Top-5 Mac Musings – August 19, 2025

IT’S A BIRD… IT’S A PLANE… IT’S…
Superman has always fueled my imagination and occupies a big place in my heart. Long, long before the MCU, the DCU, the DMV, the DHS and EPA, Superman starring Christopher Reeve, was the first movie I ever saw in the theater. I was barely five. My dad had to hold the theater seat down to prevent it from swallowing me. According to testimony from reliable eyewitnesses, I didn’t say a word and was transfixed by what was happening on the screen.

Stories of good triumphing over evil should always resonate. Superman brought that message home with supreme effect. All superheroes don’t wear capes, although it would be really cool if they did. While saving the world, Superman

What is so jarring about watching this movie nearly 50 (!!) years later is how hopeful and optimistic it is in approach and presentation. The late 1970s will be remembered as a touch gloomy by most historians. But the plot for this movie is really just a love story, or several of them that captured the magic of hope made possible by believing in and embracing our better angels. It’s a love story between Lois and Superman, Superman and Humanity, and ultimately a love letter to the ideal of, “truth, justice, and the American way.”

Reeve will always be Superman. A Julliard trained actor, Reeve was an unconventional A-lister. He made four blockbusters wearing the cape but then worked on a series of independent films. Reeve later returned to the stage where he was originally discovered and starred in several Broadway and West End performances. 

Everything changed in an instant when he was thrown from his horse and paralyzed from the neck down in 1995. Reeve refused to give up and instead launched into a new role of advocate for research funding for spinal injuries, championing hope and optimism and once again serving as a larger-than-life hero despite being confined to a wheelchair.

A Superman Fueled… Mac Musings for Tuesday, August 19.

1. My earliest exposure to the Man of Steel usually happened when I was sick and I watched “The Adventures of Superman” in black and white on our black and white tv. The 1950s series starred George Reeves  and it was fabulous. I haven’t watched it in ages, but the special effects may not hold up as well as they did when I was kid.
2. I was sad to see the news that iconic Superman villain Terence Stamp passed away this week. As General Zod, he was ominous and brooding and evil… basically everything you could want in a henchman. A fascinating obit here.
3. Stamp joined Gene Hackman as Superman stars to pass away this year. Hackman was mesmerizing in his performance as Lex Luthor and could not have been smarmier. 
4.  Well, because you asked… top-5 Gene Hackman roles, no particular order.
   • Lex Luthor, Superman
   • Norm Dale, Hoosiers
   • Captain Frank Ramsey, Crimson Tide
   • Little Bill Dagget, Unforgiven
   • Harry Zimm, Get Shorty
5. One of my favorite non-superhero Christopher Reeve roles was in the movie production of a play called “Noises Off”. It’s hard to believe this happened looking back, but I saw this performed in Portland as part of a field trip my junior year of high school. The movie version starred Michael Caine, John Ritter, Carol Burnett and Julie Hagerty along with Reeve. It is well worth a watch and is absolutely hilarious.

DID YOU KNOW?
Speaking of Michael Caine and Terence Stamp, they were roommates when they were first starting out as actors.  

CURRENTLY READING

Camino Island by John Grisham

QUOTABLE
“What makes Superman a hero is not that he has power, but that he has the wisdom and the maturity to use the power wisely.”
– Christopher Reeve, Superman