New York City’s once-looming twin World Trade Center towers are destined to be remembered not for the lives they lived, but for the way in which they died. Few will recall the wonder they evoked as they were being erected, but many will never forget the horror of watching them crumble. Fewer still will remember the day in 1974 when a man walked a tightrope 1,350 feet above the ground suspended between the tops of the two towers, at the time the world’s tallest buildings. Director James Marsh tells the enthralling tale of that day, and a time when these buildings were alive and well in his latest film, the documentary Man On Wire.
The pinnacle of French high-wire artist Philippe Petit’s wirewalking career, and arguably his life, came on August 7, 1974 when, at the age of twenty-four, he made the World Trade Center walk in what became known as “the artistic crime of the century”. His obsession with the towers originated in 1968 when he read a magazine article about the as-yet non-existent structures overseas and felt an immediate calling to conquer them.
Man On Wire is a documentary constructed in the manners of a heist movie with all the suspense and tension found in all the great Hollywood bank robbery films. Told through interviews of Petit and others involved, archival footage, photos, and a smattering of dramatic reenactments, the preparation and law-breaking attempt at the feat unfold in a way that builds tension and keeps the audience on the edge of their seats. Despite knowing the outcome, there’s still a nerve-racking feeling that he may get caught on the way up to the roof or, worse, that he may fall to his ultimate death from his precarious position atop the wire.
It’s hard to imagine that Marsh could make such an engaging documentary without any moving image of the climatic event. Though it’s a bit audacious and, while there are conceivably many ways in which the film could have failed for this reason, the success of the documentary relies heavily on Petit’s ability to recount the story. Petit has the kind of magnetic personality that draws people in - someone who is doing big things and everyone wants to be associated with - and as such he is an engrossing storyteller. Surely he’s done so many times over the last thirty-four years. Whatever the case may be, he pulls the audience in and holds them until the credits roll. And though it is explained in the most thorough way possible, such a feat remains, to any rational person trying to make sense of it, utterly inconceivable.
While Man On Wire is more about Petit than it is about the Twin Towers, it does serve, in part, as a tribute to their perplexing wonder. Notably absent from the film is any mention of the demise of these towering structures, and while some viewers may be slightly perturbed by this, the director’s choice to distance the story from the obvious will be quite refreshing to others. It would, in a way, be interesting to know how someone like Petit, who spent so much of his life closely linked to the towers and who seems to love them like he would a family member, would feel about seeing them fall. But, after watching the film, how he likely felt is quite evident.
Marsh was clearly heavily influenced by Errol Morris’ style of documentary filmmaking, from the dramatic reenactments to the Philip Glass-esque score, and while some viewers might wonder, “Well, who better to emulate?” other viewers might cringe at the possibility of this becoming the convention of documentary filmmaking. That’s not to say it doesn’t work here.
The film is at its most affecting when Petit’s former girlfriend tearfully recalls the sheer beauty of watching his acrobatic movements on the wire for nearly an hour from the sidewalk below. In a way, it seems like that’s why he did it. Not simply for the fame and the notoriety, but to give those watching something beautiful. Sadly, the film ends with the events following Petit’s rise to fame, the cliched tale of a man who, having achieved celebrity, destroys the relationships that helped get him there.
Man On Wire is an engrossing ode to the towers, to New York, to a childish sense of adventure, and to a time when people looked up in wonder and amazement.
Man On Wire will be released on DVD on December 9.
Man On Wire will be released on DVD on December 9.
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