Man on Wire

2008 "1974. 1350 feet up. The artistic crime of the century."
7.7| 1h34m| PG-13| en| More Info
Released: 29 August 2008 Released
Producted By: UK Film Council
Country: United Kingdom
Budget: 0
Revenue: 0
Official Website: http://www.manonwire.com/
Synopsis

On August 7th 1974, French tightrope walker Philippe Petit stepped out on a high wire, illegally rigged between New York's World Trade Center twin towers, then the world's tallest buildings. After nearly an hour of performing on the wire, 1,350 feet above the sidewalks of Manhattan, he was arrested. This fun and spellbinding documentary chronicles Philippe Petit's "highest" achievement.

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Reviews

SoTrumpBelieve Must See Movie...
Platicsco Good story, Not enough for a whole film
Taraparain Tells a fascinating and unsettling true story, and does so well, without pretending to have all the answers.
Cheryl A clunky actioner with a handful of cool moments.
ElMaruecan82 I know this sounds corny, the kind of stuff borrowed from any underdog story, but having recently watched "Rudy" might have disabled my cynicism and I dare anyone not to believe that anything is indeed possible once you set your mind to it, after watching James Marsh' Oscar-winning "Man on Wire". This is one of the most thrilling, captivating and inspiring documentaries you'll ever see. The film consists of archive footage, a few recreated scenes and many interviews but within its simplicity, it speaks a thousand words about the power of human determination, of Philippe Petit, a man with a crazy passion, but a passion nonetheless, a crazy dream, but a dream nonetheless... and his struggle to make it possible in a short span of time. The man walked on a wire between the two World Trade Center towers. And even he at some point thought it was impossible while it was just difficult. As the proverb says, triumph without perils brings no glory.So he did it, and he didn't just walk, according to the NYPD sergeant who was waiting for him to get on the ground, he danced, laid on the wire and walked for 45 minutes before coming to his senses. We guess from the start that the walking will be kept for the climax, it's all in the way the film portrays the whole operation and even if it's mostly told by narration, it functions like a great caper film. All the archetypes are reunited: the leader, the timing, the more-or-less reliable sidekicks and last-minute newcomers, the brain of the operation (Jean-Louis Blondeau), the foreign sidekick (Mark, the Australian), the romantic interest (Annie Allix), and even an inside man working in the Towers.It's one of these cases where truth is stranger, sometimes even more contrived, than fiction, some pass as deliverymen, others as office workers, they get false badges, they stay hidden hours under tarps surrounded by guards whose incompetence would have been unbelievable in a real movie. There's a moment where Petit circles around a pillar on the opposite side of a guard and even runs into him, had the cop just turned his back and it was over. Even when they met at the two towers, a falling cable adds to the suspense and force them to postpone the operation till the morning when they're all exhausted but the elevator seems to work, when it's now or never.And still, there's more to appreciate about the film before the walking, starting with this dedication to what they call the 'Coup' and whose roots begin with childhood. Petit, when he was 'petit', loved to climb things and walk on ropes, he had that 'daredevil' thing in mind and became a unicycle rider, a street-juggler and a wire-walker. He made his bones in Notre Dame de Paris then Sidney Harbour Bridge but the real epiphany came at a dentist office when a magazine cover announced the upcoming inauguration of the Twin Towers, the highest edifices in the world. It became an evidence; one he could materialize with a simple drawing. Two vertical rectangles and a line and you have a dream, draw a stick figure on it, and you have your Man on Wire.And what a man indeed. Fittingly name Petit, Phillipe is an elfin, voluble and funny raconteur, once you hear him, you understand how his friend and girlfriend were easily drawn to his charisma. We need people who think that nothing is impossible because we need to believe that this world has more to offer than reality and routine, that's why we love magic, to raise beyond the banality of our world. On August 7th, 1974, people raised their heads to see a man offering them that gift. And it was a gift as during his journey, Petit took the time to kneel on the wire and wave at the photographer like a salute to those who can grab the beauty of his gesture. Ironically, many pictures were taken because, for all the meticulous planning, they forgot to turn the cameras on.The rest is history and of course, while watching the film, it's impossible not to keep in mind that decades after, people would raise their head to see planes crashing into the towers. September 11 is like a ghost haunting a rather cheerful and inspirational documentary, perhaps the evil side of the