The film is a documentary but it could be advertised as a thriller. Even to Petit, who is a world-class dreamer, it was clear that no one was going to give him permission to string a cable between the two towers and then go out there and clown around. So Petit needed to find out what the roofs of the towers were like. How would he anchor the cable? And then there was the matter of how was he going to get the 450 lbs of equipment and cable up there? And how was he to get it across to the other tower? This took a lot of planning and reconnaissance. The producers found most everyone who had been involved and their interviews tell a riveting story. It is a lot like a bank heist movie, except that it isn't a conspiracy for money, it is conspiracy for art. The interviews of Philippe Petit are particularly engaging. He is an ebullient pixie of a man who seems the perfect con artist. And he must have been. How else could have he have talked so many people into helping him with this highly illegal and extremely dangerous stunt?
People who haven't seen the movie will likely think that labeling this as art is absurd. But consider that no moving pictures exist of Petit's perambulations. Petit and his friends didn't go up there to shoot a documentary and get rich. They went up there on a lark, to do something really amazing. Maybe this was art and maybe it was the greatest stupid stunt of all time. You'll have to decide for yourself. But wait to make up your mind until near the end of the film when you will see a photograph of Petit standing mid-wire 1,350 feet above the pavement and grinning from ear to ear. You'll never be able to forget that image, and if that isn't art, it is something very close.
The film could also be advertised as an examination of the American Dream, except for the fact that it was a French Dream and when Petit came in off of the wire, he was arrested and taken directly to a mental health facility to have his sanity checked. As he was being taken away, reporters shouted "Why did you do it?" Petit replied, "There is no why." In the film he comments on how "American" such a question was. Are Americans really so lacking in imagination; so lacking in the ability to dream impossible things and to see poetry balancing between the towers? Are we really only a nation of bureaucrats and liability attorneys? Perhaps Petit is indulging in a bit of Gallic ribbing here. Anyone can have dreams, and this film will show anyone with a soul and a glimmer of youth that it is true that nothing is impossible.
Although the ultimate fate of the World Trade Center is not mentioned or even alluded to in the film, it provides a constant subtext. Today it is hard to believe that Petit's really-high-wire act actually happened. You certainly couldn't do something like it today. In August of 1974 it had only been 20 months since a man had last walked on the moon. It was only 34 years ago, but it seems much longer. Since then our dreams have become small while our fears have become large. "Man On Wire" will lift your spirits and make you think about your dreams.
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