Author Topic: Man on Wire  (Read 1324 times)

FLYmeatwad

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Man on Wire
« on: August 14, 2008, 08:33:42 PM »
I decided to go check this one out over the weekend and I was pleasantly surprised with what I found. I'm far too young to remember Phillipe's stunt across the Twin Towers, but that may have helped make the experience that much better. While the film makes it obvious that he survived the wirewalking, it still made for very compelling cinema.

There were a couple of interesting things about the film that I felt worked, for the most part, very well. The first was the feeling of a 'heist' film that the director went for. While I haven't been following along with the marathon, the introduction of the central figures and the small reenacted scenes of the climb up the Twin Towers felt like what my idea of a heist film is. Now this feeling, which I thought should have been left unaddressed, was directly commented on later in the film, but I didn't feel that the film lost anything by having one of the figures make this observation. These scenes didn't seem to be anything all that special on their own, but given to the viewer piece by piece, and introducing each new character with a name and a 'the' nickname, really helped the film, which could have just as easily been a Discovery Channel special rather than a full fledged film. Thankfully the film refused to settle for that and I felt it worked splendidly.

However, I don't think the heist feel of the film, or the emotional impact it had on me, would have worked or hit nearly as hard if the central figure wasn't so damn compelling. Phillipe is truly a wonder on camera. His unwillingness to just sit and talk about what happened, as some of the other figures do, helps the viewer get a feel of what the experience was like for him and what was going through his head, something I thought nearly impossible, what with no tightrope walking experience in my immediate past. It was easy, as a member of the audience, to play the role of spectator and be wowed by what the man was doing, Hell the film seemed to ask me to do that at times, but the way Phillipe plays around on screen and the emotion he puts behind what he's talking about, I felt as if I had nearly taken on the role of tightrope walker myself. At the very least his dream seemed to become my own and not once during the entire film did I ever question the man's sanity in regard to tightrope walking across the largest buildings on the planet.

The film wasn't perfect, not all of the interviewees seemed to contribute enough to the document, and some of the minor individuals seemed to be tacked on, but I was never personally irked by any of it. Also, I could understand how one may claim that a few of the shots and photo montages, not even video clips, drug on too long, but I felt it added to the film's beauty. Also, for what it's worth, I started to tear up a bit when the walk across the towers began, which doesn't happen often.

So basically, I'd recommend seeing this film if you have a chance and I'm looking forward to hearing what Adam and Matty have to say about it.

I think I gave it a solid ****.1/***** upon a first viewing.