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Movie Review: Man on Wire
by Bill Wine
The true story of the daredevil who walked on a tightrope between the towers of the World Trade Center
RATING: PG-13
GENRE: Documentary
RELEASE DATE: August 8, 2008 (Limited Release)
RUNNING TIME: 94 minutes
VIOLENCE FACTOR: No violence, but plenty of implicit danger throughout, especially for viewers with a fear of heights
BAD WORDS: No
RACY? A brief sexual reference or two along the way, hardly noticeable
GRANDS:
CRITIQUE:
Courageous or crazy? You make the call. Either way it's fascinating stuff.
Man on Wire is a detailed documentary account of a one-of-a-kind, death-defying tightrope act, a jaw-dropping stunt performed — for no other reason than that the walker wanted to — between the twin towers of the World Trade Center.
The man's name is Philippe Petit. His occupation: juggler on the streets of France, mime, unicyclist, magician, and tightrope artist. And that last calling brought him international fame on the morning of August 7, 1974 in New York City. On that day, he performed his illegal walk along that very, very high wire (well over 1,000 feet above ground) that he and his coconspirators had strung between the towers.
Yikes!
We watch as Petit, working with a scale model of the towers, prepares: He creates fake ID cards and rounds up construction-worker costumes for his crew. The better for him and his crew to gain access to enter surreptitiously and string the 200-foot steel cable. When ready, he proceeds to cross back and forth for 45 minutes, sometimes sitting, occasionally kneeling, with plenty of strong wind and no safety net.
Double yikes!!
His caper was the subject of the 2004 Caldecott Award-winning children’s book, The Man Who Walked Between the Towers by Mordecai Gerstein (Roaring Brook Press/Millbrook Press, 2003) which formed the basis for an animated short in 2005. James Marsh, director of Man on Wire, mixes in some reenactments to go with the archival footage and lays out the logistics of the surreptitious operation. The reenactments are punctuated by plenty of talking heads: Petit, his French and American accomplices and close friends, and eyewitnesses.
The playful tone matches Petit’s puckishness. That, along with the methodical buildup, makes the film seem a cross between a caper flick and a fairy tale, and will probably engross grandparents and grandchildren alike.
Many of the images seem melodramatically surreal, especially to those of us acrophobes who can barely force ourselves to watch. And if that’s not eerie enough, we find ourselves staring at shot after shot of the World Trade Center with not a mention of 9/11 (we really don’t need any, but seeing the towers is heart-wrenching all the same). The film is nerve-racking even though we know the outcome.
There’s humor and suspense in Man on Wire, but mostly we’re held by the riveting tug of a monomaniac’s singular obsession. But at least it’s from the safety of a seat in a movie theater that’s (thank you very much) down here on the ground.
GP Rating System:
Four Grands = Bravo, don’t miss it
Three Grands = Pretty good, short list it
Two Grands = Just okay, don’t dismiss it
One Grand = Yeah, we dissed it
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