‘Super/Man’ Documentary Sheds Light on ‘Universal’ Themes of ‘Love and Loss’ in Christopher Reeve’s Story

CNN
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When Christopher Reeve was thrown from his horse during an equestrian event in Virginia in 1995, leaving the “Superman” actor paralyzed from the neck down, the profound irony was not lost on anyone — the once unstoppable Hollywood giant was now vulnerable and defenseless. But that was not the end of his story, as Reeve continued to work in entertainment and became a fierce voice for people with spinal cord injuries and other disabilities before his death in 2004.

The new documentary Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story reconstructs his life and career, ultimately revealing a sensitive, harrowing and incredibly human portrait of the man as an actor, advocate, husband and father.

The film’s directors Ian Bonhôte and Peter Ettedgui — the duo behind Netflix’s 2020 Paralympic documentary Rising Phoenix as well as 2018’s McQueen — took a number of important lessons away from making the project, most notably what they learned about grief and loss.

“You don’t overcome grief, you live with grief,” Bonhôte told CNN in a recent interview. “You just live with it and build yourself within it. It’s almost like you’re an organic matter that has to adapt to a new environment.”

Adapting to new surroundings is a central theme of “Super/Man,” as the documentary takes a candid look at Reeve’s accident and the days and months that followed, during which he went from wondering whether he wanted to live at all, through a grueling early rehabilitation and convalescence, to eventually finding new purpose in life.

“It’s twofold, that goal,” Ettedgui explained. “On the one hand, he becomes an incredible advocate for the spinal cord injury community and the disability community more broadly, but he also continues to pursue his career, to pursue it in what his doctor (in the documentary) says is an industry that is not disability friendly at all.”

In 1997, less than two years after the accident, Reeve directed his feature film debut, a moving portrait of a family coming together to support their son dying of AIDS titled “In the Gloaming.” The film was nominated for five Primetime Emmys, including one for Reeve’s directing. He went on to direct two other projects, and appeared as an actor in lead, bit parts, and supporting roles.

Reeve has also collaborated with American Paralysis Association, which soon became the Christopher Reeve Foundation. The documentary follows Reeve’s journey from someone who initially couldn’t see himself as a member of the disabled community to becoming one of its advocates, speaking to an emotional crowd of his peers at the 1996 Academy Awards, where he delivered a passionate and funny speech about the power of films to address important social issues.

Ettedgui, who describes himself as “definitely a Superman kid,” was moved by the obvious impact Reeve had on those around him, but was also “struck” by his inner journey.

“I’ve always been struck by something Chris said very early on after his accident. He said, ‘Man has conquered space—how come we can’t understand what’s going on in our deep tissues, in our spinal cords, in our bodies?’” he shared, saying that Reeve’s desire through the foundation was to ask the question, “We have to find new ways to deal with what happens to a person after an accident like the one I experienced.”

“For us, this story, this trajectory, has been so uplifting and extraordinary,” Ettedgui said.

Eschewing a simplistic chronology, the film also offers an intimate look at Reeve’s early years as a stage actor in New York City, where he studied with longtime friend Robin Williams at Juilliard and eventually performed off-Broadway with actors including Jeff Daniels and William Hurt. Daniels shares some exciting details about those early years in the documentary, including how Reeve came into his dressing room one day and informed his then-unknown co-stars that he was being considered for the role of Superman.

“It all comes down to the human condition,” Ettedgui shared of his thoughts on the project’s vast scope. “None of us, very few of us, will ever know what it’s like to be cast as Superman… But what we can all imagine, we all experience love and loss,” he added. “We all experience mortality. As a result, there’s something universal about this story because all of that comes into play, in a very extreme way.”

The tragedy in “Super/Man” is twofold. Just months after Reeve died relatively suddenly of heart failure at age 52 in 2004—nine years after the accident—his wife, Dana, was diagnosed with stage IV lung cancer. She died in early 2006 at age 44. The documentary explores how these unspeakable losses affected both Reeve’s younger son, Will—whom he shared with Dana and who was three at the time of his father’s accident—and Reeve’s two older children from a previous relationship.

In one of the film’s most heartbreaking moments, Will Reeve, now 32, recounts how he pretended to sleep the night his father died because he didn’t want to face it yet, and later recounts how he’s essentially felt “alone” since his mother’s death. His siblings Matthew and Alexandra provide similarly emotional recollections of the time they lost both their father and stepmother.

Of course, the incredible authenticity and vulnerability that Reeve’s children express in the film make it the heart of the film and symbolize their father’s enduring legacy.

“We knew they were going to be really important, but we didn’t know we were going to create a movie (around them),” Bonhôte said of the interviews with Reeve’s children, which he said were filmed separately. “Three of them came in that day ready to bare their souls. They wanted to have it all out in the open as soon as they signed the contract for the project.”

“I think the way you see them on screen is a reflection of the type of people they are in real life,” he added. “They are passionate about the memory of their father.”

“I think for me, with my own perception of grief and loss, looking at their families, I think they did a wonderful job in terms of adapting and moving forward and achieving greatness despite everything.”

“Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story” opens in theaters Wednesday. It is presented by CNN Films, HBO Documentary Films and DC Studios, which, like CNN, is owned by Warner Bros. Discovery.