You could have seen this kind of thing before.
A documentary about a noted, fallen, forgotten, or tragic celebrity, detailing their life and career, enlightening audiences about familial relationships, and unveiling secrets about their work and personal life. So why then, does Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story feel so different?
Perhaps it is the subject matter itself: a man like Christopher Reeve who stood taller than many from his most iconic role as the Man of Steel, and whose story was so easily known as one tinged with terrible tragedy. To that point, this documentary from Ian Bonhôte and Peter Ettedgui begins with that event; Reeve’s 1995 horseriding accident which broke his neck and made a quadriplegic for life, starting us off from rock bottom and building things up from there.
The film is presented in a non-linear fashion, dancing back-and-forth between Reeve’s life post-accident with his wife Dana caring for him round-the-clock, and his beginnings as an actor out of Juilliard. We are gifted wonderful interviews from his children Alexandra, Matthew, and Will, as well as other family and friends such as Glenn Close, Susan Sarandon, Jeff Daniels, Whoopi Goldberg, and politician John Kerry. There is such a wonderful insight gifted to us an audience, but this documentary goes beyond merely editing interviews around publicly available footage and clips.
The Reeve family allowed the filmmakers to use home movies of their familial life pre and post-accident, including Christopher and Dana Reeve’s wedding video, family holidays, and a thrilling montage of behind-the-scenes footage of the difficult journey to get the paralysed Christopher Reeve to be on-stage at the 68th Academy Awards in 1996 via cross-country travel. In between much of this private footage and the emotionally devastating interviews, Bonhôte and Ettedgui visualise Reeve’s image and presence as a Superman statue, drifting off into space, Kryptonite crystals attacking his spine post-accident, but ever-graceful and inspiring as he shines among the stars.
Like great documentaries past, Super/Man doesn’t rest entirely on the story we know or buy totally into an infallible image of someone. There is an insight into Christopher Reeve’s human flaws, such as issues with being a father, relationship difficulties, how his unsupportive upbringing affected how he saw love and controversial aspects of his fight to walk again post-accident. This moniker of Reeve being a “hero” is directly questioned, as his most iconic role being the greatest superhero of all time conflates and blinds many to his truth of being a human being, not superhuman.
Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story is both uplifting and tragic, inspiring yet equally heartbreaking, as we reckon with what he and Dana left behind. Reeve’s continuation to live even if only for a few more years, coupled with his fight for disability rights, makes you believe in him being a superhero. But he was still real, living, flesh and blood. His death in 2004 and the sudden tragic death of his wife Dana 2 years later is a horrible reality to face, and to hear their son Will talk about how he has felt alone since that day, brings to light the reality of grief. It lives forever. With this emotional weight at hand, Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story becomes a powerful human experience; sensitive, compelling, and fills you with a light that shines so brightly just from the story being told, as all good stories should do.
