Watched: 01/06/2025
Format: Max
Viewing: First
Director(s): Ian Bonhôte & Peter Ettedgui
Well, I'd been avoiding this doc for a bit because I know more about Christopher and Dana Reeve than the average bear, and I knew it was gonna break me. And, it did, but I think my certainty that I was going to be destroyed kind of helped prep me for the film. (YMMV re: squirting real tears during this doc)
Look, one of my earliest memories is seeing Superman: The Movie in the theater. And then seeing Superman II and III in the theater? Yes. I absolutely remember both.
I'm not alone in being of a certain era and Christopher Reeve meaning a lot to us as our Clark Kent and Superman. Eagle-eyed readers will note the name of this site is a Superman reference, and Superman is kind of a thing for me. I take the Superman films starring Reeve very seriously and will be happy to bore you talking about them anytime.
I also did see Reeve in other things, and will continue to check out his other movies from time-to-time (he still cracks me up in Noises Off! and he's great in Deathtrap).
Unsurprisingly, Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story hits the beats you'd expect - him getting cast as Superman, his friendship with Robin Williams, his family life, his fall and subsequent rehab. His crusade to lead the fight for spinal cord injury research, and eventual passing.
But the story is told elegantly with film clips, news footage, interviews with those who knew him, and a narrative that culminates in truly expressing Reeve's legacy - something I wonder if people born after 2000 have any inkling of.
The doc wisely front-loads the fact of Reeve's accident, and steps between Reeve's pre-accident past, and then the accident, aftermath, and how Chris and Dana persevered, and the impact they had and have.
I don't want to get into the details too much, they're there in the film. But it was a wonder to see some of the people who were willing to speak about Chris and Dana all these years later. Glenn Close, Senator John Kerry, Whoopi Goldberg, Jeff Daniels... And for those of us who remember the 90's and early 00's well, it's quite a time-capsule seeing the found footage.
The doc seems to be as truthful as possible - it's the most detail I've ever heard about what I gathered was Reeve's tumultuous relationship with his family growing up, it discusses Reeve leaving the mother of his first two children - including her and all three of Reeve's kids in the doc, all excellent in front of a microphone as it turns out. Family friends and others close to Reeve also appear.
It's also honest about the Christopher's private struggles after the accident, and what it meant to Dana in ways that are stunning.
If I'm going to recommend the doc, and I am, it's that I think it does a remarkable job of sharing why some of us found both Chris and Dana to be remarkable human beings in extraordinary circumstances that would ruin most people, but instead led them to build a better tomorrow. And with stories shared by their kids, it's pretty amazing to see the love still there all these years later.
I don't want to get too much into my personal opinions of Reeve and his legacy. I think the film makes a far better argument than I ever could, moving well past the idolatry of folks like myself, and into real impact he had - both upon his family and upon the world.
To me, the great, often undiscussed tragedy of the story is that Dana Reeve's life was cut so short, just when she had a future ahead of her with her son, the Christopher Reeve Foundation to lead, and a chance to finally get back to work. The film captures the terrible suddenness with which she was diagnosed and then gone.
I had no doubt this movie would be well worth the time, and - based upon discussion with those who'd seen it - I knew it would do everyone justice. But, man, what a gut punch.
Fun edit: By the way, just because I was watching this doesn't mean I escaped Lacey Chabert as part of my viewing. Imagine my surprise when they showed a three second clip of a movie Reeve directed in 2004 that starred none other than a Mean Girls-era Chabert.
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