same message, nothing is indeed impossible even for the worst. I guess like many others, I was misled by the opening credits that show the childhood pictures of Petit paralleled with the building of the Towers, and I thought the conclusion would evoke the tragic event. But like many others, retrospectively, I'm glad it wasn't mentioned. The film makes us mourn the Towers already without spoiling its joyful mood.And what remains is a remarkable lesson about life. Even tightrope walking is a great metaphor of life, the first step you take, the nerve to do it and then just follow your heart and go, you can stop, you can have a rest, but you don't look back...still, you can look down. Petit does look down because he knows it's a view of a lifetime, and actually looking down helped him to overcome his fear. When he saw how cold, windy and dangerous the altitude was, he needed to understate the heights it by riding over the top of the towers in a helicopter. The trick worked but I don't think even that could have stopped Petit, he knew it was impossible and that's why he did it. Why he did it? He has no explanation, like Forrest Gump, he felt like doing it. And that's the best message of the film, it's not much what we want to do, but the determination to do it that inspires people. I don't know if I admire Petit for his stunt more than his nerve, but I know that whatever I don't achieve, I'll blame it on myself. Nothing is impossible indeed.
John Brooks As a cinematic experience, this is good. It's got a compelling story, which it explains the intricate technicalities of well and drops the viewer right in the thick of a suspenseful undertaking, while the back and forth between the interviewed parties (all playing themselves) and the older filmed footage and documents makes for a solid platform to deliver the goods.But ultimately, at heart, this is a terribly futile, vain story built around a man who evidently was the loneliest soul in the world who was in such dire need of attention he would illegally pull a tightrope walking stunt right on the highest point of New York city. The film attempts to make it more poetic than what it really is; the illegal act of a psychopath; and seems to push for an emotional climax that feels unnecessary and forced, and really it highlights the various different aspects of the vanity behind that main character (his superficial attachments to close friends, the emptiness of life and how everyone is interchangeable and nothing exceeds the present moment or has profound meaning...).The film also tries hard to ride the aesthetic wave: there's a sort of overt appreciation for the Frenchness on display, the french accents and spirit, the poetry... obviously, this is an entire film-documentary about a ludicrous and totally ephemeral gig.
rain duke Like Twin towers, like hero — A film review on Man on wireTowers have always been important symbols in myth, film and real life. Babel tower witnessed human's unity turning into chaos. The Two Towers represent something powerful but evil and need to be destroyed in the Lord of the Rings. Back to real life, Eiffel tower is an eternal symbol of love to all. So what does the Twin Towers mean in the film Man on Wire? It is a dream that lures and motivates Philippe to reach, and a place where legend and glory are created. However, such high places like the Twin Towers can be conquered, and such beautiful things like the Twin Towers can be destroyed. Heroes and towers are alike, glorious, lonely, and can even be defeated. But it doesn't matter, because they once stood on the top of the world.The documentary, Man on Wire, tells us a story that happened between the Twin Towers where Philippe made his epic walk. From his early days to his preparations, from his lover to his friends, from the glorious walk to his later deeds, the 90 minute award-winning film give us a chance to witness the whole process of Philippe's legendary life. Unlike the recent adaptation the Walk, which uses advanced visual effect technology that gives the audience heart-beating experience and poetic way of storytelling that makes Philippe a hero with almost no flaws, Man on Wire did a great job as a documentary for its respect for reality and depth of theme. As a documentary, the director uses several unique film technologies in accordance with different scenes. All these details give the audience a sense of how Philippe's great dream turns into reality step by step. The director uses iris shot when Philippe was presenting his show on the street in his early days in most of the past scenes. This gives us a feeling that we are peeping Philippe's performance together with the crowd through the hole of history. At first, you may ignore this special scene, but as it shows again and again, you feel that you actually witnessed the whole process of Philippe's life and growth starting from his early street performing times. You have a sense that you are noticing every detail of the event, and this is foreshadowing the greatness that Philippe will achieve in the future. Furthermore, the director chose to use binocular shot to present the