MAN ON WIRE
I saw this documentary during the Tribeca Film Festival and wanted to share my enthusiasm now that it’s out on DVD. Thirty-four years ago, Philippe Petit, walked and danced in the sky between the newly built Twin Towers in Lower Manhattan. Seven years earlier, in the waiting room of his dentist, Petit saw a rendering in a magazine of the future World Trade Center. He tore the pages out and left before his cleaning, obsessed, dreaming and planning how he would undertake a tight rope walk between the towers that had yet to be erected. This documentary follows the story from the dentist’s office until today, combining archival footage from the sixties and seventies, talking head interviews with Petit and his associates, and scenes of reenactment (many of which were shot in the new 7 World Trade Center) in the tradition of the great heist films.
We hear the participants remember the tense moments in detail—sneaking into the two buildings and maneuvering their way to the top on the eve of the stunt, hiding from the security guards, in one case under a tarp a few feet away, spending the night preparing, connecting the buildings through archery, climbing to the edge to retrieve the arrow and wire, and then securing the tight rope. By the time Petit takes his first steps 1350 feet above the city, we feel like co-conspirators standing on the roof bearing witness, and we are only more inspired and moved when he makes not just one but several crossings, walking, dancing, even lying down on his back with one leg hanging lazily below him.
Admittedly, there are times while watching the acts of this conspiracy unfold, as the two teams evade security with fake id’s and costumes, when you can’t help but think of the terror cells who spent years plotting their own interaction with the Twin Towers, but that gives Petit and his team an aura of nobility—as artists creating something beautiful and empowering. When these buildings were brand new, architectural wonders, two monoliths rising above a city, a man somehow overcame them, humanized them. And now that the towers are no longer there, that feat is rendered even more magical, because it happened only once and can never happen again.
Photos ©2008 Jean-Louis Blondeau / Polaris Images.