Man On Wire - Critique

Man On Wire Documentary

‘Man on Wire’ is a documentary film about the life and work of a French wire-walker, Philippe Petit.  The film explores the journey which Philippe undergoes in order for him to achieve his obsession with wire walking between the Twin Towers. “His story is really the oldest story there is. It is the hero going on a journey, or a quest to, achieve a seemingly impossible objective”

This documentary explored the struggles and successes that Philippe and his friends encountered on their journey. It also explores the complicated relationship between Philippe and Annie, and all of the security issues that accompanied his rebellious adventure. 

Man on Wire was directed by James Marsh, Produced by Simon Chinn, edited by Jinx Godfrey and  Original Music by Michael Nyman and J.Ralph. In Marsh’s report, he states:  “I set out to make a film that would be a definitive account of this legendary quest, so I hadn't anticipated that it would become a fundamentally human drama that, amongst other things, turned out to be comedy of errors, a love story, a story about friendship and its limits and a satire on authority and arbitrary rules.” 

‘As a teenage wire-walker in France’ his obsession on walking the Twin Towers started when he saw a computer generated image of the ‘The World Trade Centre before it was even constructed’.

 ‘Philippe was dreaming up a reckless scheme to break into those un-built Towers,’ string up a wire between the two nearest corners of the Towers to balance ‘and to dance’ between them, at a height of ‘1350 feet above the ground, for the delight of himself and passers-by’. As he built up the possibilities in his mind, he began to dream about the future, and very quickly he realised that this dream had to become a reality. ‘As his girlfriend Annie points out in the film: “He couldn't go on living if he didn't try to conquer those towers...it was as if they were being built specifically for him”

I found that the documentary was put together very cleverly, the editing manipulated the way that Philippe came across to the audience, and in some scenes he appeared to be a completely different person to in the previous scene. I liked the way that the documentary mixed present interviews, with the archive footage and the re-enactments. The film showed Philippe to be very talented at wire walking and performing the dangerous tricks. Because of the way that the film followed Philippe’s emotional and physical journey, we were allowed access into the personal areas of his life, which gave us freedom to see his determined attitude, alongside his slightly more ‘unhinged side’, I say this because of the way I felt that he was completely fearless from a state of denial, he didn’t seem to think of the consequences for other people if things did take a bad turn.

Throughout the film, the director and editor very cleverly created emotion.  I loved the way that they had edited the film to portray which ever emotion they thought would suit the scenario.  For example:  In the end when Philippe was walking the rope between the towers, it was strangely inspiring how all of the members of the public found his wire walking so beautiful, the audience got carried along with the emotions and it began to feel to me as if I was really part of it, very cleverly created emotion by the director.

There are quite a few different cinematic techniques used in this film. In particular, there are a lot of interviews used. They are mainly with Philippe, as he tells his stories about the encounters with security guards and his feelings about all his triumphed walks. Also featured, was quite a few interviews with Annie, his best friends and ‘lover’.  She states in the documentary, that the moment she began to spend time with Philippe and learnt his enthusiasm in his wire walking ‘I knew that I must follow his path, I was connected to him and could not ever leave him until after he had accomplished his goal.’

The archive footage used in this documentary is effective because of the way it brings reality to the film. It’s one thing to hear the story, but it’s another to actually see it! It followed the ‘behind the scenes’ thoughts and emotions of all the individuals involved in the film and really helped to tell the story of their journey. It did this through the way that you could see the physical change in the people, as the time drew closer and closer to the day of the tower walk. As “in the words of his trusted accomplice Jean-Francois:  “We all knew that he could fall...we may have thought it but we didn't believe it”.

Throughout the film, I found myself, with torn emotions towards Philippe. On one hand I held a lot of admiration towards him for his bravery and motivation towards his desires. However on the other hand, I found that I saw him ad being really quite selfish and self-absorbed, with that way that he dragged all his friends around the world with him to a very unpredictable future, if they had been caught and the judge taken an un lenient path his accompanies could have served time in jail, and an even worse future for them if he were to have fallen, they all would have been punished with the un shift able haunting of his death at their hands. Even after all of these risks and emotions, as the film reached the end, I found myself oddly inspired – not to dance on a cable thousands of feet in the air, but strangely uplifted to a wish of my own dream so strongly and unchangeably.