Review: Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story is pretentiously touching
Documentary series and films based on celebrities cause a lot of expectation among locals and strangers, whether due to curiosity or a genuine interest in knowing more about the lives of these people and even more so, the dark details that have surrounded them throughout their lives—his life and also after this.
From Marylin Monroe to Val Kilmer, these biographical stories aim to be risky and tell what has not been said, and what is not supposed to be known. Researching a deceased person is even more difficult than carrying out the testimonies of Your loved ones, friends, and co-workers may be left in doubt as to whether what they say is true or whether it is just an attachment to someone who is no longer there.
Christopher D’Olier Reeve/Christopher Reeve made his debut on Broadway in 1976 and then in 1978, he played one of the most iconic and difficult superheroes in this medium, Superman: The Movie directed by Richard Donner of Ilya and Alexander Salkind was surrounded by many problems, however, her success at the box office paved the way for what we know today in the cinema of the genre she occupies.
In 2024, directors Ian Bonhôte and Peter Ettedgui present a new documentary at Sundance, Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story, which focuses more on the accident he suffered when he fell from a horse at a riding exhibition on May 27, 1995. and what happened next with her life and her career that went from being a cinematographer to an activist.
What is the documentary about?
It is a 2024 bio documentary film about the life of Christopher Reeve after his terrible accident and the path to becoming a disability rights activist.
We have already spoken on several occasions that the documentary genre has specific rules, a deep investigation of the facts, and, above all, the authorization of those involved and those interviewed, this documentary complies with these rules and its own and narrates more truthfully. what happened to this actor and the entire environment that surrounded him until his death on October 10, 2004.
This work is something that moves us, the combination of the elements it contains makes it almost impossible not to be moved by those frames where he looked very healthy and happy with what he was doing, anyone who remembers Reeve as Superman in the films that made between 1978 and 1987, which have their audience who for more than 40 years have followed and rated these films as one of the best incarnations of the character on the big screen.
The talk shows are a key piece to understanding what happened, is happening, and will happen throughout the 104 minutes that it lasts, we see passages of his private life and his coexistence with his family, for example, Reeve’s home movies with his three children or while making jokes and games with his best friend and former roommate Robin Williams, these are the moments of reprieve that reflect a very dark side of his main story.
The documentary begins on May 27, 1995, when Reeve was seriously injured in an equestrian accident. Reeve’s horse refused to make a jump. Eyewitnesses said the animal began the third jump over the fence and suddenly stopped. stopped Reeve fell from the horse and held on to the reins while his hands got tangled in them the bridle and the bit were removed from the horse, and Reeve fell headlong on the other side of the fence breaking the first and second vertebrae stopped breathing for several minutes, this injury to the cervical spine resulted in something more serious that paralyzed him from the neck to the feet.
The paramedics arrived three minutes later and immediately took emergency medical measures to get air into his lungs. They first took him to the local hospital and then transferred him by helicopter to the University of Virginia Medical Center. When he woke up, Reeve claimed he didn’t remember anything about the accident. , after five days in which Reeve was heavily medicated he regained full consciousness, his doctor explained to him that the first and second cervical vertebrae had been destroyed and his spinal cord damaged, after several evaluations and attempts at an operation the final diagnosis was that He was paralyzed from the neck down and couldn’t breathe without a ventilator.
The imminent and necessary operation to reattach the skull to the spine was in June 1995. Reeve was aware of the risk and knew that he had only a fifty percent chance of surviving, moments that the documentary reflects as something extremely intimate and terrifying for an actor who, although he did not have everything, did have the desire to get ahead for himself and his family. At that moment, he completely forgot about his film career to focus on his recovery.
Someone who was the key to this being carried out more patiently came from the man who was his best friend, the man who was with him from the beginning and did not leave him until the end. In the documentary, a Brief recreation of a guy crouching in a blue medical cap, yellow surgical gown, and glasses speaking with a fake Russian accent, the man announced to Reeve seriously in a very formal tone that he was a proctologist and that he was going to perform a rectal exam. , Robin Williams’ charisma and friendliness greatly helped his physical and psychological recovery.
A voiceover narrates something said by Reeve “For the first time since my accident happened, I laughed, my old friend had helped me know that somehow I was going to be okay” and so it was, the surgery and the long sessions of Therapy helped his partial recovery, in addition to visits from a few friends and family, he received more than 400,000 letters from all over the world where his fans dedicated emotional and heartfelt words of comfort to him at a difficult time.
