Superman the Christopher reev Story just wrapped up a limited theatrical run and if you were sitting next to me in my screening then you will definitely believe that a man can cry hello everybody I'm Dan Merl and this is my review of the documentary Superman the Christopher reev Story before I jump into that though I want to very quickly note that as I am recording this video early on Thursday morning there is currently a major hurricane that is bearing quickly down on Florida and specifically uh targeting Tallahassee Florida which if you know the channel you
can see my hat you can see this helmet behind me uh I went to Florida State University which is located in Tallahassee it was my home for four years the city has a long history including when I was there of storms weakening or going around but it looks like this is going to be a pretty major hurricane uh hitting the city directly and so if you are in Tallahassee and watching this first of all um if you can safely evacuate at this point uh then please consider that although I know it's pretty late in the
game uh so if you are there and you have not taken the proper precautions uh please find a shelter near you uh please make sure that you are prepared for what looks to be a pretty nasty storm and of course um I'll be thinking about everyone in Tallahassee everyone else in Florida and other states that are going to be affected by this storm if you are in Tallahassee or in the path of the storm please make sure that you are staying updated and that you're getting the latest news from the local disaster preparedness teams and
everybody else please make it through this safely I'll be watching for the next couple days uh very worried and very anxious and hoping for the best for everybody involved let's turn now to Superman the Christopher reev Story which is a new documentary that made its debut early this year at the Sundance Film Festival shortly after that it was picked up for distribution by DC Studios itself this is the first time that DC Studios has distributed a documentary and it played for two nights as a fathom event including last night which was or would have been
Christopher Reeves I believe 72nd birthday I had planned to see this movie last Saturday night and get you this review before its second night as the fathom event but I had some stuff going on with my old house I just couldn't make it so even though the movie doesn't have any theatrical dates planned currently I think because DC Studios is behind it you've got a really good shot at more dates being planned in the near future or having it being available to stream on Max in the very near future so to put this movie in
context for me and sort of the lens that I was viewing it through because I think that's the same for every critic every critic sees movies through the life that they've lived and their own experiences I'd like to talk a little bit about what Christopher reev meant to me because I was born in 1983 he was playing Superman at the time and when I was growing up Superman was the first superhero really anything that I could remember watching now 1989's Batman was the movie that like I dove super hard into as far as like you
know dressing up for Halloween and stuff but before that even I dressed up as Superman and Christopher reev at first for me wasn't an actor playing Superman he was Superman and he stood for all of the things that Superman stood for so for a long time until I started understanding what movies were and what the movie business was and what an actor was when I would see Christopher reev I would see hope I would see a hero I would see somebody in this world who was looking out for you and who would always do the
right thing and would always be there for you when you needed him and as a kid that's a very powerful thing and even as you grow older what that means to you never really goes away there are still those feelings and those memories those sense memories that that sort of building DNA thing that sticks around when I would draw Superman as a kid I would draw Christopher ree when I found out that I needed glasses when I was young I actually wasn't that upset because I said well that's okay because I'll look like Clark Ken
I'll look like Superman when he's not a superhero and it made me feel better about that so that's sort of the context of how I was introduced to Christopher reev and a large part of why I still feel um very attached to to his portrayal as Superman because it meant so much to me when I was younger and because those ideas still mean a lot to me it's nice to think about a world where there's always somebody out there that is going to be looking out for you and doing good for Humanity and will always
do the right thing like that's a very comforting thing even as you grow older and you realize that that's you know kind of a naive idea well Superman is a concept is in that way but that doesn't make it less comforting or less important it is ironic that Superman meant so much to me and so much to so many other people and yet for Christopher reev it was something that he had difficulty escaping from because that is all that people inside the industry saw him as and the documentary covers a little bit the fact that
he had so much trouble escaping from that that he would do other movies and that they wouldn't do well and nobody would believe him in any role other than Superman and I think that that's kind of one of those really interesting maybe almost kind of ironic things about Christopher Reeves life which is that he had this role that meant so much to so many people and so many people looked up to him and saw him as a hero and yet in many ways it held him back from doing a lot of the things that he
wanted to do of course that whole process for him was interrupted by the accident that happened in the 90s where he fell off a horse uh and broke his neck and ended up uh quadriplegic he had had no feeling basically below the neck he had to learned how to breathe all over again and he then devoted the rest of his life to finding a way to not only help himself but to help other people who were in wheelchairs who had suffered from paralysis and there was a lot of criticism of Christopher reev and still is
I've seen it in the Press I saw it right here in some of the comments when I said I was going to review this documentary that he was Focus too much on a cure and that he didn't acknowledge that there is also a part of advocacy that is about understanding and acknowledgement and saying there's nothing wrong with you and you know we're going to help you live your life in the best way possible without trying to fix what's happened to you and I understand where that's coming from and this is not something that the documentary
shies away from it openly acknowledges that criticism and it also shows that Dana reev who is Christopher ree's wife agreed with those criticisms and that's why she began a branch of the Christopher re Foundation which is now the Christopher and Dana re Foundation that focused on today on current treatment on current Care on improving the lives of people that were suffering from paralysis and not just a cure or a way to get out of the chair as Christopher ree was focused on and that's one of the things that I liked about this documentary is yes
it does present Christopher reev as a heroic person and I think that in a lot of ways he was a heroic person but it also acknowledges his shortcomings it does present him as heroic but it doesn't pretend that he's perfect so they talk about the fact that the foundation initially was a little too focused in One Direction and they also talk about his personal failings his children are heavy participants in the film and they say in a way that is not damning of their father that you know he had his own things in his life
