Jon Peters Reviews: “Man on Wire”

James Marsh has ran under most of our noses, directing films in drama and documentaries, but I think ‘Man on Wire’ will finally bring him the proper attention he deserves. In fact, this film won the Audience Award and Best Doc at this year’s Sundance Film Festival. I discovered James Marsh a few years ago with his debut film, 1999’s ‘Wisconsin Death Trip’. That film was brilliantly staged, through re-enactments and still photographs, creating an eerie, haunting mood, with occasional humor about a suicides and murder that plagued one small Wisconsin town. Then, Marsh disappeared. Well, not really. He’s directed two more, one highly regarded drama ‘The King’ and an uneven documentary ‘The Team’.

‘Man on Wire’ is a fantastic documentary made up of interviews, photos, archival footage, and re-enactments. Philippe Petit is the subject; a crazed, but artistic man, full of life and displays no sense of fear. He says he has mind of a criminal, something that he’s been arrested for. His charge was disturbing the peace, something he did on August 7th, 1974 when he wire-walked between the two towers of the World Trade Center. Not once, but eight times, laying on the wire, waving to spectators, talking to birds, and other stuff that would make most people’s hands sweat as he did this 1,400 feet in the air-no net.

Something about the WTC towers captured his imagination. He’s wire-walked The Notre Dame Cathedral, the Eifel Tower, and other big buildings and bridges, but the WTC was something else. Something artistic, something fantastical and something definitive. At this time in 1970s, the WTC towers weren’t a popular creation. His walk made them notorious.

Marsh felt that his tale would work perfectly as a heist film. The film gathers constant momentum; we start out with archival footage of the WTC towers being built with Petit’s story of his fascination with wire-walking and his early successful attempts. As the towers near completion, we start to see how the ‘coupe’ was planned. Marsh spares nothing. We see home videos of Petit’s ragtag group of misfits planning the act and even some suspenseful re-enactments. At one point, Petit and his friend had to find cover under a tarp and remain motionless for hours as a guard remained in the empty room. This little story works better seeing it re-enacted with flawlessness instead of a talking head describing it.

But there’s an elephant in the room nobody’s talking about and its 9/11. For the sake of Petit’s amazing story and the success of the documentary, I’m glad Marsh doesn’t include any insights about the destruction of the WTC towers. It would have cheapened the film. In fact by not saying anything about 9/11, the film casts an awesome power on us. A cop was interviewed shortly after arresting Petit. He began stating on how he was ‘watching something that was once-in-a-lifetime thing, something nobody else would ever see in the world.’ Those feelings are terribly haunting to us viewers in a post-9/11 world and gives the film incredible emotion.

I’ve seen people cry and laugh, but it’s all in joy at this film. ‘Man on Wire’ is a hauntingly beautiful film, filled with a breath-taking score and joyful presence about itself. It was called the ‘Artistic Crime of the Century’, a foolish near-death attempt that in hindsight gave the WTC towers the symbolism that is has. Terrorism might have destroyed the towers physically, but Petit’s act stands tall in New York City folklore. A New Yorker commemorating the 5 year anniversary of the 9/11 attacks feature Petit floating in air walk on the wire with the two towers missing. That pretty sums it all up. Go see this film now.