Man on Wire
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Movie Reviews of Man on Wire
Movie Review: Grand illusion, compelling documentary, provocative subtext.
Summary: 5 Stars
I'm not so sure I'd rate it the best film of 2008, but "Man on Wire" is an exceptionally well-made documentary about the achievement of a high-wire artist, who dreams of crossing the Twin Towers on a wire even before "they're there" (ironically, because of dreamers not totally unlike the film's protagonist they're again "not there"). Despite his last name, the Frenchman, Phillippe Petit, thinks "big" and is not afraid to risk it all (though spectators suffering from acrophobia may occasionally wish not to risk viewing the screen). And in the end, we see him not only as an accomplished daredevil but a genuine artist, someone impossible not to admire and be drawn to.
The film is tight and laconic, avoiding excessive dialog and exposition in favor of making the spectator a participant in trying to figure out what drives someone like Petit.
But the film also, upon reflection, allows us to speculate seriously about the role of the friends and associates without whom the grandiose projects of a Phillippe Petit would literally never get off the ground. The early, non-reconstructed documentary footage is highly professional, obviously filmed by someone who has been directed with great care by the subject being filmed. (Clearly, this man had a sense of theater long before his greatest role.) During the recent footage reconstructing the 1974 episode, the handheld camera is quite animated whenever it's trained on Petit, as if to suggest that he alone is alive, heroic, colorful. By contrast, the camera is rock steady when focusing on the assistants who made possible Petit's publicized feat, making them more wooden and less human. In the "Special Features," we witness a very articulate and "theatrical" Petit talking about his achievement, confirming suspicions some viewers may have picked up while puzzling out his character in the film.
The most telling shot in the entire film is that of an accomplice who, while attempting to describe his feelings after the stunt's success, erupts into tears. A charitable interpretation is that he was so moved to be part of this earth-shaking drama that words fail him. But close attention to the scene brings out the tension underlying the film's story: the heroic, romantic, individualistic artist vs. the collective, the social, the very real audience and supporters without whom his mission would be meaningless and even impossible.
Petit, besides being an artist, is also a supreme "con artist," possessing such compelling "rhetoric of character" in the service of his idealistic dreams that he proves difficult to resist. But once the daring, complex, challenging adventure has been pulled off, who gets all of the credit? In fact, he might be seen to "take" it quite eagerly--and, through a cleverly-filmed slapstick sex scene, narcissistically.
And what if Petit had failed? Who then, even if only by association and implication, is left to live with the blame of an unnecessary death? Those emotions ultimately prove more powerful than the surge of admiration for the accomplishment of yet another hero-artist, be he Evel Knieval, Phillippe Petit, or a rock star living on the edge. We were attracted to him in part by the element of danger, but did we fully understand the other half of it?
Even as we question the ability of a Manson, Koresh, or Jim Jones to influence and control minds, some of us may have questioned our own susceptibility to the undeniable if not irresistible charm of megalomaniacal personalities who seem all too capable of making instant "yes men" of us at any moment. It is these viewers for whom this film is likely to connect in more ways than one, providing a fascinating documentary of a heroic romantic figure while affording a penetrating glimpse of the "ordinary" but devoted onlookers whose own sacrifices make possible and may even exceed the hero's.
Movie Review: An exhilarating film about life on the edge - beautiful, inventive, amusing, suspenseful
Summary: 5 Stars
When the charismatic and daring Frenchman Philipe Petit saw a drawing of the projected twin towers of the World Trade Center, he immediately knew. Even though they had yet to be built, he knew that someday he would have to cross them. This intense and exhilirating documentary aims to show us how and why. The how is easier to tell. Its effort to explore the why is what makes this documentary much more than merely exciting. We all need a reason to live, a passion to drive us. The greatest passions are those that push the limits of the conceivable.
In one of the opening scenes of the philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche's Thus Spoke Zarathustra, the would-be teacher arrives in a crowded marketplace to preach the possibility of the "overman," the inventor of new values who would elevate humanity towards higher pursuits than merely pleasure and pain and the avoidance of death. The crowd misunderstands him, thinking he refers to the tightrope artist who was to appear above them.
Watching this remarkable documentary, about Philipe Petit's criminal act of performance art, it would be hard not to see that he is no ordinary man. It would be difficult not to see in his story possibilities for a life unconstrained by the merely pragmatic concerns of day-to-day living, that reaches out beyond the possible and accepts risk in order to achieve something truly remarkable.
Of course, as the film makes clear, Mr. Petit is by no means an "overman" -- he is remarkable and talented and charismatic but at the same time deeply flawed, notably in his seeming inability to see the immensity of the sacrifices that his friends (and lover) make for the sake of his visions. While his crossing of the twin towers was astonishing and beautiful, it stunned me that just afterwards he could forget his friends (and lover) to pursue an amorous encounter with an admirer. The film does not shy away from presenting his flaws, and perhaps the greatest strength of the film is to show how much his accomplishments depended on the skills and efforts of many collaborators. It was a team project, and while the film strongly suggests that their friendships had become damaged or broken in the aftermath, it does give a strong voice to the perspectives of the many participants.