As the bio documentary progresses we also learn about what Warner Bros. did as a film studio, his survival after the accident reestablishes a marked parallel with his growing acting career in the role of Superman, both were a difficult challenge to overcome physically. and even more intimidating and faced many problems and setbacks, as we see his recovery Reeve becomes a tireless advocate for spinal cord injury survivors beginning a new stage in his career, this is due in large part to the studies that they turned their backs on him and suspended the royalty payments he deserved for the work he did with and for them.
The production team does a good job of linking real images into a very convincing narrative sequence about the events and how he and his wife decided to open a foundation that would help him and others. Williams started a campaign in which They invited people to donate in exchange for having a souvenir and this was a silver plate with the Superman emblem in a color that quotes “Go Forward” which could be purchased for a donation of 25.00 Dollars and was sent by mail, the help of his best friend was essential for all of this to become real.
Fans from all over the world turned to donate not only for one of these plates but because they understood the problem the actor was in, the manufacturing, promotion, and distribution was by Williams himself, already Reeve’s wife and children. , who also took on the task of managing everything raised and starting to buy devices and medications for those who needed them, the process consisted of filling out a form and presenting their medical evidence, hence a committee specialized in this type of injury separated the most emerging cases from those that did not so that the majority of applicants were benefited.
As is to be expected, there was a lot of talk about mismanagement of the money that came in, Williams’ lawyers presented evidence to prove that all the money that came in was fully justified, meanwhile, Warner Bros. was stupid by letting them use the Superman logo. For this campaign, the documentary is not clear when defining whether Dana Morosini, his wife, requested the use of the material or not. Along with this, on April 25, 1998, the American publisher Random House published Reeve’s autobiography titled Still Me, the book was eleven weeks on the New York Times bestseller list and won a Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word Album, with all proceeds donated to the foundation.
On February 25, 2003, the series Smallville in its second season aired the episode, Rosetta where Reeve, after ironing out some rough edges with the study, appeared as Dr. Virgil Swann who provides Clark Kent (Tom Welling) with vital information about his origin, where he comes from and how to use his powers for the good of humanity, the scenes were brilliantly framed by a new version of the Superman theme composed by John Williams and arranged by Mark Snow, at the end of this episode Christopher Reeve and Tom Welling make a brief announcement inviting people in general and fans of the series and the character to support the Christopher Reeve Paralysis Foundation, this episode was one of the most important and established a rating history for The WB, the fan community received this entry with excellent reviews and praised it as one of the best events up to that point in the series.
The documentary features interviews with people in the actor’s life including his three children William, Matthew, and Alexandra Reeve, these participations create an air of family intimacy in which they express their feelings and admiration for their father, Susan Sarandon, Whoopi Goldberg, Jeff Daniels, and Glenn Close also give their opinion, each clip is important from images taken with a camcorder at home to professional recordings and their participation in film and television, each word said may or may not have a more neutral context and advocates sadness and pity without taking into account that it is also a story of personal improvement and more so in this case that many remember this actor for being an American superhero.
Directors Ian Bonhôte and Peter Ettedgui know how to handle the material they have very well by using images from old interviews with images that are new and never seen before, creating a pretentiously convincing story, trying to go deeper and revealing details that add humanism to a celebrity, who takes her down from that star pedestal and puts her as just another person with a serious health problem, that moving game they have written by Ettedgui in which they make us participate as spectators fall into emotional clichés to poor its protagonist.
It is already very trite that given the supposed seriousness of the documentary they try to educate us with a moral discourse in which we see that values such as family and friendship are represented in a strategic way as part of their own rules so that we understand the Suffering from this man is rather a recurring pretext that supports the main argument, which is the recovery from an accident and his subsequent activism. These are the obvious flaws he has that cause him to lose his personality at times.
The actor became an important patient and representative of medical research into spinal cord injuries to find a cure, thus being a tireless defender of the rights of people with disabilities, faithful to his values he fully represented the image of a husband, a family man, a friend and a superman in real life.
The music composed by Ilan Eshkeri is only a vehicle to give it a more serious and moving atmosphere without being something that goes unnoticed, it is simply a discreet and supportive work to accompany this story.
In conclusion, Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story as a documentary risks more than anyone else but not enough, its information was enough for more or to be a bio documentary miniseries in which every important detail ranging from greed would be further explored from the studies to how the help they provided was handled inside and outside the foundation.
As a documentary, it is entertaining and fulfills what it promises, respects the rules, and reveals what was unknown to many, a job well done and well done that just lacked time.
Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story will be available in home formats and on some streaming platforms during 2024.
