SUPER/MAN: THE CHRISTOPHER REEVE STORY is a respectful and honest documentary about the actor who rose to fame as the Man of Steel and the accident that put him in a wheelchair. Using home movies and recollections by family members, it conveys both the profound courage Reeves showed in making himself a visible symbol of disability rights after being paralyzed from the neck down, and the equally profound love from his family that made his work as an activist possible.
Reeves was only 24 when he found instant stardom as Superman, and only 42 when he fell from a horse, breaking his neck and ending life as he and his wife, Dana, had known it. The film slips back and forth between Reeves recovering from that accident and the sudden fame of making the world believe that a man could fly. There are recollections from Jeff Daniels, who was co-starring in an off-Broadway play with Reeve just before the audition that changed his life (the clip included in the film). Daniels is not the only one to note both the preternatural good looks, but also the intelligence and the kindness Reeves had. Others recall his exuberance, a zest for life that was enviable. It is a testament to the kind of man Reeves was that so many from his circle of friends are so happy to speak of him in contemporary interviews, even if it sometimes brings tears to their eyes. His looks may have been as close as humanly possible to perfect, but the man was not. He had his demons resulting from a turbulent childhood. The center of that was his distant, impossible to please father, the poet Franklin Reeve, whose influence, or lack thereof, colored the relationship Reeve had with his own children, described by older son Matthew, and his commitment issues that led to the break-up of is long-term relationship with Gae Exton, the mother of two of his children. She is interviewed and there is warmth in her voice and manner mixed with the regret about how their nine-year relationship turned out. There is a brightness in the way she speaks of Dana, the woman Reeve married not long after leaving Gae. That’s a testament to Dana, described as the embodiment of sunshine, and the reason Reeve didn’t give up.
In excerpts from the audio books he narrated after his accidents, Reeve describes her unflagging devotion, as well as his own struggles with depression. It’s hard to hear, illustrated as it is with images of Reeve being slung into his bed by caretakers, and the way he tries to wean himself off the respirator that breathes for him. The exertion distorting his face is hard to watch. It provides important context to the scenes of him appearing at the Oscars less than a year after becoming paralyzed, an effort requiring massive strategic planning, and the help of his Julliard friend, Robin Williams. Williams is woven throughout the film, with others describing the bond they had, and Glenn Close going so far as to opine that if Reeve hadn’t died, Robin might still be with us.
At the heart of the story is the love between Reeve and Dana, one that withstood everything. At one point their son, Will, reads a journal entry about what was happening behind the big smile and laughing eyes and it is heartbreaking. As is Dana holding Reeves’ hand and saying how it is so hard knowing that while she can feel him, he can’t feel her.
The injury changed Reeves, of course, and we see that steady progression as he turned his misfortune into something that would make life better for others in his situation, founding what would become the Christopher and Dana Reeve Foundation. SUPER/MAN: THE CHRISTOPHER REEVES STORY recounts a man who would not be defined by tragedy, grew as a person even after being paralyzed, and never gave up hope. Inspiring, wistful, and full of what is best about human beings, it is a powerful experience about what it means to be a hero.
A respectful and honest documentary about the actor who rose to fame as the Man of Steel and the accident that put him in a wheelchair.
In SUPER/MAN THE CHRISTOPHER REEVE STORY, we relive the riding accident and his subsequent work as a disability advocate. Yet, what is most telling about who Reeve was before and after the accident is to be found in the number of people who participate in the documentary, some still moved to tears. Behind the preternatural good looks, there was a genuine quality that was almost boyish, a keen intelligence, and the ability to form lasting, meaningful friendships that have endured past his death at 52 after 10 years of paralysis.
The narrative skips between his life before and after the accident, charting his rise to (practically) overnight fame and the pressures that brought, and the harsh realities of being paralyzed from the shoulders down. Even with the resources to make that as comfortable as possible (comfortable being a highly relative term), Reeve describes details that put so much into perspective in one of the many extracts from his audiobooks written after his accident. One of the most haunting to hear in his own voice the realization that he would never again be alone in a room.
His was a troubled childhood with emotionally unavailable parents who remarried and made new families. He spent his entire life trying to please, or at least impress, his father, the poet Franklin Reeve, with little success. It left him determined to be a better father that his own had been, only to find that he, too, gave two of them a broken home when he left their mother, xxx xxxx. He also unconsciously pushed them in ways he never intended.
And this leads to a revelation. His accident made him the better father he had always intended to be. Not that it was easy. At one point Dana, the woman he married after leaving the Gae, relates Chris’ frustration at not being able to make anything move, not even a sheet of paper.
The documentary provides many intimate details, and we see him being slung from his bed into his chair, and we learn the massive tactical planning it took to get him from his home in New York to the Academy Awards less than a year after his accident. We also see Dana’s devotion, making the same home for Christopher and the three children with the same smile and same energy, which makes the journal entry, read by her son Will, about aching to feel Chris’ arms around her all the more poignant.
The work to bring greater awareness, and greater government funding, is enumerated, as is the controversy over a commercial using special effects to show Chris walking again. What is most resonant, though, is to hear the voices of those who knew him, from Chris’ assistant, xxx xxxx who remembers his final night, to Jeff Daniels recalling the off-Broadway play they were in just before the Superman phenomenon, to Glenn Close wistfully opining that if Chris hadn’t died, Robin Williams would still be with us.
Make no mistake, the relationship between Chris and Dana is given pride of place, but the bond between Chris and his old classmate from Julliard takes on its own importance in the lives of both men, before and after the accident. Robin made him laugh, and Chris kept up with his quick mind. Gae describes them walking together through the streets of London at the height of their fame unaware of the stares from passersby, we see video of Robin and Chris after the accident, the former still making him laugh. We also see Robin speaking at Chris’ memorial, still making jokes, but, as someone puts it, you have never seen a sadder human being in your life.
Refreshingly, this is not a hagiography. Chris had his faults and they are shown. It makes him more human, and, paradoxically, all the more extraordinary for coping with his injury and continuing to grow as a human being. The images of him trying to breathe on his own are painful to watch; the sight of him blowing out a candle a small yet rousing miracle.
SUPER/MAN THE CHRISTOPHER REEVE STORY is a loving tribute by family and friends that is never maudlin, but always heartfelt.
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