Review: Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story (2024)

Equal parts inspirational and absolutely devastating, Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story is an intimate look at the life of the Superman actor--both before and after his injury, as told by his friends, his family, and Reeve himself. 

The structure of the film works well; we start with the horseback riding accident that forever altered the trajectory of Christopher Reeve's life, then we go back to the beginning--his childhood, his troubled relationship with his father, how acting was an escape for him. The film proceeds like this, telling the story of his early years, his development as a physical performer and athlete, what his fellow theater actors at the time-such as Jeff Daniels and William Hurt--thought about his casting as Superman (William Hurt was not enthused, telling Reeve he was selling out his artistic integrity). Then we flash forward to the immediate aftermath of the accident and his long struggle just to survive, then to breathe, then to speak. Back and forth, slowly moving forward in both timelines. It's a good format because had this narrative been told entirely chronologically, it would have been unbearable when we got to the struggles after the injury that left Reeve on a respirator and in a wheelchair for the rest of his life. The sadness is almost unbearable. 

Many of us know this story, but we've never seen it like this, told through private home video footage from the Reeve family and from his first wife and three children, or from those who worked with him and knew him so well. There are revelations: Reeve's Superman workout regimen was designed by David Prowse, the actor in the Darth Vader suit in Star Wars. Reeve's father didn't approve of his son's career, and wasn't impressed when he got the role of Superman. Because the actor had no example of a healthy romantic relationship in his parents, he struggled with commitment his whole life. His success as Superman left him forever feeling like he was in the shadow of the role, struggling to prove himself as an actor outside of the icon. But there are other revelations, too, such as his close friendship with Robin Williams, who Glenn Close says she believes would still be alive had Reeve not died. His marriage to his second wife Dana, and how she is the reason he decided to live in the immediate aftermath of the accident. 

I started this review by saying that the film is equal parts inspirational and devastating. Because he was Superman for millions of people, Reeve was able to make a huge difference in helping fund and discover treatment for people with paralysis and spinal/neck injuries. He gave hope to many, and his celebrity status opened doors, both with politicians and in the eyes of the general public, that might have stayed closed had he not been injured. But we've also never seen the struggle so intimately before. One of his sons describes the doctors sewing his father's head back onto his body after the accident. Reeve's three children, now fully grown and continuing his work, discuss candidly what it was like to watch him slowly slip away. To make matters even worse, they also had to endure the loss of Dana Reeve, Christopher's wife and steadfast rock, mere months after they lost their father. Reeve's youngest son says "since that day, I've been alone." There really isn't a happy ending here, just profound loss. 

I have tremendous admiration for DC Studios allowing this to be an honest, heartfelt, and at-times brutally-emotional examination of the life and work of Christopher Reeve. Because this is released through the DC banner, there might have been a temptation by Warner Bros. to make this a glorified commercial for Reeve as Superman, promoting him as a larger-than-life figure and using this as an opportunity to promote their Superman films. Instead, the documentary focuses on the human narrative, showing how Reeve struggled and spent his entire career trying to distance himself from Superman. "I'm not Superman," he says in an interview. But as the film closes and we see the impact of what this one man was able to accomplish both before and after his injury, it becomes clear that he just might have been a Superman after all.