The life of the actor who played Superman before becoming paralysed, told by his own children, is poignant enough so why the cod-mythic animations and pompous music?.
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The life of the actor who played Superman before becoming paralysed, told by his own children, is poignant enough so why the cod-mythic animations and pompous music?‘You’ve got me?” splutters Lois Lane (Margot Kidder) in the 1978 Superman: The Movie, after her caped saviour (Christopher Reeve) scoops her up in his arms as she plunges from a skyscraper. “Who’s got you?”It’s a question answered by the documentary Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story. When Reeve was paralysed from the neck down after a fall while horse-riding in 1995, it necessitated a cultural reckoning with illusory images of strength and infallibility. On the day of the accident, Reeve flatlined twice; doctors estimated that his chances of living until the evening were 50/50. Not only did he survive but he went on to be an inspiring bipartisan campaigner in the areas of spinal injury and stem cell research. Behind the scenes, though, it was his family and friends who scooped him up in their arms: his friend and fellow Juilliard student Robin Williams, as well as Reeve’s three children and his wife Dana, whom he met in 1987 just as the Superman series was fizzling out after a fourth instalment filmed partly in Milton Keynes. Continue reading...
The life of the actor who played Superman before becoming paralysed, told by his own children, is poignant enough so why the cod-mythic animations and pompous music?.
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