresses these themes and how they differ from the modern discourse of the superhero genre. Further, we discuss the issues with the concept of the utopian man and the pure optimism presented within the film.