In a documentary marking the 20th anniversary of his passing, ‘Super/Man’ recounts the tragedy-tinged but ultimately indelible bond between Dana and Christopher Reeve, with a masterful Ilan Eshekri score that evokes Reeve’s musical roots.
In February of 1980, a then-27-year-old Christopher Reeve sat beside Ms. Piggy at a piano.
Plucked from relative obscurity after a Broadway stint beside Katherine Hepburn, Reeve was only 24 when producers Ilya and Alexander Salkind scouted him for the role that would forever shape his public image. On this occasion, however, the 6’4 overnight star traded in his trademark tights for a tux and tickled the ivories for a duet on “East of the Sun.”
Gamely smiling and serenading his Muppet muse, it’s a sweet moment that gets a brief mention in DC Studios’ debut documentary feature, Super/Man. In the broader context of Reeve’s life, career and legacy, however, it is one note in a complex but ultimately heroic suite.
For multiple generations of moviegoers, Christopher Reeve, the name “Superman”, and the iconic John Williams fanfare are synonymous. At a 1991 ceremony honoring Williams, Reeve walked on to “his” theme tune and quipped “that song follows me everywhere I go!” Despite the levity of his tone, it was true- Reeve took the dual role of Clark Kent/Superman as seriously as any regional stage production or Juilliard acting exercise, and turned in a performance that brought the hero of print to life just as aptly as Williams’ score made him sore. Selling the illusion was the key; director Richard Donner famously dubbed it “Verisimilitude” (authenticity).
The goal became the tagline: “You’ll believe a man can fly.”
Every piece of the Williams score is inextricable from the iconic scenes it soundtracks – the Holstesque themes of The Planet Krypton, the oompah tuba and oboe as goons approach Lex Luthor’s lair, the “love theme” Can You Read My Mind as Superman and Lois take flight for the first time. Some of these themes appear in Super/Man, but in an entirely different context.
At the visual center of the documentary, directed by the team of Ian Bonhôte and Peter Ettedgui, is a digital sculpture of Reeve leaping in flight as Superman. Set amidst a galaxy of stars, the landscape surrounding the figure shift into synapses that mirror neuron links. A red mist mirroring a cape trails the central figure and guides the audience through a non-linear narrative that is, at times, as harrowing as it is hopeful.
All at once, Reeve is young, powerful, a superhero; injured, vulnerable, a vent-dependent quadriplegic. Reeve’s tragic horseback accident is not shown in real time; instead, kryptonite fragments overtake the digital statue as fault lines form below its neck. Scenes of Lois Lane plummeting from a news copter to her seeming demise, only to be saved by a scarlet streak and cry “you’ve got me? Who’s got YOU?!” are set against images of Dana Reeve cradling Chris draped in a massive blanket. It looks an awful lot like a cape.
As tempting as it may have been to streamline Reeve’s life story and paint his legacy in broad strokes, his children Matthew, Alexandra and Will insisted that the narrative was ‘holistic, uncompromising, and unflinching.’ Accordingly, montages of Reeve skiing, sailing, flying(in a plane), and horseback riding are couched in the notion that his competitive streak was passed down from his emotionally distant father, Franklin. The nitty gritty of the Reeve family dynamic is kept mostly private, but Gae Exton, Reeve’s partner of ten years and the mother of his first two children, chokes back tears as she describes his reluctance to commit to marriage.
Mere months after their separation, Reeve met singer Dana Morosoni, and she took great pains to befriend his children and bridge some of the familial wedges. In the wake of the accident- only three years after their marriage and the birth of their son, Will (now an anchor for Good Morning America)- the couple tested and exceeded the bounds of “in sickness and in health” by spearheading the Christopher and Dana Reeve Paralysis resource center.
Their altruism was not uncontroversial, however; Christopher’s initial messaging was purely ‘cure-centric’ and founded in an unflinching belief that he would walk again. Dana took the critique to heart and adjusted both the semantics and the mission of the foundation to encompass quality-of-life care for individuals living with disabilities and their families.
Back in December of 2023, I interviewed musician Dhani Harrison for Atwood Magazine.
I’d been following his solo career from the jump and prepared heavily for our interview on his most recent album, but I never could have anticipated our initial exchange. Noticing a Superman box set in my Zoom background, he lead with, “That’s a great book you’ve there! I’ve got the same one, it weighs a ton. I appreciate that you’re a fan of the classic Superman. Christopher Reeve and my dad were friends, I roomed with his son Matthew at University! We both look a lot like our dads. We knew Chris before and after his accident. He became like Professor X, and even did a remake of Rear Window!”
You could have knocked me over with a feather.
