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I wrote about this in Movie Tab II a few weeks ago. This is what I said:
By now, most people should understand that my ratings tend to be lower than most raters. I really did enjoy the film, but when I went ahead and watched it a second time, I came away with most of the same feelings. Although I don't especially find the recreations a debit, I believe that there are quite a few more, sprinkled throughout the film, than Tatty does. It's not so much that they negate from the awesome accomplishment, it's that it opens the door to providing embroidery to what actually happened and how it happened. I have no reason to believe that anybody lied about all the various flying back and forth, getting and losing accomplices and the timelines. I believe it basically went down the way they say. It just seems to me, without the recreations, they don't really have enough material for a full-blooded documentary feature.
Now, I want to say that what they do have is spectacular, intense, humorous and often poetic. I agree with Tatty that the use of music is inspired, and the new theme conducted by Michael Nyman is a super cool-sounding heist movie-type piece. I was almost as enthralled with Petit's capers at Notre Dame and Sydney as I was with his pièce de résistance. I'm about 95% certain that it will win Best Documentary Feature, although I'm still waiting to see what else gets nominated. Let's see, I'm starting to ramble, but I also have to wonder, like mikey, about the inclusion of the A Clockwork Orange-type, sped-up sex scene thrown into the ending of the film, apparently for "full disclosure". During both of my viewings, I felt like I was just about to cross over a line where the movie completely won me over, but just as I was expecting maybe another two or three minutes of transcendence, the end credits began to roll.
Man on Wire (James Marsh, 2008)
I know, my rating seems a little low for a film depicting a real-life incident almost completely unbelievable, not to mention often exciting and funny. Perhaps, I'll raise my rating next time, but this is still a recommendation for a film which somehow left me feeling as if I was missing a little something. Maybe it was because it wasn't as documented visually as I was hoping, but then again, what did I expect? I know how things were in 1974 when Frenchman Philippe Petit and his small crew of linesmen and helpers made it to the top of the World Trade Center, and Petit proceeded to walk back and forth between the Twin Towers for 45 minutes with no safety cable, while the police try to remove him for violating the law by being "man on wire" (according to the NYPD citation). I will rewatch the film and change my rating if I deem it necessary. I liked the offbeat humor the film displays, but sometimes it seems a bit extended.
I know, my rating seems a little low for a film depicting a real-life incident almost completely unbelievable, not to mention often exciting and funny. Perhaps, I'll raise my rating next time, but this is still a recommendation for a film which somehow left me feeling as if I was missing a little something. Maybe it was because it wasn't as documented visually as I was hoping, but then again, what did I expect? I know how things were in 1974 when Frenchman Philippe Petit and his small crew of linesmen and helpers made it to the top of the World Trade Center, and Petit proceeded to walk back and forth between the Twin Towers for 45 minutes with no safety cable, while the police try to remove him for violating the law by being "man on wire" (according to the NYPD citation). I will rewatch the film and change my rating if I deem it necessary. I liked the offbeat humor the film displays, but sometimes it seems a bit extended.
Now, I want to say that what they do have is spectacular, intense, humorous and often poetic. I agree with Tatty that the use of music is inspired, and the new theme conducted by Michael Nyman is a super cool-sounding heist movie-type piece. I was almost as enthralled with Petit's capers at Notre Dame and Sydney as I was with his pièce de résistance. I'm about 95% certain that it will win Best Documentary Feature, although I'm still waiting to see what else gets nominated. Let's see, I'm starting to ramble, but I also have to wonder, like mikey, about the inclusion of the A Clockwork Orange-type, sped-up sex scene thrown into the ending of the film, apparently for "full disclosure". During both of my viewings, I felt like I was just about to cross over a line where the movie completely won me over, but just as I was expecting maybe another two or three minutes of transcendence, the end credits began to roll.