Man on Wire
Man on Wire was the improvised and amusing description on a 1974 New York City police report describing the nature of a disturbance cause by an arrested Parisian street performer. Philippe Petit was the culprit and the wire you see was stretched between the then brand new World Trade Towers. The arrest took over an hour as Petit was in no hurry to wrap up his adventure and the police were understandably reserved about giving chase. After walking, lounging, even dancing across the expanse some 8 passes he finally surrendered to New York’s finest and became part of history. What has not been apparent until now and what makes this documentary so engrossing is how he actually set the stunt up. That story fleshes out the film so that it plays like some nail biting heist picture. It took a lot of time and plenty of trans-Atlantic planning just to set it up so that it almost seems like the stunt itself was the easy part. On top of a good story we find that the affable Frenchman is a charming rogue and on a subtle level we are left with a far more endearing memory of the World Trade Centre than what has brought it to the top of mind in recent years.