October 12th, 2004

A FEW REALISTIC THOUGHTS ABOUT THE LIFE AND THE DEATH OF CHRISTOPHER REEVE

"What I do is based on powers we all have inside us; the ability to endure; the ability to love, to carry on, to make the best of what we have and you don't have to be a "Superman" to do it."     
--Christopher Reeve

I want to jot down a few thoughts about the tragic life and the sudden death of I want to jot down a few thoughts about the tragic life and the sudden death of Christopher Reeve.  I am not going to get too deep into it as, in the weeks to come, we are all going to be bombarded with tributes and media coverage on the death of this inspirational figure.  I want to avoid cliques as, "he made us believe that men could fly," and, "he went from playing Superman to being a superman."  However, I want to just share a few of my thoughts about him that I had over the last twenty-four hours and hopefully share a few ideas that the media isn't going to acknowledge.

Christopher Reeve will unlikely be remembered as an actor.  As a contemporary to actors such as Nicholson, DeNiro, and Pacino, Christopher Reeve never really shone.  By the time that he had the accident that paralyzed him Christopher Reeve was already beginning to slip into obscurity.  His final film before the accident was John Carpenters dismal remake of "Village of the Damned", acting beside future has beens Kirstie Alley and Mark Hamille.  I am not saying that Christopher Reeve wasn't a good actor (I'll get to that in a bit); I am just saying that it wasn't as an actor that Christopher Reeve became a household name or entered the hearts and minds of the public at large.

It's true that our society loves a good tragedy - we eat it up.  Just like Marlow in "Heart of Darkness" we slow down to witness human tragedy.  That's part of the reason that the world at large became once again interested in Christopher Reeve after he was paralyzed in that fateful riding accident.  Yet this was not why he gained the publics admiration and respect.  Christopher Reeve could have lay in his bed feeling sorry for himself, only to have the public once again turn away and forget about him.  No.  Christopher Reeve kept fighting, and through his courage and his sheer will power he became a symbol of the power of positive thought and human will.  He showed us that we can all achieve miracles if we are willing to keep fighting for them.  It was his courage, strength of will, and character which is how he'll be remembered.  He never gave up, although he admitted himself that, many times, he wanted to. Yet he never did. That's how a mediocre actor became a hero.

I think it should be pointed out that the death of Christopher Reeve has hit another community hard - that of the comic book community.  Starting in the Superman movies and finishing as a reoccurring role on "Smallville," comic book fans felt a certain kinship to Christopher Reeve.  He was truly part of our community, although he never wrote or was a prolific collector.  For kids of my generation he was "the" Superman.  I remember my mother bringing me and some of the neighborhood kids to see "Superman II" when I was very young.  At the time I remember thinking it was the greatest movie I ever saw in my life.  Earlier this year, on a whim, I purchased "Superman: The Movie" and, "Superman II" although I hadn't seen them in many years.  Although flawed in many ways (mainly by Gene Hackman's comedic portrayal of Lex Luthor), I fell in love with these movies all over again.  However, I finally understood just how fabulous of a Superman AND a Clark Kent Christopher Reeve was.  He was the only actor that ever pulled off both parts (Kirk Allen - good Superman but bad Clark Kent; George Reeves - good Superman but frikkin' dreadful Clark Kent; Dean Cain - great Clark Kent but awful Superman, and Tom Welling has yet to put on the tights).  Christopher Reeve showed a lot of comic genius when playing Clark Kent but was larger than life and majestic, while still being humble and kind and even human as Superman.  He really got the character, truly, truly got the character.

However, there was one scene in "Superman II" that displayed just how much of a brilliant and underrated actor Christopher Reeve was.  It's near the end when Superman has defeated the Phantom Zone villains and has returned to the Daily Planet as Clark Kent.  He walks into and office where Lois Lane waits for him and he is going into his Clark Kent shtick.  However, Lois knows that Kent and Superman are one of the same and she begins to cry and tells Superman that she can't deal with pretending that she doesn't know the truth and that she can't deal with the Kent persona anymore.  At that moment Christopher Reeve takes off the Clark Kent glasses, readjusts his posture and calms the features in his face.  Suddenly he is a different character altogether.  It blew me away that, without changing costume or makeup, one actor could go from one character to another instantly just by his body language, the way he recited his lines, and the look on his face.  It made me realize that Christopher Reeve was an incredible actor after all.   Even before his accident he was full of surprises.

Anyhow, whether you remember him as a mediocre actor, an icon of the comic genre, or an inspirational hero it's going to be strange living in a world without Christopher Reeve.  His death still doesn't seem real.  How can men who have beaten as many odds as he had been taken so suddenly and so quietly?  It just doesn't make sense. It doesn't seem possible that someone, or something, can actually kill Superman.