Man on Wire, William Oliver

Man on Wire
William Oliver

     
     Man on Wire was a documentary directed by James Marsh.  It tells the story of Phillippe Petit, who was a tightrope walker, who always enjoyed taking risks.  This movie tells the story of his biggest risk; walking across the twin towers, on a tight rope.  The issue I had with this film was not the story itself.  I still find the fact that he was able to do this unbelievable.  The problem I had was the composition of the film itself.

     The film bounced back and forth between an interview, home videos (some I felt had little correlation to the film), and reenactments of the actual twin tower walk.  The film bounced around too much for my liking and I think it scrambled the story for me.  It began to become hard to follow, especially the home videos, some of which felt unrelated to the twin tower walk.  These home videos featured him and his friends doing various things.  Some made sense, such as practicing the tightrope, but others were just of Phillippe and his friends just playing around.   I believe this took away from the awe inspiring story at the heart of this documentary.  Overall, I would give the story a 4.5/5 but the film itself a 2/5.