I had a tremendous crush on Christopher Reeve when I first saw him in Superman--well, as big a crush as one can have at age 6. Regardless, I knew he was special, and the man who played him was somehow just as much of a Superman as his character. Even though many didn't know of Reeve's roles beyond the Caped Crusader, I paid attention to every movie role, every mention in People magazine. Everything he did interested me.
Last year I watched a program detailing Reeve's life as he lived it up until yesterday. There was no sugarcoating the fact that Reeve was not recovering at the clip we all had hoped for when we first heard about his tragic accident, eight years prior. He paid his viewers the respect of honesty, explaining that, at times, he'd felt like giving up, but he didn't. He was Superman for Chrissakes!
All of us thought it: Don't give up. Consider this a not-so-brief encounter with Kryptonite. You will struggle and then prevail. Death wasn't even an option to us. After all, when Lois Lane perished in that earthquake, he spun around the world to reverse time, reverse the tragedy. If pressed, he would surely do it again, even if he was bit older, and a bit more tired.
I think that's why I was so damned sorry to hear that he had died. It seemed too human an ending. The story seems unfinished. I am convinced that it is not over; that he will be even more powerful than when he triumphed over the exiles from Krypton, than when he transcended from thespian to un-caped crusader to saint.
I wanted him to live, I suppose, for my own purposes, to prove that the good guys always prevail. Yet there is a twinge of relief that a man so encumbered, even a Superman, will be free again. Free to fly.
Yea, Bravo! -J.
Posted by: | October 11, 2004 at 06:27 PM
Excellent farewell to a real hero.
"Un-caped crusader", indeed.
~DON
Posted by: Don The Idea Guy | October 20, 2004 at 04:14 PM