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Man on Wire
Universal acclaim
Based on 31 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 42 votes
Read user comments
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Movie Info
Genre(s): Documentary
Written by:
Directed by: James Marsh
Release Date:
Theatrical: July 25, 2008
DVD: December 9, 2008
Running Time: 90 minutes, Color
Origin: UK
Language(s): English | French
Summary
RATING: PG-13 for some sexuality and nudity, and drug references
Starring Philippe Petit
On August 7th 1974, a young Frenchman named Philippe Petit stepped out on a wire illegally rigged between New York's twin towers, then the world’s tallest buildings. After nearly an hour dancing on the wire, he was arrested, taken for psychological evaluation, and brought to jail before he was finally released. Following six and a half years of dreaming of the towers, Petit spent eight months in New York City planning the execution of the coup. Aided by a team of friends and accomplices, Petit was faced with numerous extraordinary challenges: he had to find a way to bypass the WTC’s security; smuggle the heavy steel cable and rigging equipment into the towers; pass the wire between the two rooftops; anchor the wire and tension it to withstand the winds and the swaying of the buildings. The rigging was done by night in complete secrecy. At 7:15 AM, Philippe took his first step on the high wire 1,350 feet above the sidewalks of Manhattan… James Marsh’s documentary brings Petit’s extraordinary adventure to life through the testimony of Philippe himself, and some of the co-conspirators who helped him create the unique and magnificent spectacle that became known as “the artistic crime of the century.” (Magnolia Pictures)
Also On The Web: Internet Movie Database Official Studio Site
What The Critics Said
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum
The gorgeous music includes Ralph Vaughan Williams' wafting tone poem ''The Lark Ascending'' -- apt in describing an artist who might well be part bird.
Read Full Review >Chicago Tribune Michael Phillips
The film itself is perfectly poised between artistry and audacity. It's beautiful.
Read Full Review >Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert
Man on Wire is about the vanquishing of the towers by bravery and joy, not by terrorism.
Read Full Review >Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern
James Marsh's documentary raises the bar for the genre to skyscraper height.
Read Full Review >Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan
This is a police procedural, if you will, about what's been called the artistic crime of the century.
Read Full Review >Washington Post Ann Hornaday
Thanks to Marsh's sensitive storytelling, Man on Wire manages to put Petit's performance into another, more ineffable realm: What began as a caper turned into poetry, and poetry became a prayer.
Read Full Review >Baltimore Sun Michael Sragow
One of the favorite sayings of journalists and politicians is "You don't want to see how the sausage is made." Marsh's movie says you do want to see how a miracle is made, even if the details can be just as unsavory.
Read Full Review >Boston Globe Ty Burr
The sight is magical and heartbreaking in equal measure. Look, the movie says: Where so many would fall, a man walks on air.
Read Full Review >Portland Oregonian Marc Mohan
Takes on the air of a heist film as the preparations proceed, and even knowing the outcome, tension still remains.
Read Full Review >Seattle Post-Intelligencer William Arnold
An engrossing study in abnormal psychology, an inspirational drama that tells us a determined man really can do anything his mind can envision and is the first film that plays on what could become a phenomenon of the new millennium: World Trade Center nostalgia.
Read Full Review >Christian Science Monitor Peter Rainer
Petit, by the way, is still very much alive and spry. I saw him at a screening of the film at the Sundance Film Festival where he spoke to the audience afterwards. On his way up to the podium, he tripped.
Read Full Review >The New York Times A.O. Scott
Thorough, understated and altogether enthralling documentary.
Read Full Review >The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Kamal AL-Solaylee
Marsh's most remarkable directorial achievement, however, is preserving the original sense of amazement and awe when watching historical footage and still photographs of Petit walking that tightrope up in the sky.
Read Full Review >Philadelphia Inquirer Carrie Rickey
He had the fearlessness of a 104-story man and something more than a daredevil's brass.
Read Full Review >Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman
Wallenda once said, "Life is being on the wire; everything else is just waiting." This film makes that motto ring true.
Read Full Review >TV Guide Ken Fox
The film runs 95 minutes, and you'll be holding your breath for most of them.
Read Full Review >New York Daily News Joe Neumaier
History has made his midair stroll meaningful, but the film shows how even then, everyone - from Petit to his accomplices to the cops who were waiting for him atop the North Tower - recognized the stunt's crazy poetry.
Read Full Review >Salon.com Andrew O'Hehir
Speaking as one New Yorker who lived through 9/11 and saw this film with a packed house of natives at its Tribeca Film Festival premiere, I experienced Man on Wire as an almost mystical incantation.
Read Full Review >Slate Dana Stevens
Man on Wire brings back a time when the towers were still symbols of aspiration and possibility.
Read Full Review >Village Voice Anthony Kaufman
While largely lighthearted, Petit's walk and Marsh's film take on new meaning post-9/11. Man on Wire never mentions the events of that day, but the Trade Center's collapse continues to weigh on Petit, as if its destruction was every bit as tragic as the human lives lost that day.
