Man on Wire

This documentary chronicles Philippe Petit, the tight-rope walker who illegally strung a rope between the peaks of the Twin Towers in 1974 and traipsed across it for the better part of 45 minutes before the cops finally got him down in the event that has been heralded as “the artistic crime of the century.” The film follows Petit and his band of merry pranksters as they develop a plot Petit hatched years earlier, the instant he got wind that the towers would be built—it would be the highest place in the world where one could string a tightrope between two points. Though Petit walked the tightrope more than thirty years ago, the people who were Petit’s accomplices in this daring feat are still drawn to tears in their interviews about the beauty and purity of the event they witnessed. It’s impossible to watch the constant footage of the Twin Towers without the pall of September 11th hanging over the film, but the movie knows it doesn’t need to mention the attack to communicate that something beautiful happened there, too. Man on Wire features tons of footage of the towers being built which offers a rebuttal to the destruction that was to follow, and instead focuses on creation in its many forms: construction of the buildings, creation of performance/guerilla art, and the film itself as a monument of achievement. This film is the single most poignant response I have seen to the terrorists of September 11th. Marsh builds such tension, the story is so astounding, and Petit is such a colorful character that this movie is sure to blow you away. –CH.

Director: James Marsh