{"id":48652,"date":"2025-07-24T00:01:44","date_gmt":"2025-07-24T04:01:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/?p=48652"},"modified":"2025-07-15T23:15:43","modified_gmt":"2025-07-16T03:15:43","slug":"super-man-the-christopher-reeve-story-2024-comic-book-month-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/2025\/07\/24\/super-man-the-christopher-reeve-story-2024-comic-book-month-2025\/","title":{"rendered":"Super\/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story (2024) [Comic Book Month 2025]"},"content":{"rendered":"

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The life and career of Christopher Reeves through home videos and professional footage until his untimely accident and beyond.<\/p>\n

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I cannot remember seeing 1978\u2019s Superman for the first time, but I know this: I loved it so much, I incorporated it into my life. I had at least one birthday cake with the Man of Steel on it. I made my Mom draw an “S” in ketchup on all of my hamburger buns for way too long. I remember running around my house with a towel around my neck, and running outside and jumping on the trampoline while wearing it, and praying that I wouldn\u2019t come back down. I wished I could fly, but I knew I could never be Superman, because there was only one- and Superman was Christopher Reeve.<\/p>\n

I grew up with Reeve firmly entrenched in my head as our nation\u2019s biggest superhero. Even the comics of the time followed suit, and when DC rebooted its continuity in the mid-1980\u2019s, the Superman that returned was patterned not just physically after Reeve, but he acted much more like he did in the movies, embracing that Clark Kent\u2019s aww-shucks farm boy mannerisms and genuine patriotic pride like he never had before.<\/p>\n

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As the film series went on, it, like the times, turned a little darker, but it couldn\u2019t quite keep up with the me-first attitude of the decade, and eventually both audiences and Hollywood lost interest in the Man of Tomorrow. Reeve was still around in smaller films such as the Anthony Hopkins-led The Remains of the Day and 1992\u2019s fantastic comedy Noises Off (Which I utterly implore you to seek out), but his career never again quite hit those early box office heights, and he largely fell from the public eye until 1995, when he dramatically fell into it once more. During what should have been a fairly routine horse riding competition, Reeve\u2019s horse stopped short during a jump, and threw him from the saddle. Reeve landed on his head, resulting in a spinal injury that confined him to a wheelchair and an involuntary respirator for the rest of his life.<\/p>\n

For most, this would have been a sad final note to a previously glorious life, as they quickly succumbed to depression and lost their will to live\u2026 but for Christopher Reeve, this turned out to be a transition into becoming an even stronger symbol of hope and perseverance than he ever was while wearing a cape. This is the theme of Super\/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story- how a man that became an icon found himself transformed into something even more important.<\/p>\n

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The tale is told not only by Christopher Reeve himself, through archival interviews that took place both before and after his accident, but also by the documentarians speaking with his children, friends, and fellow actors like Glenn Close, Susan Sarandon, and Jeff Daniels. They don\u2019t paint Reeve as a flawless saint. They acknowledge that he had a roaming eye, and note that after separating from his first longtime partner, Gae Exton, he definitely took advantage of being recognizable as the Big Blue Boy Scout with some less than Scout-worthy behavior. Reeve is seemingly fondly remembered by many, however, and he found the true love of his life with his wife, Dana, who saved his life when he was nearly ready to move on from this one, and who carried on his mission as an ambassador for the physically disabled when he finally passed due to a sudden illness in 2004.<\/p>\n

I went into Super\/Man expecting to come out of it depressed, but I instead came out of it both humbled and inspired. Christopher Reeve was much more to many of my generation than just a man playing a role. He embodied honesty, determination, and most importantly, a hope that we could all rise to be something greater. It is truly amazing that he refused to shrink away after his life-altering injury- he grew to become something more than the sum of his parts, and he continues to this day to make some of us still long to be super.<\/p>\n

Now, if you\u2019ll excuse me, I need to go grab a towel. I promise, I\u2019m just going to use it to dry my eyes a little\u2026 and maybe also to go take a few laps with it around the yard.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The life and career of Christopher Reeves through home videos and professional footage until his untimely accident and beyond.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":27,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[138,292],"class_list":["post-48652","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-movie-reviews","tag-biography","tag-documentary"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48652","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/27"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48652"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48652\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":48653,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48652\/revisions\/48653"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48652"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48652"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48652"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}