"We need all the heroes we can get," says Christopher Reeve near the start of Ian Bonhôte and Peter Ettedgui’s documentary, a film about a man who truly redefined heroism. Reeve, a handsome New York-born theatre actor, became a global superstar when he took the lead as the Man of Steel and his alter ego Clark Kent in Richard Donner’s Superman in 1978. But it was his accident in 1995, when a fall from a horse left him paralysed from the neck down, that turned Reeve from a popular actor into a beacon of hope for millions.
Bonhôte and Ettedgui have tackled iconhood (2018’s McQueen) and disability (2020’s Rising Phoenix) in their films before; Super/Man fuses both subjects. It was made with the cooperation of Reeve’s family: his now-grown-up children Matthew, Alexandra and Will all contribute, offering some heart-on-sleeve recollections about their father. The fact that Will celebrated his third birthday in the ICU just after Reeve’s accident is just one poignant detail among many.
True, those expecting a documentary fully focused on Reeve’s tenure as Krypton’s last son may come away slightly disappointed. That’s not to say the directors ignore the quartet of Super-movies that made Reeve a star; far from it. There are some lovely nuggets of cine-trivia, not least that Robert Redford, Neil Diamond and Arnold Schwarzenegger were all, at various points, in the frame to don the red cape, pre-Reeve.
As for the star’s eventual casting, we gain insight from Jeff Daniels, who talks about being in a theatre troupe with Reeve when he went to London to audition for the big role, despite advice from another actor, William Hurt, that he shouldn’t take on such a populist character.
Yet perhaps because Reeve himself eventually became disenchanted with the films (especially the ‘catastrophe’ that was 1987’s Superman IV: The Quest for Peace), the film chooses not to say too much more about them – there is so much else to cover, after all. Super/Man essentially hinges on Reeve’s accident and the remarkable courage he mustered after being so badly injured he needed assistance breathing. Employing some startling home-movie footage, Bonhôte and Ettedgui go to great lengths to capture the fortitude with which Reeve endured his changed circumstances.
Among many tear-jerking moments, special mention must go to Reeve’s appearance at the 1996 Oscars, when he arrived on stage in his wheelchair, receiving an emotional welcome from the audience, including his good friend Robin Williams. Footage of how he made the journey to the Academy Awards – secretly airlifted and then wheeled in through the back of the Los Angeles auditorium – also captivates, underscoring the gravity of the occasion: this was the first time Reeve had properly showed himself to the world following his accident.
Of course, the irony is never lost that the actor who played a near-invulnerable superhero was struck by a tragedy that left him reliant on a respirator until the end of his life. But what makes Super/Man so beguiling is how it leaves us in no doubt of Reeve’s fighting spirit. We see how, together with wife Dana, he established the Christopher Reeve Paralysis Foundation, spending time with politicians in Washington to raise awareness of physical disability. "America does not let its needy citizens fend for themselves," he says, in one stirring speech.
With engaging contributions from Reeve’s pals Susan Sarandon and Glenn Close, this is a highly engrossing portrait of someone who became a hero to millions, twice over – once as Superman, and once simply as a mortal man. Propelled by some wonderful archive footage, it’ll have you welling up before you know it.
Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story is in US theaters now and is released in UK cinemas on November 1.
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