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Originally Posted by Henry Gale
I knew you'd be here to back me up Michael!
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Who, me? I stopped reviewing art films a long time ago. Too few people have any opportunity to see them until DVD, and those that do seldom write anything here. (If the shoes fits, Henry . . .)
I have to say, though, that this is one of those exceptional documentaries that expands one's notion of the plausible. It's the kind of story you couldn't make up: how French aerialist Philippe Petit staged his 1974 "performance" -- it deserves to be called that -- in which he and a rag-tag team of conspirators strung a cable between the almost-completed World Trade Center towers, on which Petit proceeded to walk, recline and balance for almost an hour, while pedestrians on the street below gawked in amazement.
If someone did make it up, people would fall all over themselves insisting that it couldn't possibly happen, pointing out all the implausibilities: how you couldn't get past security, how you couldn't haul the necessary equipment up 102 stories, how the winds at that height would make the rigging impossible, how you'd spend the rest of your life in jail, etc. (The documentary addresses all these points, and the nitpickers have to shut up, 'cause that's how it was.)
Then, of course, there's the question of what sort of unique individual would want to do this. One of the best things I can say about
Man on Wire is that you emerge from the film feeling like you've met the man.
The story is told through contemporary interviews with Petit and his team, illustrated by photographs, home movies, news footage and animations. They are fascinating people, all of them, from the charismatic Petit to the shy Annie, his girlfriend.
Truth really is stranger than fiction. In this instance, it's also more wondrous and, as with most wonders, tinged with sadness.
M.
