I'm always fascinated by people who were apparently born knowing what they wanted to do and be. And that's the case with Phillippe Petit. The filmmakers of Man on Wire brilliantly juxtapose images of the construction of the Twin Towers and pictures of Petit's childhood. He was apparently a little impish French monkey, always climbing things and performing tricks. And everybody around him knew it and apparently accepted it. I won't give away too much of the documentary - although - obviously, the main character lives. But it is as much a story about Petit's accomplices in his 1974 trans-Tower wire walk as it is about him. What would you do if your best friend told you that the most important goal in his life was to string a wire between two tall buildings and walk across it? Would you help him? Knowing that he could die? And that you could also face harsh legal consequences?
The other really fascinating thing about Petit's clandestine plan was that he and his friends didn't get busted before they could pull it off. Amazing. The documentary mixes a series of reenactments with actual footage. Of course, watching Petit walking 476 meters above the streets of New York is breathtaking. Especially considering he walked across 8 times and was on the wire for 45 minutes.
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The thing that struck me more than anything about the movie was his sheer passion, his obsession for this one thing. That he simply couldn't live without accomplishing this. The line that stays with me most: "What a beautiful death: to die in the exercise of your passion." I would love to have a drive like that for something. Anything. Or, to even know someone who did.
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