Man On Wire
While watching Man On Wire, I kept wondering to myself, “Why isn’t that guy bugging the crap out of me? He’s tweeing around the streets of Paris on a unicycle with his Mick Jagger hair and a top hat, juggling — I should kind of want to kill that guy. Why don’t I want to kill that guy?”
My theory: it’s his Frenchness. An American named Philip Little, wearing the rainbow Dr-Pepper-guy suspenders and erecting his own wire-walking set in his backyard? Annoying. Philippe Petit doing the same thing, with no discernible source of income save the aforementioned fey busking? Charming. Weird, monomaniacal, wouldn’t want to date him, but he made a good hero. Well, until the end there.
And that end felt rushed, a little bit, especially after the build-up to the walk between the Towers, with the whole crew hiding under tarps and behind bulkheads and so on for like eight hours, but then, what else is there to say? The man walked on a wire between the Twin Towers. He, like, hung out up there. Lay down. Teased the police. For close to an hour. Once it’s over, it’s over.
And I wondered about that, too, after the movie — once you’ve pulled off a stunt like that and survived, then what? What do you look forward to, down on the ground?
It’s a great movie, a good mix of interviews and old footage and absolutely dizzying stills from the Towers walk that made me glad I hadn’t seen it on the big screen. I have the worst balance of an abled person ever; I couldn’t stay on a wire if you laid it flat on the ground. Some of the photos, I had to lie down.
Tags: movies Philippe Petit
Glad to know I’m not the only one freaked out by those images. Your balance is almost certainly better than mine.
My mother used to watch Fear Factor, and whenever they’d do the stunts that involved Human Fly-ing up a building or whatever, I’d find myself sweating and clutching the floor.
My father dragged me up a mountain not long ago. I still get lightheaded thinking about it.
Yerrgghh, Petit gave me the wig in a big way when I was young. Either people who do that sort of thing are actually hardwired (heh) differently than the rest of us, or are able somehow to tamp down the massive-heart-attack-from-terror factor. In which case they’re hardwired differently from the rest of us. I mean, I like heights, but enjoying the view from a safe vantage point is one thing, and teetering over a thousand feet or so of nothing but air is another entirely. Whenever I see those photos or videos, it’s all I can do to keep breathing.
This is not meant flippantly, but: Wasn’t it difficult, emotionally, to watch him walk between those two particular towers? I mean, I’m hoping not, but you were there and I wasn’t. I’m sorry if that’s clumsily asked or explained.
Urp. Just thinking about it makes me want to barf. I got dizzy at the top of the Space Needle.
@Jaybird: I’d expected it to be a little weird, but it wasn’t; I’m not sure why it wasn’t. Maybe because it was removed from the context of 9/11 entirely, it wasn’t bothersome.
What was a little strange was seeing them at that particular time, when they were just…”born,” for lack of a better word. They were my age, in a way, and I tend to forget among everything else that’s attached to them symbolically now that they had this lifespan that was really short, building-wise.
I went to the top of the Empire and, oy, never again. My husband and I are trying to plan a trip to take him to NYC for the first time, and I’ve already informed him that if he wants to go up, he’s on his own. Been there, done that, stood on the balcony for about 5 minutes before planting myself in the gift shop until my aunt was finished taking pictures.
I think there’s good psychological/biological evidence to suggest that thrill seekers (if Petit can be called that) process adrenaline differently from the daring-impaired among us, and that there is such a thing as heavy a “head for heights.” As for me, I got dizzy staring up at the top of the Eiffel Tower from the pavement. I went up to the top of the Empire State Building once and went nowhere near the so-called Observation Deck – as if! I have pretty major balance issues – or rather, I have only one balance issue: I have no sense of balance whatever. I don’t think I could watch Man On Wire on a bet.
See? I get all ferhoodled even talking about this stuff. “Having a head for heights,” rather.
I have horrible nightmares about ending up on narrow, rocking bridges and long wooden planks that spread out over huge canyons and other things I’ve never been near but somehow manage to dream about. The Empire State Building doesn’t bother me, and the Twin Towers didn’t bother me (the only time I went, obviously many years ago, it was just hot and sticky and miserable), but the thought of any kind of travel over any kind of anything that isn’t at least the size of the Brooklyn Bridge just terrifies me for some reason.
I can see here I’m not alone. “High Anxiety,” anyone? :)
I went to the Wikipedia entry on Petit, and the cop’s account of his jumping up and down on the wire left me putting my head on my knees. Because he wasn’t just taunting the cops; he was waggling his metaphorical yarbles at a chainsaw.
Was literally just talking about this movie and how afraid of seeing it I am. Those picture make me incredibly nervous. But it looks great.
Oh, SEE it. I don’t like heights, and that only made it more amazing. “Man on Wire” will make you happy to be alive, and that’s pretty great.
It’s such a wistful thing to see the Twin Towers onscreen now. Older cop shows, movies etc. – I always say “Hi, guys, we miss you” when they show up.
Honestly, I did kind of dislike him, but only in a weird sort of…well, it may be what you’re describing as “wouldn’t want to date him.”
Interestingly, I saw the movie not long after I read “Night Of The Gun” by David Carr, and it was a great pair of stories for making one realize that you can enjoy someone telling his own story EVEN IF you don’t really buy his take on his own tale. You don’t have to buy into the perspective someone offers on his own life (I think they both fancy themselves more heroic than they are) in order to enjoy the telling.
EVERYONE should see this movie! I’ve never been so inspired by anyone on this planet before. He friggin highwired between the twin towers – HELLO? I went to see this at a local art theatre and it was a trip on the big screen. I flipped out. Heart palpitations, panic attacks. Then, I begged my local library to order it. They did. I got it home and watched it over and over. And every night I’d wake up with the images in my mind and a feeling of suffocating. I would think “Man, he walked between the towers on a 7/8″ cable”. And I’d feel like I was on it looking down. And I swear the rush/feeling was unlike anything ever when I was taking drugs. I am completely enamoured by Philippe Petit. I am considering driving to NY to talk to him. Everyone I know is boring. This guy is not boring. He’s got lust for life. I wish more people had passion for something. God Bless Philippe! See the film and listen to Led Zeppelin :)