Stiumlating cinema: Man on Wire

Director: James Marsh
Year released: 2008

I used to have a great fear of heights. I say "used to," that's not entirely true because I sat through this movie with my heart pounding and my palms sweating. And obviously, there was no reason to be scared. This movie has a happy ending and it's not giving anything away when I say that Philippe Petit successfully completed his wire walk between the towers of the World Trade Center. Heck, there's his picture right on the cover of the DVD doing just that. Nevertheless, I was scared watching this--the same way I would be on a roller coaster. It was a good scare, exhilarating and thrilling. And that's the genius of this movie, which deservedly has earned a slew of awards. Even though the outcome is known beforehand, the journey that gets you there is so amazing, so impossible, so emotional, that you can't help but be swept away.

Petit is a real character. Even now (I would guess he's in his late 50s or early 60s), he is seen is a ball of barely restrained energy. He speaks passionately about everything from the art of wire walking to the most mundane details of the story. There is nothing dull about Petit and his energy dominates the proceedings. We see childhood pictures of Petit, in a split-screen side by side with clips of the World Trade Center being constructed. It's as if this two forces were destined to meet one day (Petit's telling of the first time he saw a drawing of the towers while reading a newspaper in the dentist's office as a young man is one of the film's many highlight scenes). Petit also makes what, for me, was a fascinating point. Often times, if someone has a dream it is something tangible, something definite that they can point to that exists (wanting to go to Hawaii say, or wanting to be a doctor). Hawaii and doctors exist. But in the early stages, Petit's dream DIDN'T exist in a physical form. It's like he had the idea of wanting to do something spectacular but the venue wasn't in place yet. He had to show remarkable patience just to get to the verge of realizing his dream.

Petit warmed up for his tower walk with a couple of other audacious stunts--walking across the the towers of Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris and crossing the Bay Bridge in Sydney. To me, these were mind-blowing but child's play considering what lay ahead. The archival footage of these walks is fascinating to see, along with the old photos and the recollections of Petit and his friends.
Gradually, the WTC plan begins taking shape. Petit has a willing group of helpers on his team and their recollections are also vital to the success of the movie. It helps balance the hyper-kinetic Petit to have some other points of view coming in so often. I found it interesting that although the key players are all in their (again) late 50s or early 60s (I would guess), the look darn good! Maybe it's something about capers that keeps you young. Or maybe their association with Petit was like a fountain of youth by proxy.

Petit spent a ton of time "spying" on the towers. He and his associates at one point posed as journalists to go up to the top and interview workers, while surreptitiously taking pictures and making notes. Of course, Petit meant no harm, but in watching these scenes, I couldn't help but think how other people with more malicious intents would have been doing exactly the same thing in the months and years leading up to 9-11. It's really eerie and unsettling to think about just how easy this was done and how vulnerable the towers were in retrospect.

This movie has it all. Like many reviewers have noted, it's structured like a heist film and the suspense is really something (although, like I mentioned above, the outcome is already known). Petit and the others are thoughtful, sensitive, often very witty and funny and seem like good people. And in the end, the majesty of Petit's walk really hits home. A couple of his friends really get overwhelmed talking about it even now and I can understanding. It is something to behold--they really did manage to do the impossible. Think about this--out of the 6 billion or so people on our planet, there is one, just one, person who has walked on a wire between the two towers of the World Trade Center. And obviously, no one will again. How many people can say that? That, truly is, the essence of living and something the vast majority of us will only know through great movies like this one.