Richard Donner’s take on the Man of Steel was, I think, the perfect Superman Movie. Since “Superman,” we’ve had all sorts of on-screen interpretations, including Zack Snyder’s relatively dark take on the character, of which Donner made clear he was not a fan. As the “Superman” filmmaker, who passed away in 2021, saw it, a Superman movie should be hopeful, uplifting, and reinforce the idea of moral integrity. As he told Den of Geek, his goal was to not simply make something fun and entertaining, but to “make a good movie about this beloved character and treat him with our greatest respect.”

The director, who had grown up with the Superman comics, knew that the Man of Steel meant something to an entire generation, and wanted the character’s big screen debut to treat him accordingly. That meant being fastidious about every detail of the production, including the Flying Scenes. The tagline on all the “Superman” posters was “you’ll believe a man can fly,” but if Alexander Salkind had his way, that would have just been an outright lie.

As part of an extensive piece on the making of “Superman,” Donner spoke to The Hollywood Reporter in 2016 about shooting convincing flying scenes, explaining that when he first came onboard, the existing flying tests looked “terrible.” Thankfully, the director overhauled the whole approach, ensuring the film actually lived up to its tagline.