Man on Wire

This is a documentary about a piece of special crime, so special the main culprit was invited to make this film.

It was 7th of August, 1974. The Twin Towers of World Trade Centre in New York City were newly built. A French acrobat named Philippe Petit managed to perform a stunt of walking across a wire between the towers. But this is illegal. Six years of extensive planning was done to make sure that there was a wire and the man was ready for the stunt.

Unlike other critically acclaimed documentaries, namely from Al Gore and Michael Moore, there is no political propaganda in this film. The whole point of making the film is simply because the act is stunningly amazing. No one could have done this again even if the buildings were still there.

The director James Marsh managed to juggle the footage and photographs effectively to avoid the typical documentary style, since the act speaks for itself and people are more than willing to share their comment. There are also extensive details on the planning which makes the act so special.

The fact that the stuntman himself is speaking in the film makes it extra special since he is the one who started it all; it is interesting to know his motivation as this sort of act is usually consider crazy because everything is on the wire, literally. The quietly tense music, with contributions from Michael Nyman, is a great bonus on top of all this interesting story-telling.

“Man on Wire” is probably one of the best documentaries you will ever see, so it is definitely worth a visit to the Student Cinema.

Jeffrey Choi