Good story, Not enough for a whole film

Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

James Marsh's Man On Wire is a marvelous cinematographic moment. Philippe Petit's very first vertiginous step on a steel cable anchored at a height of 1,368 ft (417 m)) transcends the laws of man's commonly acknowledged senses and defies how every one of us experiences existence. It's all about human immensity - It reminds me the first powered flight of the Wright brothers in 1903, but first and foremost it calls to mind Lumière brothers' first public screening of their short films in 1895, hand cranked through a projector. It's the extraordinary talent, the creative touch of filmmaker James Marsh in the making of Man On Wire that breathes new life into Petit's sublime walk in the sky. Despite having recourse to still pictures - a step becomes a walk, a walk becomes a dance, a dance becomes life of on a tightrope. Fine-grained clays, of which this motion-picture is made of, are the restored archival color footage and newsreel material, the captivating black and white photographs, the bright and sighted scenes reenactment, the lively present-day interviews and the perceptive use of music. - "It was a misty day, there was a little bit of air that morning." - "I had to make a decision... of shifting my weight from one foot anchored to the building to the foot anchored on the wire." - "Look a wire-walker! He's walking!" - "Something that I could not resist... called me upon that cable." - "It was so... so beautiful". Once more - It is James Marsh's commitment and profound emotional engagement to moviemaking that makes it possible. It is James Marsh's skill that arranges the polyphonic montage of visuals and voices, and directs their interactions. 7th August 1974, Twin Towers, New York City. Philippe Petit was 24 when he completed Le Coup. Philippe Petit is still with us today - "There is no why."

Not only is this documentary an eye opener on how Phillip Petit planned and executed his wire-walk between the Twin Towers of New York's World Trade Center, but there's enough archival footage of the actual construction of the Towers to make for an interesting subject in itself. One never considers the amount of time and preparation that goes into a stunt like this; most times one sees something like this on TV news and takes it for granted that some nut just decided to do something crazy. In Petit's case, he'd been at his craft for at least five years, with prior high wire walks between the towers of Paris's Notre Dame Cathedral and the Sydney Harbor Bridge in Australia. I read with some interest a couple of other reviewers who compared Petit's exploit here to a heist caper, and to a great degree, that's exactly what it was.The documentary illustrates with some detail how Petit and some loyal friends faked work orders and created phony invoices to gain access to the Towers under construction, and the patience required to out-wait security personnel once inside. As for the walk itself, simply incredible to imagine that the man ventured out on a thin cable strung between the Towers a quarter mile in the air. I have to say, even though I'm not prone to vertigo, I couldn't take a single step at that height on a plank ten feet wide with guardrails on both sides. My legs would be jelly, not to mention my insides.Though the walk in it's entirety isn't shown in full, one doesn't need to see it to understand the danger and excitement all rolled into one that the daredevil Petit must have felt. Yet he looked perfectly calm, having practiced his stunt thousands of times before the real thing. The funniest moment of this film for me was when Phillipe Petit was led away by policemen following one of his prior wire walks, and pretended to stumble while walking on solid ground pavement. You could tell the man had a sense of humor to go with his steel nerves.

In 1974, Philippe Petit does an illegal high wire walk between the twin towers at New York City's World Trade Center. Philippe, his girlfriend Annie, and his friends started working on wire-walks on various monuments. First it's in Paris and then it's the Sydney Habor Bridge. In NYC, they gather new comrades as the gang plans out a scheme to transport the material up to the top which is still under construction. After making the walk, Philippe is arrested. In his arrest record under Details of Complaint, the police had written "Man on Wire".Philippe's french accent is almost hypnotic. He is a man of real drive. It's a relatively simple documentary. The surprising aspect is how much of a caper story the scheme turns out to be. It's better than most fictional capers and Philippe's hyper descriptions are mesmerizing. The pictures of the walk are awesome. There is something beautiful about the whole story.

Man on Wire is a documentary about Philippe Petit's unauthorized walk on a high wire between the two towers of the World Trade Center on August 7, 1974. The first sentence of my review should be enough to catch your attention--was someone actually crazy enough to high- wire it from one Twin Tower to another? Did this really happen? The answer is yes, and in fact Petit stayed on the wire for 45 minutes and went back and forth eight times.Man on Wire is a testament to humanity's ability to achieve things when sufficiently obsessed. The documentary gives all the background, including Petit's earlier career on a wire in such exotic locales as the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris and the Harbor Bridge in Sydney Australia. The film is something of a thriller, as Petit and his collaborators had to get all of their equipment to the top of the towers, string the wire, and execute the high wire act without authorization. In the act, they are constantly under threat of getting caught by security, and the film has not a little suspense. The act itself is jaw-dropping.Man on Wire is an excellent documentary because it both tells the story in an engaging way while at the same time allowing us to get a feel for the people behind it. Petit is depicted as something of a visionary. The act itself, revealed in the film, is probably the most astonishing daredevil stunt ever achieved by man. The film is great in showing how Petit's utter joy at being on the wire completely trumps any fear that he has of the unbelievable height of the stunt (1300 feet). For anyone who knew and remembers the Towers, the film will also serve as a bit of nostalgia. Most of the story takes place during the Tower's final construction, so there is an element of seeing these great buildings at the time of their birth and enjoying them for the miraculous creations that they were. The real star of the show, however, is Petit, who shows us that anything is possible if it can be imagined.