that he was struggling with he refused to marry the mother of his first children and not show what she thought was a commitment to their relationship and when he left that relationship um his kids say you know that caused some actual distance they weren't particularly close with their father early in their life but I think what the documentary also shows is that the accident that Christopher reev had completely recontextualized his life and he understood some things that he didn't understand before and it drew him closer to his family in ways that they weren't close before
Christopher ree's accident in many ways led him to insights and taught him some lessons that he never would have known had that accident not happened and I like that about the documentary it actually doesn't Focus too heavy on his career and his life before it is a lot about his life after and what he learned and what his struggles were his moments of weakness and also his moments of strength the process of this entire last part of his life Christopher Reed was not somebody who withered away he's not somebody who gave up he is somebody
who fought until his very last day to overcome what happened to him in any way possible and also learned in the process what he could do for people Beyond just playing a superhero on screen the movie also focuses a lot of attention on Christopher ree's friendship with Robin Williams they were roommates at juliard they were old friends and again unfortunately we can't hear Williams say this for himself but we hear from so many other people that he was important to boosting Christopher Reeves spirit that he would throw a party every year on the day of
the accident the anniversary of the accident to keep it from being a negative day and we know now sadly tragically that Robin Williams was battling his own demons for much of his life but that's what I like about documentaries like this you know the whole Robin Williams Christopher reev roommates before this for me at least was kind of an IMDb trivia thing like oh did you know that they were good friends and they were roommates in juliard but seeing this documentary you really do understand what true lifelong friendship is it is something where you are
devoted to that person even though their life may change radically things about them may change radically it is somebody that you are bonded with to the core of that person and they're bonded to you the same way and it's something that you're very lucky to have I have it with a person in my life I've had a best friend since I was 12 years old and and I feel the same way you know things have changed about me things have changed about him over the years but we share that connection in a way that really
can't be severed and to see that through these very familiar names um I I thought was really interesting because it's it's not necessarily something that people know about Beyond a surface level now this isn't a perfect documentary I think that because he played Superman it does feel obligated to devote some time to his life as Superman and his background and his casting and it's not uninteresting information but it feels a little bit more surface level than the other stuff that we're getting which includes family videos and archival footage from reev himself I think some of
it is recorded lines from his autobiography and learning about that Family learning about his relationship with his wife Dana who just immediately stepped into this role of wanting the best for her husband and really arranged her life to help to take care of him I think that's where the power of the story lies the stuff about Christopher Reeves career and stuff is fine but I think the documentary kind of knew what it had there because it really includes what it's obligated to and then focuses mostly on the post accident Christopher reev and his process and
his journey but that information is also somewhat essential because especially if you're not that familiar with Christopher reev I think you do need to know how people initially saw him which was as this superhero who was invincible and couldn't be killed and all of this stuff couldn't be hurt and then how I think the world saw him after his accident which was also as a superhero but a superhero because he was Mortal because he could be hurt and the heroics were in what he did afterward he gave it his all against seemingly impossible odds and
he fought not just for himself but for others for the betterment of others and for a better future for others and really isn't that what the character of Superman did and keeps doing and has done for so many years there seems to have been some kind of Fate around Christopher reev being cast as Superman he was just perfect for that part he's still my favorite movie Superman but his life grew so much beyond that and I think that he means so much more to people because of that he certainly means a lot to me and
has meant a lot to me and his own meaning to me has changed I grew up with him as this superhero in the movies and then as I was going into my adolescence and into my teen years he became somebody to look up to not just for who he played but for who he was and he is somebody that I admire very much and I you know I'll admit I've said on the channel before when I'm reviewing something that I have a strong emotional attachment to I'll talk about that strong emotional attachment I have a
very strong emotional attachment to Christopher Ree and I have a very strong emotional attachment to his time as Superman and to his portrayal of that character and also to his life and what he did with it and I think that he is an inspiration because he could so easily have given up and just retreated and faded away and lived his life after this horrible accident in a way that made people feel sorry for him but that's not what he wanted he wanted to overcome he wanted to inspire he wanted to make things better and that
wasn't always his mindset and the documentary goes into that and I think that what he did there is so much more impressive than anything that he ever did on screen uh but it really does underscore that people are capable of superh heroic deeds and Feats and actions without superpowers and maybe it was fate cruel fate but fate nonetheless that Christopher reev was one of the people that showed us that in this world so Superman the Christopher reev Story is a movie that I very much liked and I'd recommend it it would be a see it
now rating if you're a fan of Christopher Reeve like I am but I thought that it was very very well done uh very inspiring very touching very moving and yeah it just Taps into this idea that no matter what's going on with you no matter what's going on with your life that there will always be somebody looking out for you and like I said maybe that's a naive idea but it's a naive idea that I don't have any problem buying into so those are my thoughts on Superman the Christopher reev Story what do you think
are you going to try to see it in whatever form it's available next let me know down in the comments below until next time stay safe especially those of you in the path of the hurricane and Tallahasse and elsewhere I will be thinking about those at Florida State and my fellow FSU Alum and current students and I'll see you then bye [Music] [Applause] [Music]
