Man on Wire

December 23rd, 2008

By Jeff

A man walked across the World Trade Towers on an August morning in 1974.

For an hour.

Why have I never heard about this stupefying feat until James Marsh decided to document the story in 2008? It’s absolutely appalling that the legend of Frenchmen Philippe Petit has faded into history. Hopefully, this spiritually uplifting documentary can resurrect his tale for a new generation.

Already hailed by many critics as a lock for the ‘Best Documentary’ Oscar, Man on Wire unfolds at a steady pace, beginning with an impressionable, highly imaginative 14-year-old Petit sitting in a dentist office, flipping through a magazine, and seeing his destiny – a photo rendering of the completed World Trade Towers (construction had only just begun). A figurative bolt of lightening struck Petit and lit him up like a Christmas tree. His purpose in life was suddenly given a frightening sense of clarity. He would walk between the 110-story buildings one day…or die a beautiful death trying…

The story goes on to chronicle his rapidly developing skills on the tight rope. He first practices in a deserted field, only 5 feet off the ground. Before long, he is tight roping across the towers of the Notre Dame cathedral and the towers on the Sydney harbor bridge, arrested each time on minor charges, laughing quietly to himself as he is being dragged away in handcuffs by the police (what is it about the French that makes them so…French?)

Petit is helped along by his motley crew of friends, many of whom provide vivid first-hand accounts of their relationship with Petit and some of whom would eventually go on to assist him in the complicated task of infiltrating the World Trade Center’s strict security and with the precise rigging of the wire on each roof.

The last time I was up on the Empire State building, the wind was so strong that I felt scared for my life, despite being safely protected by 10-foot high fences. Just putting myself in Petit’s specially designed tightrope slippers, even for a few seconds, scares me enough to leave me short of breath. I can not even begin to imagine walking back and forth between the World Trade towers EIGHT TIMES, at one point laying down and lounging on the wire to take a break, and taunting the policemen waiting on the roof, unsure of how to proceed with a person who surely must be an unstable maniac.

But Petit is not a maniac, as proven by his ball-of-energy interviews in the film. He is a creative mind and a sensitive artist who used his extraordinary talents to risk his life, shock the world, and to forever be proof of the physical, mental and spiritual concentration that the human mind is capable of achieving.

A one point, the film cuts to a shot of construction workers moving large pieces of metal at Ground Zero. Instantly, your memory floods with those images of 9/11 that will never leave. A split second later, and you suddenly realize that your not looking at Ground Zero 2001, your witnessing Ground Zero 1966! This is a great example of the film’s power. The director knows there is no reason to recap what happened on that day in September, no reason to even bring it up at all. You don’t need to be reminded, it’s there in the back of your head the entire time. And this film is certainly not about tragedy and horror. It’s about hope, spirit, bravery, cunning, courage, a love of life, defiance, magic.

How highly do I recommend Man on Wire ? One thousand, three hundred and sixty-eight feet high.

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