Walking on the Wire of Life

After finishing, "Man On Wire," in class on Tuesday, I realized how profound, inspiring, and well-put together the documentary is. Looking at the documentary from a trite perspective, one might question its purpose. A crazy Frenchman tightropes across the Twin Towers... What else do we need to know? That was my attitude towards the documentary in the beginning. It's seems like today, we are always watching some person performing a daring stunt on the news, internet, television, etc. Modern technology and mass communication has desensitized us in a way to awe-inspiring events like Philippe Petit's walk across the Twin Towers.

For Philippe, tightroping across the Twin Towers was not just a stunt or an act for publicity, it was his dream. It was a dream that constantly haunted him; a dream that he would stop at nothing to fulfill. It was interesting to watch Philippe and his team formulate their plan, as well as all of the tension and arguments between the members. It is a testament to the challenge of working on a dangerous stunt like this, and the substantial effort it takes.

The documentary did a phenomenal job of showing the process of Philippe and his team sneaking into the Twin Towers until the moment that Philippe walked across the wire. As everything unfolded, I was at the edge of my seat, waiting and waiting for the big moment. I thought it was powerful how the documentary used pictures of Philippe walking across the tightrope between the Twin Towers as the climax. In my opinion, the use of pictures really conveyed a feeling that this was a once in a lifetime event. These pictures captured a moment in a time, that could never be and never will be replicated.

At the end of the movie, we see an older Philippe walking across a tightrope. Philippe's quote inspired me: "Life should be lived on the edge of life. You have to exercise rebellion: to refuse to tape yourself to rules, to refuse your own success, to refuse to repeat yourself, to see every day, every year, every idea as a true challenge - and then you are going to live your life on a tightrope"

As a person who is often very reluctant to take challenges and embark on daring adventures, Philippe's quote really hit me. No matter how scary your dream may seem, you should still reach for it because the possibilities are endless. Anything is possible when you set your mind to it.