The film is edited brilliantly, combining actual footage and newsreel with interviews and re-enactments. The filmmakers tell the story as if it were a heist film, meticulously portraying the complex preparations that were required, with the crossing as the final prize, and gradually lay in back story to add emotional depth and significance to the final event. I found it to be at least as intense and entertaining as any fictional heist film I've ever seen -- and I've seen quite a few. The pacing of the film is just right.
The music is perfect -- combining classical pieces with original compositions. It was only on second viewing that I realized I'd heard some of the most intriguing music before, in the work of another brilliant British auteur, Peter Greenaway (The Draughtsman's Contract, and Drowning by Numbers). The film won top prizes at Sundance, where I had the chance to see it for the first time, taking both the Grand Jury prize and the Audience Choice award in the World Documentary category. They were well deserved. The film is both astonishing, complex and enormously entertaining -- and nicely gives a beautiful crime to remember in connection with the World Trade Center, as a counterpoint to the more recent atrocities. This film is definitely not one to be missed.
Nate Andersen
www.eckerd.edu/sundance
Movie Review: the importance of acting now to fulfill our dreams
Summary: 5 Stars
Man On Wire documents Philippe Petit's quest to become a tightrope walker beyond comparison. The cinematography is very well done. In addition, we get lots of quality archival color footage and we also get very recent interviews with people who helped Philippe even when they didn't always see eye to eye with him. His girlfriend at the time, who provided Philippe with so much moral support, is also interviewed.
Although we don't get much in the way of background about Philippe Petit; we are told he was brought up in a strict household and he's essentially a rebel, going around the streets of Paris juggling balls and doing magic tricks on a unicycle. Philippe is obviously a brave man and he was very strong physically and emotionally as he prepared for the challenge of walking the tightrope between The World Trade Center buildings. Philippe also recruited a crew of friends, including his then-girlfriend; and together they all embarked on their mission to help Philippe prepare for his big goal of walking on a tightrope between what was then called "The Twin Towers."
We see footage of Philippe walking in a field on a tightrope and he learns how to do it very well rather quickly--good for him! He eventually became so good at this that he could even do it with his eyes closed. Incredible. He then scaled the towers of the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris; and he also walked a tightrope on top of a bridge in the harbor of Sydney, Australia much to the chagrin of the police. It's interesting to note, however, that Philippe gave the police a run for their money without ever committing a serious crime.
And then came the preparations for the grand achievement--walking a tightrope between "The Twin Towers." Philippe and his friends prepared meticulously back in France by making small scale models of the tops of the two buildings and making numerous drawings of the scenario in order to study it from every possible angle. They didn't leave a thing to chance especially because Philippe's desire to walk that tightrope was so risky in and of itself. They even swayed the tightrope while Philippe practiced so that he could get used to walking on a swaying tightrope when the two buildings if any wind was blowing on the day he was going to do walk that tightrope.
One extremely interesting part of the adventure was actually conning their way into the Twin Towers to take pictures from which they could study--and prepare the tightrope the night before so that Philippe can walk early one morning in August of 1974. We see how they got in to study the buildings and how they eventually entered for the big event. I'll let you watch the film to see how they managed all this--on several occasions, too!
What happens to Philippe after he starts to cross the tightrope and the police show up? Will he get off the rope right away? Will his accomplishment change his relationships with his friends and his girlfriend? Does he ever do this or anything like it again? Watch the movie and find out!
The DVD comes with a few extras. There is a retelling of this true story for children entitled The Man Who Walked Between The Towers; and there is another interview with Philippe Petit as well. We even get a featurette about Philippe's experiences in Sydney back in 1973.
Man On Wire tells the fascinating tale of a once in a lifetime event--that of a brave man walking a tightrope between "The Twin Towers." However, on a broader scale this film is really about the importance of acting now to fulfill our dreams and achieve our goals. Only then can we savor life. The interviews we get are pretty incredible. I highly recommend this film for anyone who enjoys documentaries or films about the importance of living life to the fullest.
Movie Review: A Marvelous, Thrilling Documentary
Summary: 5 Stars
Man on Wire is an incredibly impressive documentary about a man who's most impressive achievement, the achievement this documentary is centered around, wasn't even caught on video. Almost as impressive as the man this documentary is about is the way the documentary was made, using present-day interviews, dramatic re-enactments, and photographs to illustrate the one-of-a-kind tightrope walk by Philippe Petit.
