By Dr. Mike Robinson ~ Communication Studies Professor
Actor Gene Hackman, 1972. Photo by George Brich, via AP Photo.
By Dr. Michael Robinson
When we lose a star of Gene Hackman’s caliber, it’s typical to acknowledge their many standout roles in Hollywood. Peruse Hackman’s gigantic IMDb entry, and you’ll see countless excellent roles he has played (and remember, he retired from acting about two decades ago). Hackman was adept at everything he did, but I want to highlight one particular part he played— Lex Luthor.
Gene Hackman’s Lex Luthor is the first great blockbuster supervillain. It’s hard to imagine this now, but for many years there were just no superhero films. The fantastic adventures of these powerful heroes tended to limit their appearances in live-action movies. There were some superhero movie serials in the 1940s and 1950s, but the effects were… let’s say, creative with little budget. The villains were less than memorable.
In 1966, the campy television series Batman (with Adam West as the Caped Crusader) spun off a summer movie to cash in on the show’s skyrocketing success. In that film, Joker, Riddler, Penguin, and Catwoman joined the United Underworld. They had a wild plot to threaten the United Nations. It was fun but as always, played for humor as much as for adventure. And it really wasn’t a blockbuster in how we now think of them.
Arguably, the first major superhero film was Superman (1978). The poster tagline for the film was: “You will believe a man can fly.” That was true in several senses. First, the legendary Christopher Reeve brought the Man of Steel a heartfelt believability. Second, in the emerging age of blockbuster films chasing Star Wars-level money, the studio was willing to pay a lot to make it all look right. In a way, every superhero film you love now, be it Marvel or DC, started with this film. This was the movie that showed it could be done well and successfully. It spawned three sequels: Superman II (1980), Superman III (1983) and Superman IV: The Quest for Peace (1987).
The problem with any Superman story is keeping our hero busy. By definition, Superman can do almost anything. To go up against Superman, you need a villain far beyond the ordinary. Gene Hackman brought that supervillain to life on the big screen in the first, second, and fourth films.
Up to this point in comics, Lex Luthor was a classic mad scientist. He’d run around trying to dominate the world and/or kill Superman with some outlandish new invention and a pile of green kryptonite. Sometimes, Lex wouldn’t even bother to change out of his prison greys, like he expected to be carted back to prison anyway. And… get this… his motivation for hating Superman was that Superboy had accidentally caused Lex to go prematurely bald when they were teens together in Smallville.
Hackman’s Lex was not this weird. If anything, he was fun. Oh sure, he was insufferably smug about his intelligence and his schemes, even going so far as to describe himself as “the greatest criminal mind of our time,” but there was something charismatic about him. That part was pure Hackman.
Gene Hackman as Lex Luthor in Superman (1978). Photo courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures
In the first film, Lex had surrounded himself with less than capable assistants– Otis and Miss Tesmacher. The former was a bumbling idiot. The latter enjoyed all the perks of being Lex’s girlfriend but without being all that into the crime itself. They made an entertaining comic trio.
Hackman’s Lex was so interesting that we kind of forget the sheer diabolical nature of his plan in the first film. Lex steals a nuclear missile and aims it towards the San Andreas faultline in order to collapse the Western parts of California into the ocean and leave Lex the owner of prime real estate. Lex has no compunction about killing people. In fact, he just lets a second missile (accidentally programmed with the wrong coordinates) go off in order to distract Superman.
Superman, by the way, is just an obstacle for Luthor. Lex wants to kill him just to get him out of the way. Oh, and to prove that he can kill Superman. Lex is all about superiority.
And yet, we love this Lex Luthor. Even Superman does not seem to be too mad with him at the end of the film, despite the fact that the Man of Steel had to reverse time in order to save Lois Lane from a death caused by the second missile.
Superman II gives us more of the same great Lex Luthor behavior. Three criminals have escaped from Krypton’s Phantom Zone. General Zod, Ursa, and Non now have all the vast powers that Superman does on Earth. With the Man of Steel missing, the three supervillains easily take over the world. Lex Luthor positions himself as the man they need, the only one who can provide them with Superman’s whereabouts. Hackman’s Lex tries to charm his way around these dangerous foes. When Zod asks what Luthor wants, Lex, puffing on a cigar, replies “Well, General, the world is a big place. Thank goodness, uh, my needs are small. As it turns out, I have this affinity for beachfront property.” Zod asks again, more seriously, “What do you want?” Hackman’s Lex throws his hands up with v for victory signs and with a wild grin answers “Australia!”
Sadly, Superman IV is a mess. A bit of a passion project for Christopher Reeve, in the story Superman tries to rid the world of the scourge of nuclear weapons. Lex is there to stop him because he intends to make a profit selling the world those same weapons. To combat Superman, Lex creates Nuclear Man, certainly one of the worst and most ridiculous supervillains ever to appear on the big screen. This is a seriously bad film, but Hackman’s Lex is one of the few bright spots in it. And Hackman and Reeve are a delight when on screen together.
So what did Hackman’s Lex Luthor give to the superhero genre on film? Ultimately, this Lex was entertaining. Was he evil? Sure. Was he egotistical? Definitely. But he was also charming. We see this charisma in many of the best supervillains that follow. Loki, for example, is very much in this mode.
Superman and Lex Luthor are often contrasted as opponents. Superman has a long resume of superabilities. Lex has no powers at all, just the power of his sinister mind. But this first movie version of Lex Luthor did have one superpower. He was played by Gene Hackman.
