Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story made me feel so many different emotions. It recounts the life of Christopher Reeve from his days at Juilliard to his accident, and all the way to his untimely death. This documentary makes you fall in love with the man and punches you in the gut every time something terrible happens to him. Reeve loved horseback riding even though he was allergic. At the age of 42, his horse hesitated during a jump, causing him to fall off the horse, breaking his spine. In the hospital, Reeve flatlined several times and was very close to being permanently dead, but the doctors were able to bring him back. He was, unfortunately, rendered paralyzed.  Reeve is such an inspiring figure, taking his horrible accident and turning it into powerful activism and support for others with disabilities, and pushing to find a cure.

  This documentary jumps around in time a lot, from his days as Superman back to his childhood, and then to his family life with his children. It shows Christopher Reeve as a loving husband and father, and then it rips your heart out when he has his accident. 

Reeve grew up in a broken home. His parents were divorced, and his father was cold and unsupportive. His hard upbringing motivated him later on in life to give a better life to his own children.

  Since both Christopher and Dana Reeve passed away in 2004 and 2006, respectively, this story is told mostly by their children and friends. The unique perspective of the children is fascinating, because we get a personal look at their family life before and after the accident. We get to see how Reeve changed his approach to parenting after his paralysis. Since he could not be an active father, he had more conversations with his children and connected with them on a more emotional level. We see home videos of the Reeve family going about their lives and the contrast between before and after.

  There is a lot that I learned from this documentary. I didn’t know that Reeve had two children with a woman named Gae Exton, whom he was never married to, and then married Dana Reeve and had one child with her. Reeve would later marry Dana Morosini and have two children with her. You might think that there is a divide between the siblings and the half-sibling, but as they said in the documentary, “There’s no halves in this family.” I never knew how close friends Christopher Reeve and Robin Williams were and how supportive they were of each other.

  Everyone in this story is so amazing and lovable. Dana Reeve was a fighter and took care of her husband until his death. You feel so bad for the kids who lost their father and didn’t get to experience a full childhood with an able-bodied father. 

  The story of Christopher Reeve is an inspirational one. Reeve was such a resilient man who pushed himself every day to get better and to find a cure. In the face of fear, Reeve stared, held his head up high, and pushed back.