That was an excellent one.

Fresh and Exciting

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

In 1974, Philippe Petit does an illegal high wire walk between the twin towers at New York City's World Trade Center. Philippe, his girlfriend Annie, and his friends started working on wire-walks on various monuments. First it's in Paris and then it's the Sydney Habor Bridge. In NYC, they gather new comrades as the gang plans out a scheme to transport the material up to the top which is still under construction. After making the walk, Philippe is arrested. In his arrest record under Details of Complaint, the police had written "Man on Wire".Philippe's french accent is almost hypnotic. He is a man of real drive. It's a relatively simple documentary. The surprising aspect is how much of a caper story the scheme turns out to be. It's better than most fictional capers and Philippe's hyper descriptions are mesmerizing. The pictures of the walk are awesome. There is something beautiful about the whole story.

Interesting, and sometimes even exciting, documentary.The story of Frenchman Philippe Petit's daring tightrope-walk between the two towers of the World Trade Centre in 1974. Shows the backstory - him growing up, his previous escapades (including walking between two pylons of the Sydney Harbour Bridge), the planning of the World Trade Centre event, the setup and finally the execution of the event.Quite exciting. Even though he obviously survived (as he was interviewed for the documentary) you do feel all the tension and danger involved in his feat. Being scared of heights only made me even more anxious... All the planning and setup was intriguing too.With the documentary being made several years after 9/11, all the footage of the World Trade Centre is quite nostalgic.On the downside, I couldn't relate to why he would want to do something like that. Being fairly practical and plus risk-averse (plus, as mentioned before, having a fear of heights), I just could not see why did did it, or does what he does as a profession. In the movie, Philippe Petit tries to explain, as best he could, why he does what he does, and his explanation has some merit, but to me he is just taking unnecessary risks.Whatever his motivations, the movie still makes for enthralling viewing.

Man On Wire is possibly one of the best known stories of this century, telling about the amazing tightropist who crossed from the Twin Towers. However, it may be too well known, which makes this documentary dwindle in essence, giving us a prolonged account of the tightropist coming to his passion of crazy stunts. But in saying that, for those who don't know the story, this will be an exciting gem to view, giving a superbly directed documentary and some fascinating accounts of the illegal, yet not bad, stunt. Interesting to say the least, but all you want to see is the footage of a man crossing a wire 400 metres above the ground. You will feel terrified at stages, and the way they pulled off this daredevil trick feels like a real Oceans Eleven escapee. In all honesty though, not much is left to the imagination of you know the story beforehand, but still an exciting true story of one of the most feared phobias ever.

The movie sure did a great job in coming up with a screen time duration of more than one and a half hours out of this story, which is not really supported with adequate footage. The approach sets the movie way back by telling the background of Phillipe Petit. The thing is, it's strange that the movie consists heavily of interviews and with less dramatization or narration. It makes the movie didn't feel like a movie, but instead more like an expose. Another weird thing to see is that not all the people interviewed has the story-telling instinct as good as Petit himself. His expressiveness brings the whole thing to life, even without enough footage of the feats he's done.