Review: Man On Wire

While watching "Man On Wire", I was reminded of something said by Heath Ledger's Joker in "The Dark Knight": "I don't make plans, I just do things." This was a philosophy shared by Phillipe Petit, the Frenchman who walked a tightrope strung between the tops of the two World Trade Center towers in 1974. He amassed a motley crew of men that had never rigged tightrope before, and with only a dream and a lot of nerve on his side, they managed to break into the building.

However, "Man On Wire" isn't so much about the actual tightrope walk (though the footage and photographs of it are absolutely stunning) as it is about Petit himself. He started off as a street performer, walking between stoplights and riding a unicycle through the streets. One day, while sitting in a dentist's office, he saw a photograph announcing the construction of the Twin Towers, and decided that he was destined to conquer them.

He started off "small", walking across the towers of the Notre Dame cathedral, and those of a bridge in Sydney. As Petit's friends speak of him, you can tell that the man had one of those irresistable personalities, the kind that can make those around him do anything he wants. History has shown that people like that will use this power for evil, but Petit just wanted to pursue a dream.

The real marvel of this film, though, is Petit himself. Still alive and kicking (and walking tightrope), he narrates the craziest of all his adventures with a wild-eyed childishness about him. He talks a mile a minute, often leaping around to re-enact every aspect of this adventure. We find out that Petit plotted the break-in as meticulously as a bank heist, and when he arrived, everything went awry.

Not only is the film deeply engaging, but it's also laugh-out-loud funny at times, particularly due to the black-and-white re-enactments of their ascent to the top of the towers. At one point, Petit and an associate were trapped by a guard, leading to them lying together, entwined under a tarp for several hours, motionless. They also posed as French journalists in order to wander the roof and take photos. When this led to Petit stepping on a nail, he was overjoyed, as being incapacitated allowed him to move freely without being asked questions.

I really can't do justice to how profoundly inspiring this film is; it's one of those that really has to be seen to be believed. And yes, there are many shots of the Twin Towers, but in an era where studios are now digitally editing the towers out of old films in order to avoid upsetting people, I couldn't think of a more fitting tribute than the story of a man who spent his life in love with them.