Man on Wire

Starring: Philippe Petit, Jean Francois Heckel, Jean-Louis Blondeau, Annie Allix
Directed by: James Marsh
Rating: PG-13
Genre: Documentary
2008

Times Seen:
Tim: 1

Summary: Follows Philippe Petit as he seeks to walk between the towers of the World Trade Center on a wire in 1974. He and his friends sneak into the twin towers to try their dangerous stunt.

Review:

Tim: I heard some terrific things about this movie, which won the Academy Award for Best Documentary. Certainly, it is exceptionally well made. It plays out much more like a story than many documentaries. It centers around one extraordinary event- and indeed, I want to stress how amazing Philippe Petit's feat truly was. The photographs are absolutely amazing.

Part of my very slight disappointment with this movie is that I found Philippe Petit somewhat unlikeable. I understand there are people who feel much stronger than I do, but I couldn't completely like him. On the one hand, he is a fascinating man who had a dream and chased it, despite all obstacles, fear, and risk of death. He is a man focused on a singular task- he walks on wires. That is what he does. I generally respect a man who is so singularly focused. However, Petit seemed to have no regard for anyone but himself. Indeed, a few moments made him seem downright egotistic and oblivious of the feelings of others.

While Petit is at least an interesting character. Good or bad, he is fascinating as a person. The rest of the film is composed of interviews of his friends and co-conspirators. These people are significantly less interesting, to be frank. I didn't enjoy these moments as much.

While the film has some terrific photographs of the event, much of the movie is composed of reenactments. These scenes are done extremely well, but are still reenactments. I wish there had been some footage from these events. Still, they work well enough.

Man on Wire is an exceptionally well made documentary and a fairly good movie. I expected a bit more, but I was still entertained through most of it. At the very least, this movie tells a very interesting story about a fascinating, divisive man and the extraordinary feat he pulled off in 1974. For that reason, this movie is worth seeing.

Rating 1-10
Tim's Rating- 7



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