I've never been a huge fan of Superman. The Man of Steel was always too squeaky clean for me. Too perfect.

I liked superheroes heroes who had edges (The Incredible Hulk), darkness (Batman) and problems (Spiderman and Ironman).

That said, I've always appreciated Superman. There is something fundamentally good and quintessentially American about him. This is why it got me thinking when I stumbled on an interview Superman director Richard Donner gave in 1978.

In the interview, Donner, who died in 2021, talks about what Superman stands for.

"He's a lot of what America was a long time ago. I'm a very liberal human being in my philosophies and my politics, and I find myself, in an odd sort of way, looking and respecting the conservative attitude of what Superman stands for now. Because I think I see a lot of my philosophies in application now and I'm not very happy with them, and I almost wish I could go back to once was, and what America once was."

I love the clip, and not just because Donner looks like a modern actor playing a director from the 1970s, with the dark glasses, reddish-brown jacket, folded fingers, and mullet.