Man On Wire: Reaching For a Dream

In all honesty, I wasn't very interested in "Man On Wire" in the beginning. The visuals weren't very appealing to me and I found the plot to be very slow. But as the movie progressed, I started to become more engaged in Philippe Petit's story and the way it tied into our studies of the "American Dream." Similar to "Rocky" and "Sugar",  Man on Wire focuses on a young Frenchman named Philippe's dream to tight rope across the Twin Towers in New York City.

The beginning of the documentary creates a mood of suspense as Philippe and his crew sneak into the World Trade Center with fake documents. But before the viewer sees the plot unfold, the documentary delves into Philippe's early life in France and how his dream manifested over time. We see clips of Philippe practicing on the tight rope with his girlfriend and Philippe walking across the Sydney Harbour Bridge in Australia. Pictures are also shown of Philippe tight-roping across the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris. The epiphany moment in the documentary was when Philippe was waiting in the dentist office and he saw the picture of the Twin Towers in the magazine. He quickly ripped out the picture and fled the dentist office with a newfound dream to travel to Manhattan and tight rope across the Twin Towers.

We have discussed the "American Dream"and the "Underdog" numerous times in class. In "Rocky",    Rocky Balboa was the inexperienced, "southpaw" in the boxing match against Apollo Creed. In "Sugar", Miguel was the newcomer to America, trying to make his way in professional baseball. In this documentary, Philippe is an underdog in the sense that not many people support his dream and believe that he is reckless and crazy. With "the Establishment" against him, Philippe has to plan carefully with a few trusted individuals to get into the World Trade Center and walk across the towers. In the documentary, one of Philippe's accomplices stated, "What we were doing was illegal, but not evil."

I am very curious to see how Philippe's story will continue to unfold as we left off where he was hiding under the tarp at the top of the World Trade Center, while the security guard was snooping around. Will Philippe be able to fulfill his dream? At what cost?