khaosworks | [Obit] Funeral for a friend

I was 8 years old. It was either very late in 1978 or early 1979 when Superman: The Movie hit Singapore screens, but I remember the night distinctly, because it's one of the few times I remember both my parents bringing me to the cinema, for a movie that I had specifically requested to watch (the other was Star Wars). The thing I remember is the crowds - it was the first time in my young life that I remembered that many people packed around the cinema, so much so that Mom kept a very firm grip on me while Dad went to get my dinner, which was also a novelty. A deli-like place had just opened in the shopping center next to the Lido and that night I had my first hero sandwich, which I suppose was appropriate.

I don't have any specific memories of the movie itself, but I do remember being not just excited, but being absolutely convinced of what I saw on screen. Even when I watched Star Wars, and was so enamored with the characters and actors, I still knew that Luke Skywalker was Mark Hamil, Princess Leia was Carrie Fisher and so on - there was a separation in my head between actor and role. Here, I didn't know who Christopher Reeve was, and I wouldn't care for quite a bit. He was Superman. And, as the cliche will be often stated in the days and weeks to come, yes, I believed that a man could fly.

I can barely see the screen to write this, right now.

Reeve's portrayal of Superman was something that I did not appreciate fully until much, much later in adult life, when I saw how inadequate other portrayals were and I could put my finger on what it was that struck me. The scene in the first movie I often bring up is the scene were Clark is considering whether or not to tell Lois that he really is Superman. As Clark, Reeve hunches his shoulders, has this peevish look on his face, feminizes his voice and stutters almost imperceptibly. You don't really notice all these details until at that moment - Lois is in the other room, Clark very subtly straightens up, his face becomes more confident, and you look at this guy in the three-piece suit and think, "My God, how can anyone not notice he's Superman?" But then he shrinks again, the illusion is once more complete and you think, "That's how." No other Superman actor has made the transformation so completely convincing.

A lesser actor would have said Superman's lines with a trace of irony, or made it sound corny. Not Reeve. You believed him when he said he was here to help, you believed his outrage at Luthor's actions, and his anguish at Lois's death. I even forgave him changing the course of human history. Reeve was always underrated in his lifetime - Superman was not kind to him, in terms of roles. But if anyone doubts his acting abilities, one can always look at movies like "Deathtrap", to realize that the movies were not really where he belonged, it was the theatre. Superman was the perfect role for Reeve because the character is so much larger than life.

I'm getting close to rambling. I thrilled when Reeve appeared on "Smallville", and the geek in me is mourning not just the man's death but the fact that he'll never be Jor-El in a new movie, or that Richard Donner's conviction that he would one day see Reeve walk again will never come to pass. I never doubted that he would, but time has robbed us of that satisfaction.

Goodbye, Christopher Reeve. Goodbye, Superman. For me, that's a costume that nobody else will be able to fill.

"So many of our dreams at first seem impossible,
then they seem improbable, and then, when we summon the will,
they soon become inevitable."