MAN ON WIRE

James Marsh, 2008

 

HOOK:  The cost of dream

Hello, down there!

 

STORY: French aerialist Philippe Petit schemes to illegally walk a tightrope between New York’s World Trade Center twin towers. This spellbinding account of that obsession is a marvel of actual footage, reenactments, surreal black and white moments, interviews and a thought-provoking anticlimax in some strange ways foreshadows 9/11.

 

JOHN: The momentum of this extraordinary documentary is incredible. From the start is a caper sequence with Hitchcock overtones. There is something about film of the construction of the twin towers that triggers those incredible images of its destruction, and the Frenchman’s obsession to accomplish his goal at any cost to himself or his friends puts us in mind of those suicidal terrorists. And yet there is something about his passion that transcends this. And to dance above the clouds in a world that year dominated by Nixon and Watergate. Wow!  

 

GO GO GO GO (4 GOs out of 4)

 

SPANKY: There isn’t a moment when the viewers don’t ask themselves what they would do either as Petit or as one of his friends. Most of us, like the Australian, would admit our trepidation and literally run away down the stairs of the building as fast as we could. But there is something in his accomplishing this feat that also suggests success comes at a price. He loses his girlfriend and, in a spotlight that focuses only on him, turns his back on the important part played by his co-conspirators, and they feel betrayed. No, we are content here on the ground, watching, but a film like this allows us to do both—experience something and watch ourselves experiencing something.

 

TWO PAWS UP (4 BARKs out of 4)

 

GOSSIP:  In the aftermath his apprehensive girlfriend, who the self-absorbed aerialist seems to disregard, says, “I saw what it meant to Philippe to become famous.” By the way, Petit has said his next big tightrope walk will take place between two of the giant statues on Easter Island. It seems easy compared to being 110 stories off the ground, but it’ll make a hell of a photo.

 

KEEPER: “But even if I should fail. To die in the exercise of your passion is beautiful.”