George Harrison has inspired my musical and creative praxis just as much as Christopher Reeve shaped the daily fitness routine I’ve adopted. To hear that there was an overlap in their creative paths was an incredible revelation. (Incidentally, a letter from Paul McCartney offering support in the wake of Reeve’s accident gets a brief but prominent cameo in the documentary. McCartney also submitted a video performing the song ‘Calico Skies’ that is not publicly available).
It set me off on a multi-stage quest to learn more about Reeve’s life, career and advocacy. This mission has led me to several musical interludes, not the least of which are the aforementioned Miss Piggy duet and this Carly Simon collaboration from 1985:
Dana Reeve was a gifted singer, writing a lullaby that Will now sings for his children and performing the titular song for Christopher Reeve’s directorial debut ‘In the Gloaming.’ In a story rife with tragedy, one of the most harrowing moments of Super/Man emerges in new footage of Dana preparing for a performance and having trouble clearing her throat. We learn that she has stage four throat cancer that ultimately takes her life not 18 months after her husband’s passing. These themes are handled with extreme tact and care by composer Ilan Eshekri, who seamlessly synthesizes the Williams themes with original music and finely woven audio stitches. Countless anecdotes from friends, family and collaborators- including Whoopi Goldberg, Jeff Daniels, Susan Sarandon and Glen Close- moved literally everyone in my screening to tears. (Reeve’s kinship with Robin Williams is one for the ages, and I won’t spoil it here but it’s a true lynchpin of the documentary’s narrative). One of the most moving passages, however, comes from Reeve himself, which I initially heard before the film in the self-narrated audiobook of “Nothing is Impossible”:
‘My mind wandered back to my weight training for Superman when I could bench press more than my own weight. Now I was using the same amount of effort to pick up my own wrist. How pathetic. I told myself that wasn’t fair, everything’s relative, back to work. Nothing is impossible… now I had an audience which was probably just what I needed. I gave it everything I had… then in agonizing slow motion my wrist started to move and the hand rose up… I was laughing and struggling at the same time and finally managed to bend my wrist and raise my right hand all the way up.”
I cried in the theater, just as I cried hearing the passage on the streets of Manhattan several weeks prior. My research had taken me to the theater wing of the New York Public Library, right across the street from Juilliard, Reeve’s alma mater – where he roomed with one Robin Williams. I sifted through massive file folders, promotional photographs, clippings of news items and bills that the Reeves supported and spearheaded. Flipping through the shooting scripts for Superman I and II and viewing a professional tape of The Cherry Orchard- also featuring Reeve’s eventual Smallville co-star John Glover – I felt an even greater sense of appreciation for his craft and sheer force of will.
Naturally, a viewing of nearly every Reeve film followed suit: the romantic time travel tragedy Somewhere in Time with Jane Seymour, the side-splitting play-within-a-play farce Deathtrap with Michael Caine, the morally grey suffragette period piece The Bostonians, the gritty journalism drama Street Smart alongside Morgan Freeman and a semi-autobiographical reimagining of Rear Window. Every film-including those I had raptly watched in my pajamas on my grandfather’s carpeted floor 20 years ago- spoke to an unrelenting dedication to the craft of acting and a nuance that often transcended the material. It is perhaps unfair that Reeve’s diverse filmography is refracted through the lens of an iconic character that inevitably dwarfs all others. However, to hear Reeve speak on the role, the gravitas and pathos that lent a seriousness and sincerity to a comic book character, there is little doubt as to why he was, is and shall remain the iconic Superman for the ages.
One final quest remained: A physical tribute to the Reeve legacy in his home state of New Jersey.
Through the generosity of the Christopher and Dana Reeve Foundation information assistant, Christopher Bontempo, my co-curator Sophie Zaidman and I obtained informational pamphlets, necklaces, keychains and a book outlining their mission statement.
Collated alongside a selection of Superman (particularly Reeve-era Superman) ephemera I’ve culled over the years, through the Monmouth County Public Library we were able to set up a display coinciding with the wide release of Super/Man.
For a closer look at the exhibit, please visit linktr.ee/Mancanf1y.
Christopher Reeve died 20 years ago today, and Dana Reeve has been gone for over 18 years. Yet through their joint efforts, and the continued work of the foundation and Matthew, Alexandra and Will Revee, theirs is a genuine love story for the ages. Super/Man, a testament to the family, friends and co-stars of a generational talent and bona fide hero, is a documentary worthy of that love story with a score and soundtrack that makes it soar.
Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story opens for wide national release on October 11th. Special thanks to Christopher Bontempo at the Christopher and Dana Reeve Foundation, Gabe Choi, New York Public Library, Monmouth County Library, Sophie Zaidman, and my grandfather Donald Golden, who was the first to make me believe a man can fly.
