Man on Wire

Went to see a film tonight called man on Wire. It's a documentary about Philippe Petit, a man in the seventies who highwire walked across the twin towers.



It's a great film, documenting the birth of his dream (years before the towers were even built) and how he followed it with his friends against all the odds. Running through the film was the buildup to the big day itself, obviously it was highly illegal, not to mention dangerous so they couldn't just saunter up the towers and set up. Instead the scenario played out like The Great Escape, but backwards, or a brilliantly put-together heist movie; trying to break into the towers along with over a tonne of equipment necesetating fake documents, hours of surveillance, intricate planning, pretending to be journalists to get information and months of practice.

On the night of the operation however, nothing goes to plan, one bit of bad luck in particular forcing two of the plotters to hide beneath a sheet of tarpaulin on a narrow beam over an incomplete lift shaft for more than three hours.

The story is amazing not just in the plan and execution itself but of the development of all the alliances and friendships made along the way and the part of your brain that makes you want to follow your dream, no matter how long it takes. Not to mention that Philippe is so charismatic, and wonderfully eccentric "people thought that my injury (impaling his foot on a nail during a recon session) would be a disability, but no! Guards were happy to help the poor man on crutches go wherever he wanted in the tower and not once did they ask for a pass!"

The film deliberately ignores the destruction of the towers because 'Phillippe Petit's act was "incredibly beautiful" and that it "would be unfair and wrong to infect his story with any mention, discussion or imagery of the Towers being destroyed."'

In this world of cinema where we can see movie stars perform insane stunts coupled with millions of dollars of special effects it's so refreshing to see something so real, beautiful and human. It's not on everywhere but see it if you can for an interesting and uplifting and funny piece of cinema!