The title comes from a description of Petit in the police report filed after he walked between the two World Trade Center towers. The film begins with people recounting what lead up to Petit's high-wire act, while a well-filmed reenactment plays. This opening scene is actually suspenseful, even though much of the audience will already know what Petit did. The film follows Petit, a self-taught wirewalker, as he recalls first hearing of the towers before they had even been built and his desire to walk across them the moment he heard about them. The World Trade Center was not the first building Petit had walked across; in fact he once walked the Notre Dame Cathedral. Of course, we do see video footage of Petit walking on a tightrope, as well as jogging on one. When Petit does his tightrope walks, it's a beautiful spectacle and Petit should be happy to know that the beauty he saw in his acts is not lost on his audience.
Of course, when Petit finally announced his plans to his friends/team to walk the two Towers, he was met with skepticism. Even his girlfriend Annie, who had supported all his (illegal) walking endeavors, was unsure of this. The towers were still under construction when Petit began planning and it made it easy for him to sneak in. While there is video footage of Petit plotting, there is (as I said earlier) no video footage whatsoever of him walking between the towers. The photographs of this act alone are breathtaking, but video is not necessary to lend to the credibility of this documentary.
Annie says that Petit saw his act almost like a bank robbery and there are scenes here that seem to be illustrating a real-life bank robbery. This makes the documentary all the more engrossing and accessible even. How often can you say a documentary was not only thrilling, but suspenseful? Not only that, Man on Wire uses dramatic reenactments better than just about anything I've seen. It's done in an artistic way as a way to visually illustrate the story being told to us, without just being a contrived way to have less interview footage. Petit says in the film, referring to the dangers of his twin tower walk, "if I died...what a beautiful death." This is obviously a poetic outlook on the consequences that could have come from his act, but you believe that he believes it to be true. Some have called Petit narcissistic, but he deserves to be. I personally would be quite impressed with myself if I had pulled something of this magnitude off. Petit did not help world hunger, his act did not change the world, he's not a hero to the world...In fact, before the release of this documentary I had never heard of Petit. But he did give the world something dangerously beautiful to marvel at and this marvelous documentary, as well as the events that have occurred since Petit's walk, have taken that beautiful act and made it all the more beautiful and poignant.
GRADE: A-
Movie Review: Captures the Amazement & Exhilaration of History's Greatest High Wire Act.
Summary: 5 Stars
"Man on Wire" explores the execution and experience of one of the world's most famous artistic spectacles. Philippe Petit's wirewalk between the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center on August 7, 1974. When he was 17 years old, Petit read an article about plans for the World Trade Center in New York that inspired the dream that would take 6 1/2 years to realize. James Marsh's film intertwines three threads as it builds toward its climax. It offers a blow-by-blow account of the dramatic feat that played out on August 6-7; it follows the construction of the Towers, seemingly built just for Philippe's ambitions; and it takes us through the years of preparation by Philippe and his accomplices. There are recent interviews, archival footage of Philippe's team, and a moody black-and-white reenactment of the events that unfold as the participants recount their experiences.
This is a competent documentary about an amazing feat of daring and artistry. It's serious in its intensity while embracing humor as well, and the preparation in France and New York is entertaining. But the film's ability to capture the passion and dedication that motivated Philippe Petit make it a great documentary, not just a good one. He's a man with a real lust for life, apparently completely free of neuroses, which he expresses through performance, particularly on the high wire. He might be the only wirewalker in the past 50 years who does not confine his art to the circus. I think the rest are afraid of going splat. Philippe Petit isn't, and, by the end of this film, we understand why. That's its great accomplishment. Philippe is 60 years old, still remarkably youthful and as passionate as he was at 25, so his interviews are terrific.
Director James Marsh emphasizes the human drama through the perspective of Philippe's accomplices, while Philippe's own point of view is more one of concentration and glee. Four men ascended the Towers and rigged the wire after months of scouting the site: Philippe and Jean-Francois Heckel on the roof of the South Tower, Jean-Louis Blondeau and American Alan Welner on the North Tower. Jean-Louis was the only one of the team that planned the walk, apart from Philippe, who stuck with the project, the others having abandoned it for fear it would mean Philippe's death. And Jean-Louis said it was the worst wire he had ever rigged. These men are interviewed, along with those who participated in the preparation, including Philippe's then-girlfriend Annie Allix. In sum, this is an awe-inspiring account of an great feat of diligence and faith. In English and French with subtitles.
The DVD (Magnolia 2008): "Sydney Harbour Bridge Crossing 1973" (20 min) is a short documentary by James Ricketson about Philippe Petit's preparation and execution of his wirewalk between the pylons of the Australian bridge, aided by Mark Lewis, who recounts his role in the feat. "Philippe Petit Interview" (13 min) is a long but interesting interview in which Petit talks about his passion for wirewalking, his approach to life, and what it all means to him. "The Man Who Walked Between the Towers" (10 min) is an animated film for children that recounts the story of the Twin Towers walk. There are optional Spanish subtitles for the feature film. The English subtitles are not optional.