A Walk Across The Towers

Man On Wire. Dir. James Marsh.

Feat. Philippe Petit (as himself).

Magnolia Pictures, 2008.

The 2008 documentary Film Man on Wire composed of events that transpired in the year 1974 when a Frenchman by the name of Philippe Petit had an extraordinary dream: to walk across the Twin Towers. Some people said that Philippe was out of his mind, Philippe said “that is just the person I am.” Phillippe was not crazy, it was simply a dream he had; to do something as daring as can be was something he always wanted to do.

This movie was based around the themes of courage and determination. Phillippe is not a stranger when it comes to completing daring acts. In 1971 Petit secretly installed wires between the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, France. He then stepped out onto the wire, danced, and juggled balls as the crowd below stood and watched in awe. Perhaps this was the beginning of the creative crime life for Mr. Petit. Many people learn to do these extraordinary things from others, Petit did not. He was 100% self taught, and had to learn how to do many things like tie cables, and wire walk all by himself. After a whole year's worth of continuous hard work and dedication, Petit was able to secretly get to the top of the towers and tie a cable in between the two. It was a slightly overcast day and tons of people looked on as Petit walked across the wires. They all found it very fascinating, the only ones who didn’t was the port authority police. They stood at the top of the tower and waited for Petit to step down so they could take him into custody. Bare in mind, this courageous act is still a crime. Petit didn’t care. He walked back and forth on the wire as the police watched him, and the only way to get him down was to tell him that they would send a police helicopter up to get him down.

This may seem like a thriller to many, but to me it wasn’t. Although it was based around an interesting story, and fulfilled the themes of courage and determination the movie seemed boring to me. I am an avid documentary viewer, but this was one that I would not have watched. Documentaries as supposed to be composed of a lot of tell, but this one was overly pressed with tell and displayed little show. By no means am I asserting that this was a bad movie, I am just saying it is not one that I would view at my leisure.