scenes of Philippe's second observation of the twin towers when he came back to America. This telescope-like scene not only coincides with the plot since Philippe observed the tower in more details, but it also reinforces the bond between the character and the audience, since we are actually seeing things from Philippe's perspective. We get to see the character better, and we start to regard Philippe as an embodiment of tower with bright future.These old scenes of the documentary are not as colorful and eye-catching as those magic Hollywood blockbuster or more recent film like the Walk does with the help of technology, and we may say less "Wows" when watching these. However, what we can feel is a sense of the credibility of history and the spirit of the respect to the fact. We not only just can see the things, but we can actually feel the colorful future through the shadow of the black and white. The open themes of the film make this good documentary a great one. One is definitely the success of the pursuit of one's dream. A dream is more valuable when others are constantly mocking it. In the film, the word "impossible" is repeated multiple times. The repetition of this word supports the theme by giving the audience a sense of the difficulty of the work and an expectation to Philippe for overcoming the "impossible". The overcome of the tower is also the overcome of Philippe's own heart regardless of all these disagreements. We can never forget the excitement when Philippe found his dream seeing the news that the Twin Towers was under construction at the age of 17. We can never forget how this magic tower, a symbol in his heart, lures Philippe to break the rules, to build the line, and to walk the air. If you have a dream, pursuit it! If you have a tower, overcome it! One must find one's own tower to overcome!But the theme doesn't just stop here. The ten-minute ending brings about a thought-provoking theme. After Philippe's success, he did not share the happiness with his companions. Instead, he chose to cheat his girlfriend, to abandon all his companions, and to take the honor alone. His friends suffered more severe punishments, and his girlfriend also left him right after the success. All these facts were shown to the audience without reserve or polish. The director doesn't make the judgment, instead, he present the truth to the audience to let them to judge on their own.Can we blame Philippe for doing so? Can we say what makes a hero is his loneliness? Must a hero be without any flaws? I have no answers to these questions at first. But seeing all his friends cried with smile at last when talked about the success when they were old, seeing the old Philippe again walked alone on wire, seeing them forgive about each other and move on, seeing the permanent tickets to the Twin Towers. I figure I have already had the answers in my heart.I don't know if it is related to the reason of making this film, even with such glorious history, great towers like Twin Towers cannot avoid the destiny of being destroyed in 911. Heroes like Philippe can be defeated as well. But it doesn't matter, because they once shined before, they once stood on the top of the world. Because they are like towers, they can reach the cloud.
Connie Cunningham Man on Wire tells the story of how Frenchman Phillippe Petit walked between the South and North Towers of the World Trade Center one August day in 1974. He wowed the world for 45 minutes as he danced on wire cable tied between the two buildings. This was not a spur-of- the-moment prank for a small and puckish man who spent many years planning this audacious display of joyful rebelliousness with a little help from his friends and a few strangers. Four-fifths of the documentary, which runs approximately one hour and thirty-five minutes, is spent giving the audience a thumbnail profile of this unicyclist-juggler-wire walker extraordinaire and unraveling the blueprint for his quixotic adventure. The 2008 film is a mix of current talking-head interviews, archival photographs and film footage, home movies, and re-enactments of events before and after the historic walk. After spending the bulk of the movie focusing on the planning, the last twenty-five minutes goes at a fast clip, retelling the minutes before the actual walk, showing the walk itself, and winding up with a short aftermath. Too much footage is spent on prologue and not enough on epilogue. Mr. Petit's story is certainly worthy of a documentary, but one leaves the screen wanting to know more of what has happened to Mr. Petit and his accomplices 34 years after the fact. He still walks wire and talks about the need to break rules, but what has that philosophy reaped him after all these years? During the last part of the film, Mr. Petit and his co-conspirators relate how their stunt almost literally fell through their hands as they were setting up the wiring. "At some point, I gave probably too much cable," Petit says. His helpers chime in and say "We could not hold it…. We almost lost the wire." One could say Man on Wire sags up front, is supple in the middle, and too tight at the end.