By Geno McGahee
This month, THE WALK, starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt, will be released and it is very intriguing. It concerns a man doing a tightrope walk from one of the twin towers to the other and up until I saw the trailer for THE WALK, I had never known that this had really occurred. In 2008, the documentary concerning the man that really did it, Philippe Petit, was released. It was a great window into the world of Petit’s.
Petit sat in a dentist’s office and saw a news article about the construction of the Twin Towers in New York City. He was inspired. He stole the article and began planning his eventual tightrope walk between the two buildings. He began practicing and did some other daring walks that had it not been for his eventual NYC walk, he would have gone down in history as a memorable daredevil. Walks across the towers of Notre Dame and of the Sydney Harbour Bridge, he made it a habit of drawing a crowd and getting the attention of the police.
The walk was planned for and completed on August 7th, 1974, and the documentary uses the footage that the group took along the way as they planned and strategized. It was very intense from start to finish as the group relives their experiences and it has that much more of an impact because of 9/11. Watching the Twin Towers being constructed brought me right back to the day when they were demolished. It makes the walk of Petit that much more memorable and worthy of the big screen adaptation with THE WALK.
For a person to perform this act they have to be unusual and Petit is absolutely that. In his interviews for this documentary, he is fascinating and knows that he had a purpose in this life. He chased his dream and caught it and now reflects on that achievement and his life overall. Everyone involved in this operation invested in the spirit of Petit and helped him accomplish the impossible.
Watching the actual walk was very intense. At one point, Petit sits down on the wire and looks down as the police are awaiting him on the other side. He is fearless. To watch his preparation is scary as he has his friends shake the wire as much as they can to represent the wind and swaying of the buildings that he planned to encounter. The morning he did it, there was fog and moisture and the potential of a falling death seemed likely.
MAN ON WIRE is an incredible documentary about an incredible person. I’m now that much more interested in the big screen adaptation “THE WALK”. Director James Marsh did a fantastic job presenting the man behind the walk as well as the walk. This is an amazing documentary.
Rating: 10/10