Read Full Review >Film Threat Margot Gerber
Pre the events of 9/11, the film might have simply been an entertaining, high risk tale of a death-defying feat related in both interviews, archival footage and photos and Marsh's usual meticulous and creative re-enactment vignettes. Post 9/11 you find yourself marveling that a man in far away France became smitten with the twin towers long before they became the target of terrorist attacks.
Read Full Review >New York Magazine David Edelstein
The most miraculous thing about Man on Wire is not the physical feat itself, 1,350 feet above the ground, but that as you watch it, the era gone, the World Trade Center gone, the movie feels as if it's in the present tense. That nutty existentialist acrobat pulled it off. For an instant, he froze time.
Read Full Review >Premiere Priya Jain
Much of this story is indeed entertaining: there's a tone of lighthearted mischievousness to the plotting and scheming of an illegal act that is essentially harmless.
Read Full Review >ReelViews James Berardinelli
A fascinating time capsule: a combination of talking-head interviews, actual footage, and re-creations that evokes a kinder, gentler world and provides insight into one of the most audacious stunts of the 20th century.
Read Full Review >Chicago Reader J.R. Jones
In archival photos Petit seems to float between the towers, a tiny black figure against a vivid blue sky; the images are all the more poignant for the unstated fact that Petit is still around when the buildings aren't.
Read Full Review >The Onion (A.V. Club) Noel Murray
It's a story worth telling, yes--but after 90 minutes, it's hard not to wonder if the storyteller can talk about anything else.
Read Full Review >What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this movie is 8.1 (out of 10) based on 42 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
Andrew D gave it a2:
The story is mildly interesting, but is told in such a self indulgent way that it is hard to stomach. They talk about breaking into the WTC and setting up their wire as if they were pulling off some great robbery, sorry but it's more like the time my buddies and I snuck into the Dolphins stadium to take pictures of ourselves with "GO CUBS" painted on our chests. The tight rope walker, Phillipe, wants to martyr himself so badly that he says, the police threw him down a flight of stairs and that he didn't know if he would be put in jail for the rest of his life or what. He continued on because he had to fullfill his dream no matter the cost. Give me a break, his punishment for this feat was to put on a street show for some kids and the city dropped all the charges. Oh and look what he does to his mates and his girlfriend once the feat is completed. He comes off to me as self absorbed, self-centered jerk. The wire walk between the towers in itself is a beautiful site to behold, but I don't see why it warrants 90 minutes of contrived build-up. I still don't understand why they couldn't just ask to setup the wire instead of all the cloak and dagger BS. People shoot movies in NYC all the time and it would provide great publicity for the towers which had just been built at the time. Why would the city say no? The Notre Dam walk I understand not asking there since it is church, but come on - NYC? Sign a few waivers and go knock yourself out, why not? This doc is a waste of time.
Bad Movie gave it a0:
Worst movie known to man. Dramatizations really ruin a documentary and this one is full of them. Main character is completely full of himself and makes you want to hate him despite his semi-cool caper. The recent doc on Joy Division was 100 times better. I am a democrat and I now use the term "freedom fries" instead of "French fries" after watching this. Dont be fooled by the reviews like I was, the emperor has no clothes.
Richard S gave it a2:
I don't understand why people like this movie at all. The best I can think of is that it involves some kind of symbolic recoding of the WTC event of 2001. I thought the movie was overwrought and that everyone in it seemed stupid. I was not surprised when one of the accomplices said his memory was foggy because he used to smoke too much pot; they all talk like pot-heads. This film is like an exercise in mind control; you have these lunatics histrionically telling you how amazed you're supposed to be and then they don't give you anything to be amazed at. If the tone had been less strident, it would have been a better film. In fact, I feel that the filmmaker's tendency to blow up every detail out of proportion deflates any value that might be inherent in this dumb story.
holly c gave it a9:
This is a thoroughly awesome yet subtly moving documentary on Phillip Petit's wirewalk of the WTC towers in 1974. I think Ebert's review log line kind of sets the right description for the way "Man on Wire" sits with you. 9/11 is understood throughout but never explicitly mentioned and with good reason. It is a story of the triumph of creativity, art and life in the face of death and destruction. Bravo Marsh.
william C gave it a9:
Very watchable. I was surprised since the subject matter is something I had no interest in.
Jeremy V. gave it a10:
Philippe is a emotionally captivating story-teller, and meeting him through the film is worth every penny. The story was surprisingly moving, and beautifully personifies the French ideal of "beauty" and "art". Upon completing the feat, people kept asking why they did it and with their French ideals they didn't understand why there had to be a reason - it was art-beauty, nothing more.
[Anonymous] gave it a6:
I normally love documentaries, but this bored me. I just don't understand why this was so well-reviewed.
