Man on Wire
When he was a boy Philippe Petit saw a sketch of the world's tallest set of twin towers planned to be built in New York City. At that moment he imagined a wire between the two finished buildings and someone -- him! -- walking between them. He had never walked on a wire, and the towers were only an architect's dream, but to Philippe it seemed that the twin towers would be built specifically for this purpose: As a platform for him to wirewalk in the sky.
The rest of Philippe's life was spent in preparing for this inevitability. Learning how to walk a tight rope. Organizing a team. Waiting for the towers to be built. Stealthily casing them before they were completed. Planning the stunt. And then the hair-raising event itself in 1974. With an eye to both history and publicity, a lot of this prep work in the years before were filmed, and that footage is mixed with re-enactments to create an amazing document of an artist unleashed.
This compact, intense, burning grenade of a documentary -- much like Philipe himself -- radiates laser energy and the beauty of something as perfect as a line between two towers in the sky. It is a nearly perfect documentary. It is the only film reviewed by
Man on Wire is an astounding, astonishing, head-shaking, exhilarating conquest of the impossible. It made my heart soar.
-- KK
Man on Wire
James Marsh
2008, 94 min.
DVD, $20
Read more about the film at Wikipedia
Rent from Netflix
Available from Amazon
To Reach The Clouds
Philippe Petit
Paperback $7 / Hardcover $43
Loved this documentary! Just bought it. That guy has passion.
Posted by Jared Booye on January 16, 2009 at 10:32 AMThis man is very brave,will read book.
thank you for articles
I recall that Timothy Ferris (author of Galaxies) said something like this in one of his books: "If a universe were designed to maximize possibilities for play and creativity, it would look like ours." Sometimes I see things like Philippe Petit on that wire, or hear something like Fela Kuti or Vladimir Horowitz, or taste something like Guinness or chocolate, and think: why not? why couldn't this be reason enough for everything that is? The world has so much wonder in it.
Posted by Tom Buckner on February 1, 2009 at 6:40 PM
Hey I watched this documentary after reading about it here, what an amazing documentary, I love documentarys and this is one of the best put together ones I have ever seen. cheers.
Posted by schwillis on January 12, 2009 at 12:37 PM