Man On Wire

What an amazing subject for a documentary. I didn't see a thread about this yet.



Man On Wire (James Marsh, 2008)



Imagine walking for 200 feet on a wire roughly 1,300 feet in the air. That is what Frenchman Philippe Petit tried doing. The film brilliantly uses Petit's old video footage and photographs along with interviews of him from past and present. The current interviews of Petit were conducted for the sole purpose of this film. It's great to see a documentary that is being made with the help of the very subject. There are also actors for scenes which were never filmed in Petit's past to create a reinactment. Of course it's so seamlessly done, the viewer might not realize it. This is an amazing film about a man who risked everything he had; his friends, his love, his passport, his life in order to plan a scheme to walk a tight rope between New York City's two Twin Towers. Ridiculous, but you can't help but be pulled in by Petit's enthusiasm. He reminded me of Werner Herzog in his devotion to do something insane that defys all common sense. Petit's skill on the wire was not in question, but rather how to get the equipment and collaborators to the top of the towers without being first arrested. In this sense the film is as much of a heist film as is it a burglary with an excellent narrative. Where most films about the Twin Towers these days mourns them, this one simply celebrates them.

Grade: A

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You might want to head over to the poll for this month Movie Club

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Where is that? As a long time member, but seldom frequent visitor, I'm still trying to figure out the layout of this site.

Well, there's a big ol' "Movie Club" button in the site's header (the red one). There's a thread for the latest poll (which closed on the 8th) in the General Movie Discussion forum (first one on the home page). We just voted Man On Wire as our Movie Club selection, and a thread's going up to talk about it on the 15th.

Let me know if there's anything I can do to help you navigate the site more smoothly.

Oh don't worry. I'm just blind. After I posted that I found it. The poll's closed now, but Man On Wire won as you said, so my vote wouldn't have counted.

Do you double dip threads? What I mean to say is that since there's going to be a thread on Man On Wire in the movie club forum, can there also be one here as well?

Hard to say -- we certainly discourage duplicate topics, but this is a slightly different animal. But it would be kind of counter-productive, as both threads would be vying for discussion on the same movie.

If you don't have any objection, I'd probably like to leave this up until the new one's posted, and then close it with a link to the newer thread when available.

Or, if you'd rather, I can merge this one into the new one, and maybe fake a timestamp so your review looks as if it was posted later. Whaddya think?

Open to ideas, as well, of course.

I kind of think you oughta leave it where it is viddy. Besides the movie discussion will end and get archived at some point but new folks will always come here and post their thoughts as time goes on. Especially after this doc takes Best Documentary during the Oscar's, which I suspect it will.

Nice write up by the way.

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We are both the source of the problem and the solution, yet we do not see ourselves in this light...

Either way works with me. I am still getting accustomed to where things go at the site. I'll leave it up to the powers that be. As long as it doesn't get erased.

Also... Yoda... I'm thinking about making this a new home as MJ isn't doing so hot these days, so I would like to get a member review thread if that'd be OK.

Oh it won't get erased. Yoda rarely deletes anything from around here. Kind of cool of him actually. Threads get closed from time to time but I rarely see him or any of the mods delete a thread unless its full of spam that is or a member asks for it.

If you start up an "Iluv2viddy a review" thread or something to that effect just put it here in this section of the forum and after awhile it will get pinned up above.

sounds good.

PW speaks the truth. We usually wait for a thread to get a fair number of reviews in it, and then we pin it. Mainly because plenty of those threads fall by the wayside after a handful of reviews.

And yeah, we don't usually delete threads. We'll close them more often, or merge then when we can. Even threads that appear to be deleted actually aren't (with some rare exceptions). They're usually just moved into a private forum, so people can always appeal if they want.

Anyway, I'm flattered that you're thinking of posting here more. Naturally, you're more than welcome. Don't hesitate to ask me or one of the mods (Sedai, Caitlyn, Destiny, Sir Toose) if you have any questions about rules, features, standard practices, etc.

Sounds good. I usually post quite a few capsule reviews. I'll be over here a lot more as my precious moviejustice has seen it's hayday come and go I think. It's still there, but there's more tumbleweeds than posters.

That's the place where I stole Holden away to for awhile and where mark f had many a jolly good time complaining to me about my hate for Spielberg before he stumbled on MoFo.

So yes. I've been a long time member, but it's really only been a vacation spot up until now. I think I'll finally move in. Sure beats that other ROTTEN site. And not the one with all the purty pictures either.

I am planning to watch it and can't wait anymore.