Henry Saw: Man On Wire

How amazing is that picture?


Man on Wire, about Phillipe Petit, a tightrope walker who became obsessed with walking between the two towers of The World Trade Center, and ultimately accomplished his goal, is one of my favorite movies of the year.

The movie, a documentary, details how one day while he was at the dentist's office Petit saw concept art for what the World Trade Center would look like once construction was complete. At that moment he knew what his goal in life would be: to walk on a tightrope from one tower to the other. Insane.

The movie jumps between archival footage, recreations, and interviews with Petit and his friends who helped him try to achieve his goal. Two things strike me as being very important in any documentary: An interesting subject and very good editing. This movie is put together extremely well. It has pace, energy, and a sense of fun with how its constructed.

Much of the fun comes from the interviews with Petit himself. He has such incredible passion about his accomplishment and clearly finds a great deal of joy in telling the world about how he did it. He paints himself as somewhat of a bank robber, breaking into a building, and the crossing of the wire was the equivalent of getting away with all the cash. Being French, but answering in English, some of the things he says are awkwardly phrased which adds to some of the humor of the movie.

Also interesting are the interviews with Petit's friends who helped him. A man being obsessed with accomplishing a goal is one thing, but for his friends to be almost equally obsessed as Petit at having him climb across is what I found most interesting.

A very good little movie about "the most artistic crime of the century". Bit of a must see I'd say actually -

Grade: A

Best Scene? Archived footage of a cop talking about trying to get Petit off the wire.

The trailer for the movie: