Friday, August 1st, 2008

Man On A Wire

In 1974, a rag tag band of dreamers took over the World Trade Center for 45 minutes. In a scheme consisting of half assed plans, a dedicated band of circus hippies strung a wire between the World Trade 1 and 2 and simply walked across it.The world stared in awe. “Man on a Wire” captures the festivity of a caper of sheer crackpottery.

For seven years we have been mourning the loss of the World Trade Center. There have been countless movies and History Channel fare that explores the devastation of this national icon. Finally, there is a movie that celebrates what this symbol actually meant. The result is an eye-popping stunner of an adventure.

The trailer can viewed here.

Part historical reference and part heist movie, MAN ON A WIRE, is the first indie documentary I have seen where the audience would find themselves audibly gasping at the grandeur that was the Word Trade Center.
All Philippe Petit has ever wanted to do was walk across tall monuments. After conquering Notre Dame and the Sydney, with subsequent arrests, the young Frenchman turned his sites on the newly constructed World Trade Center. He puts together a band of radicals (i.e. people we all knew in our twenties) to pull off the stunt. They assembled a now laughable (?) set of forged documents, a bow and arrow and all the passion they can muster. Somehow they pulled it off. It was simply a moment that was meant to be.

Director James Marsh has pulled together some amazing 8 and 16mm home movie footage. For some reason these once “hi-tech” devices capture breathtaking cinematography that no Imax digitally enhanced image could ever provide. Sometimes more grain is more. Sometimes less planning is more. Sometimes you just have to get off your ass and do it.

There hasn’t been Batman type hype about this movie. However, it did an extremely impressive $25,000 per screen average in New York last week.

If you can find it in your neck of the woods definitely run (damn caution!) to go see MAN ON A WIRE.

In 1974, a rag tag band of dreamers took over the World Trade Center for 45 minutes. In a scheme consisting of half assed plans, a dedicated band of circus hippies strung a wire between the World Trade 1 and 2 and simply walked across it.The world stared in awe. “Man on a Wire” captures the festivity of a caper of sheer crackpottery.

For seven years we have been mourning the loss of the World Trade Center. There have been countless movies and History Channel fare that explores the devastation of this national icon. Finally, there is a movie that celebrates what this symbol actually meant. The result is an eye-popping stunner of an adventure.

The trailer can viewed here.

Part historical reference and part heist movie, MAN ON A WIRE, is the first indie documentary I have seen where the audience would find themselves audibly gasping at the grandeur that was the Word Trade Center.
All Philippe Petit has ever wanted to do was walk across tall monuments. After conquering Notre Dame and the Sydney, with subsequent arrests, the young Frenchman turned his sites on the newly constructed World Trade Center. He puts together a band of radicals (i.e. people we all knew in our twenties) to pull off the stunt. They assembled a now laughable (?) set of forged documents, a bow and arrow and all the passion they can muster. Somehow they pulled it off. It was simply a moment that was meant to be.

Director James Marsh has pulled together some amazing 8 and 16mm home movie footage. For some reason these once “hi-tech” devices capture breathtaking cinematography that no Imax digitally enhanced image could ever provide. Sometimes more grain is more. Sometimes less planning is more. Sometimes you just have to get off your ass and do it.

There hasn’t been Batman type hype about this movie. However, it did an extremely impressive $25,000 per screen average in New York last week.

If you can find it in your neck of the woods definitely run (damn caution!) to go see MAN ON A WIRE.