This is the first of what I’m going to call “Ticket Stubs,” posts about a movie, concert, or what-not that I’ve recently attended. When I was on Vox, I used to call these “At the Movies,” but now that I’m out from behind the closed system of Vox, I think I can no longer infringe upon what’s surely still Roger Ebert’s and/or Gene Siskel’s wife’s trademark.
C. and I went to see Man on Wire a couple weeks ago. I started this blog post about it but never finished. After hearing a nice piece about it on NPR this morning, I figured I’d resurrect this post.
The film is about Philippe Petit‘s illegal 1974 wirewalk between the World Trade Center towers, and it’s gotten rave reviews. I’d say it’s up there in my Top 10, maybe even Top 5. I’ve never made a Top Movies list, so I don’t know. It was, though, very moving in many ways.
Well, maybe two ways that I can easily think of.
1.) Petit’s determination to climb the tower and seeing how passionate he is about wirewalking made me reconsider an activity I had previously relegated in my mind to the status of circus sideshow nonsense. As practiced by Petit, it is a beautiful contemplative act. His passion for the art is infectious, as evidenced by all the people he is able to rope into his scheme. And very quickly into the movie, you, are hooked and eager to see how he pulls off his dream.
2.) It was nice to see footage of the towers being built and to have a window onto an era when a guy could, with some pluck, sneak in and pull off this stunt. I miss the towers and the more relaxed less effed-up pre-9/11 world.
3.) Seeing a portly, mustachioed cop, sent to bring Petit off the wire, sort of wax poetic about the wirewalk was also touching. He said something to the effect of, “I just stopped and watched. Here was something I knew, for the rest of my life, I would never see again.”
If this movie is playing near you, do go see it. But first, watch the trailer:
[YouTube]