Informative and joyful documentary of an outstanding event (Man on Wire (DVD))

Member Name: dangaroo

Product:	Man on Wire (DVD)
Date:	01/05/09 (66 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Excellent for someone who knew nothing about it

Disadvantages: Might still miss some parts

Man on Wire is a documentary about Phillipe Petit, an eccentric French showman who took it upon himself to illegally tight-rope walk between the twin towers for 48 minutes in 1974. I'd never even heard of this feat nor the man himself, in fact David Blaine, Evil Canival and the mind numbingly boring Yuri Gellar are probably the closest similarly minded people I was aware of.

Therefore the whole documentary was a bit of an enlightenment and although the event itself is quite amazing, I think that the documentary really brought it to life. Interviews with the life-loving Frenchman who seemingly had no reason to do the tight-rope walk other than wanting to are full of sparkly joy. The documentary also gives you a bit of background - both of the US, the trade towers and the wealthy young Parisian Phillipe Petit.

A lot of the documentary covers the planning and shows just how much work was put into it, not the tight-roping practice but actually getting the rope across the two buildings in the middle of the night. This seems a little ludicrous considering the joy, this man brought to witnesses that day. Even the cops themselves seemed to be grateful for being able to see such a miraculous event taking place - as shown in the documentary. It also shows tension between Petit and his friends before the event and I think it also gives a fair amount of credit to his support crew to emphasize that this was anything but a one-man show.

A hint of sadness can be found due to the fact that the Twin Towers are no longer with us but this largely a very informative, happy documentary about a truly magnificent event that had somehow largely missed my radar until now. I definitely recommend watching this British directed documentary.

Summary: Great interviews, good info, nice filming and put together nicely