‘SUPER/MAN: The Christopher Reeve Story’ Review: You’ll Believe the Man Could Fly
While ‘SUPER/MAN: The Christopher Reeve Story’ adopts a fairly conventional presentation and a surface-level exploration of the actor’s life, its inspirational (and tear-inducing) qualities are undeniable.
SUPER/MAN: The Christopher Reeve Story marks a new era for DC, as it is the first feature film to be distributed by the newly minted DC Studios, overseen by James Gunn and Peter Safran. While the two did not have anything to do with the film’s production and acquired the documentary after its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival, it feels pretty significant to see the DC Studios logo at the top of this one, which will hopefully signal better days for the company after they endured a string of critical, commercial flops and several controversial cancellations.
In any event, SUPER/MAN: The Christopher Reeve Story feels like the right movie to begin the DC Studios era because it acts as a reminder of where the company’s filmography began to be taken seriously. Before Richard Donner introduced Superman in a serious, thoughtful manner, superhero movies were considered kitsch and lowbrow, crowd-pleasing entertainment. Previous depictions of the Man of Steel, or even Batman, were silly, campy, and not at all in line with the seriousness that writers Jerry Siegel and Joe Schuster (or Bob Kane and Bill Finger for Batrman) dealt with in their comics.
It took Donner’s daring vision to elevate the appreciation of superhero movies from consumerist claptrap to thought-provoking pop art. Now, it’s part of the normal cycle of films that get released each year, and, unfortunately, many have veered into the very thing Donner wanted to steer away from when he made Superman. The presence of Marlon Brando and Gene Hackman in his film certainly helped give him legitimacy with his project (although it is famously known that Brando only played Jor-El for the money. However, Christopher Reeve’s portrayal of the titular character stood the test of time and made the movie the revered classic that it is today.
Reeve was a relative unknown in the film world before he decided to screen test for Superman, which propelled him to star heights he could never imagine. In Ian Bonhôte and Peter Ettedgui’s documentary, Reeve’s rise to stardom is chronicled in a non-linear fashion, parallelling from his earlier days as an actor to his post-horseback accident that left him completely paralyzed until his death in 2004. Such an approach seems to break the conventionality of traditional talking head (and Ken Burns)-driven documentaries that start with the actor’s humble beginnings, paint his movie star days, which will build in an emotional crescendo when it eventually begins to talk about his post-accident life.
Bonhôte and Ettedgui are wise in avoiding such manipulative trappings. Unfortunately, there simply aren’t enough discussions on Reeve’s acting career that draw a broad portrait of the star and the individual he was pre and post-accident. Breaking out in such a significant way with Superman is bound to have major positive –and negative – repercussions on your career. Of course, Reeve automatically reaped the rewards of being the new Man of Steel and became an overnight sensation. Unfortunately, this took a toll on his personal life, which ex-girlfriend Gae Exton recounts in a heartbreaking testimony. It also impacted his career because none of the (very good) post-Superman films he starred in were successful.
Christopher Reeve was considered a star only as Superman. No one cared about his magnificent work in Jeannot Szwarc’s Somewhere in Time, Sidney Lumet’s Deathtrap, or James Ivory’s The Remains of the Day. Reeve was never fully recognized as Christopher Reeve. He was, for better or worse, Superman, but the films began to decline in quality. His passion for playing the character that he enjoyed in Superman and Superman II was no longer there by the time he was donning the cape and cowl in Superman IV: The Quest for Peace (an entire movie can be made about the production of this “catastrophe,” as Reeve calls it). In fact, the only moment of pure joy that occurs in the fourth installment for Reeve is during a deleted scene where Superman saves a little girl inside the swirl of a tornado, played by his daughter, Alexandra Reeve Givens.
Reeve Givens thoughtfully recalls that moment in the documentary, and we almost peer through his father’s reflections on the craft and his connection with his family. Even with testimonials from Jeff Daniels, Glenn Close, Susan Sarandon, and Whoopi Goldberg, this part of the documentary feels relatively empty and seemingly wants to rush into things when the filmmakers should instead raise some awareness on his post-Superman roles while also talking about the impact his most famous turn had on audiences and paved the way for the future of comic book cinema.
Understandably, that’s not the point of the movie, but when you’re constantly cutting to the past to discuss his acting career, a bit more fleshing out of surface-level blink-and-you’ll-miss-it observations to ensure everything is talked about is more than welcome. Instead, SUPER/MAN: The Christopher Reeve Story mainly focuses on Reeve’s life after his accident, his relationship with his children, Alexandra, Matthew Reeve, and Will Reeve, and his wife, Dana Reeve. It’s also where he realized that there is much more to his life than he initially taught, to which we hear about his philanthropic involvement in creating the Christopher & Dana Reeve Foundation to fund research and, ultimately, treatment for spinal cord injuries.
This is the strongest part of Bonhôte and Ettedgui’s documentary, which imbues significant humanity in Christopher and Dana’s relationship through archival videos shot by the Reeves themselves. By far, the most heartbreaking piece of footage occurs during Will’s birthday, which took place in the ICU as his father was battling for his life. Will was too young to understand what was happening, and Dana did everything in her power to shield and have him live a normal life as much as he could. Will tells this moment with not only incredible compassion for his late mother but sudden heartbreak as he realizes the gravity of the situation he was sadly unaware of. The depiction of Dana as a life force for Christopher is also well-handled but is unfortunately hampered by a score that’s far too loud and bludgeoning to emotionally guide the audience instead of letting the archival footage and testimonies from Reeve’s close family or friends speak for themselves.
Far too often, the music controls the audience with a large emotional detonation to represent the gravity of the tragic situation (such as when Dana dies from lung cancer, which she was diagnosed with ten months after Christopher’s death) instead of trusting the audience how to feel when discussing such sensitive topics. The visual representations of Christopher’s decaying body through Kryptonite slowly consuming him until he rises from immense, if not impossible, adversity, and finds a new purpose in his life, breaking free from its poisoning shackles, acts as a solid emotional anchor as it is. We honestly did not need such music to understand how to feel.
But it doesn’t feel manipulative because the story told here is done with great sensitivity and nuance. Bonhôte and Ettedgui not only respect Christopher and Dana at a profoundly human level (which is why the film’s best parts are spent when talking about their relationship, before and after the accident) but his children as well. They believe they have the right to tell the story of their father in a way that not only celebrates his enduring legacy on the silver screen but also lauds his activism when his entire life changed instantly. Perhaps it’s a tad too hagiographic, ignoring some of the darker aspects of his life and career (particularly his relationship with his father, which gets mentioned but completely dropped when it starts to focus on his turn as Superman), but it almost doesn’t matter. Reeve’s life was full of inspiration, and he continues to make us believe, whether from his on-screen derring-do or his willingness to help as many people as he can and use his platform to inspire social change and find “tomorrow’s cure,” that a man can fly.