Title:
Man on Wire
Year:
2008
Country:
USA
Director:
James Marsh
Writer:
Philippe Petit (book)
This documentary is about a French
tightrope walker named Philippe Petit and how on August 7th, 1974 he
illegally performed a high wire routine across the twin towers in New York
City. We see present day interviews done by the filmmaker, footage taken back
then and footage re-created for the film. It all looks extremely artistic as
well. The footage is visually appealing and at times stunning. Unlike most
documentaries there is no single narrator; everything is narrated through
interviews and audio from interviews. We are mainly seeing Philippe’s point of
view, but we do get the point of view of those close to him as well. This makes
sense because the whole film is based on the book (To Reach the Clouds) that
Philippe wrote himself.
We start the film off cutting
between recreated footage of the day before the walk and interviews of the
people involved talking about it. Most of the interviews are done in French
with subtitles. All of the recreated footage is done in black and white to make
it appear as if it was taken at the time. We then see a woman re-telling how
Philippe had told her that they were going to get caught, but he had to try and
then we cut to the title. I found this to be a very interesting beginning
because this isn’t being told like a documentary, but like a story.
Documentaries begin at the beginning and stay linear till the end. Here, we are
told what happened right before the main event that this documentary is about
and then brought back to the very beginning of the story. This is a method
normally used in stories, not documentaries. I think this is a great way of
capturing the viewer’s attention.
We see actual footage of the World
Trade Center being built alongside child hood photos of Philippe. Philippe
begins to say “once upon a time. That’s how you start fairy tales. Well my
story is a fairy tale”. From the very beginning we understand that the director
does not intend to tell this story as if it’s a historical happening, but like
a story- a fairy tale even. Philippe explains that he wanted to walk across the
towers since before they were built. It all started when he saw an article in a
newspaper back in France. We then hear a woman talking about how Philippe and
her began dating back when they were young. This story is definitely very
fantastical, but the filmmakers make sure to encourage that storybook feel at
every turn by including side stories like these. We see Philippe performing a
similar feat to that which he will later perform in NYC, but between the Notre
Damn towers in Paris.
We then cut back to where we left
off at the very beginning of the film from the re-created footage of them
getting into the World Trade Center. When they started off at the beginning the
footage was fairly vague, you weren’t quite sure what was going on. When it
picks up this time you know what they are talking about and can specifically
follow what is going on. The recreated footage of Philippe and his team getting
into the building makes them look like spies in an action flick. We once again
leave the NYC story and watch actual footage of Philippe tight roping across
the Sydney Harbour Bridge in Australia. He was arrested. When he gets back from
Australia he gets the news that the twin towers have officially been built.
Throughout the film we get Philippe performing past feats and the story of how
he infiltrated the World Trade Center, got the rope up and performed his high
wire routine. It is told very dramatically and continually cuts between the
backstory and where we know the story is ending just adds to the suspense.
It’s notable that Philippe gets a
surprising amount of screen time. It’s more of an autobiography than a
biography. This makes complete sense because the film is based off of an
autobiography, but it’s definitely unusual. You rarely see people making
documentaries about themselves. Philippe gets to tell the story the way he
wants it told and everything that is said about him in other interviews is
noticeably positive. He probably had a heavy hand in the creation of this
documentary. If not, the filmmakers just really like him. I’m not saying that
what he did wasn’t incredible, but his portrayal is almost too perfect.
Everyone has faults and his are never shown.
We are told how Philippe had to
walk the entire way to the top to go unnoticed. We are taken through all the
steps that were performed in planning for the actual day. We once again get the
“spy movie” feel. Philippe had an incident where he stepped on a nail that went
through his foot. He had to use crutches and decided to use this time to spy on
the World Trade Center. When he would walk in no one would ask for ID because
no one would question a man on crutches. He used them longer than he needed to
so that he could continue to get in. He says that as soon as he would reach the
top of the building he would drop the crutches so that he could practice tight
rope walking. Anyone else would take a nail through the foot as a bad thing,
but we are shown that Philippe is so positive that he makes the best of it. Philippe
makes a point to stress that he was really putting everything on the line (pun
intended). He could easily die, but if he lived he was going to be in serious
trouble anyways. He was determined, and nothing could stop him from reaching
his goal.
We see Philippe practicing for the
big day and sorting out logistics. We are shown a lot of planning. It gets
dragged out for a very long time. We see the woman from the beginning (his
girlfriend at the time) talking about how obsessed he was with this project. It
really feels like a heist film. After planning, we see a ton of re-created
footage of the actual infiltration, which is where the film started. It shows
how they hid out and were almost caught by a security guard. These next scenes
are so theatrical that it looks like they are straight out of a movie; if you
saw them out of context you would never guess they were from a documentary.
We are told that they almost lost
the wire when they were trying to get it across the buildings and see very
dramatic footage of a rope falling off the side of a building. It was a windy
and misty day, which was another problem to deal with. The others talk about
how they saw a dark object falling and assumed it was him, but he hadn’t even
stepped on the wire yet. He makes sure to retell every small detail and problem
they encountered that night. He talks about how his first step felt like the
end of his life It is not until the last 15 minutes of the movie that we get to
hear about him actually performing the act they built up to the entire movie.
One hour and 17 minutes in we
finally get a picture of him standing on the wire. From there we hear his
perspective from the wire and the perspectives of those below watching him.
It’s awe-inspiring footage and we hear it described as magical. The moment of
peace is interrupted when we see a picture of the policemen standing on the
building behind him. They tell him to come back onto the building or else they
will have a helicopter pick him up. He says that it probably saved his life
that he went in then. Everything suddenly becomes very hectic. We see a ton of
footage of his arrest. Normally a person being arrested is portrayed negatively
but he instead comes off as whimsical. Its moments like these when you know
Philippe must have had a part in putting this film together. He then talks
about how he got out and instead of hanging out with the friends who had helped
him this whole time he meets with his girlfriend. We see re-created footage of
them naked and… basically it’s very personal footage, as is Philippe’s
retelling.
We are told how Philippe’s life
changed after he became famous. We see one of the men trying to explain what
happened, but can’t because he begins crying. The woman takes of where the man
left off and explains that Philippe was going through too many changes and they
had to break up. I’m not sure why the other man was so emotional about their
break up. The woman makes it sound as if it was a mutual decision. We then see
Philippe tightrope walking in present day for the first time this entire film.
The film ends there- showing that what he did then he could still do now. It’s
definitely an awe-inspiring film, but it’s clear that it’s largely
autobiographical. It’s almost too theatrical. This leads me to wonder if every
detail was true or if some of it could have been exaggerated.
No comments:
Post a Comment