‘Super/Man’ doc spotlights ‘universal’ themes of ‘love and loss’ in Christopher Reeve’s story

(CNN) — When Christopher Reeve was thrown from a horse during an equestrian event in Virginia in 1995, resulting in the “Superman” actor becoming paralyzed from the neck down, the immense irony was lost on no one – a once-invincible-seeming giant of Hollywood was now laid vulnerable and prone. That was far from the end of his story, though, 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 rendering a sensitive, harrowing and incredibly human portrait of the man as actor, advocate, husband and father.

The film’s directors Ian Bonhôte and Peter Ettedgui – the duo behind the Netflix Paralympic doc “Rising Phoenix” from 2020 as well as “McQueen” from 2018 – took many important ideas away from making the project, perhaps most notably what it taught them about grief and loss.

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

Adapting to a new environment is a central focus of “Super/Man,” as the documentary takes an unflinching look at Reeve’s accident and the ensuing days and months, during which he went from questioning if he even wanted to remain alive, through grueling early rehabilitation and recovery, to eventually finding new purpose.

“It’s twofold, that purpose,” Ettedgui explained. “On one hand, he becomes this quite extraordinary advocate for the community of people with spinal cord injuries and then more broadly with disability, but also, he continues his career, he picks up his career in – as his doctor says (in the doc) – an industry which is not disability-friendly at all.”

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

Reeve also worked with the American Paralysis Association, which soon became the Christopher Reeve Foundation. The documentary charts Reeve’s course from someone who at first was unable to view himself as a member of the disabled community to eventually becoming one of its champions, appearing in front of an emotional crowd of his peers at the 1996 Academy Awards where he delivered an impassioned, and funny, speech about movies being able to take on important social issues.

Ettedgui, who identifies himself as “definitely a Superman kid,” was moved by Reeve’s obvious effect on those around him, but was also “struck” by his internal journey.

“I was always struck by something Chris said very early on after his accident. He said, ‘Man has conquered outer space – how come we can’t understand what is going on in our deep tissue, in the spinal cord, in our bodies?’” he shared, going on to say that Reeve’s desire through the foundation was to pose the question, “We have to figure out new ways of dealing with what happens to a human being after an accident such as the one that I’ve experienced.”

“That story for us, that trajectory, was so uplifting and extraordinary,” Ettedgui said.

Shying away from simplistic chronology, the film also takes an intimate look at Reeve’s early years as a theater actor in New York, 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 exhilarating details in the doc from those early years, including how one day Reeve came into the dressing room and informed his then-unknown costars that he was being considered for the role of Superman.

“Everything comes down to being about the human condition,” Ettedgui shared about taking on the immense scope of the project. “None of us, very few of us are going to 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 are going to experience mortality. There’s something universal about this story as a result of that, 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 the age of 52 in 2004 – nine years after his accident – his wife Dana was diagnosed with stage IV lung cancer. She died in early 2006 at 44 years old. The documentary examines how these unspeakable losses affected both Reeve’s younger son Will – whom he shared with Dana and who was three years old at the time of his father’s accident – as well as Reeve’s two older children from a previous relationship.

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

Naturally, the incredible authenticity and vulnerability the Reeve children express in the film make them its heart, and they come to represent their father’s lasting legacy.

“We knew they would be really important, but we didn’t know we would craft the movie (around them),” Bonhôte said about interviewing Reeve’s children, whom he said were all shot separately. “The three of them came in that day ready to bare their soul. They wanted to have it all out there as soon as they had signed on to the project.”

“I think the way you see them on screen is actually the type of people they are,” he added. “They’re passionate about the memory of their father.”

“I think for me, with my own perception of what grief is and loss is, looking at their family, I think they’ve done brilliantly in how to adapt, move forward and become great anyway.”

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

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