Some people are born mad, in a way that makes them lightning rods of inspiration for humanity: certain explorers, artists, inventors present the more timid of us with proof that the impossible can be made to come true.
In the summer of 1974, French tightrope walker Philippe Petit walked back and forth between the tops of the World Trade Center towers performing a 48-minute routine on the high wire he'd illegally rigged between them with the help of friends, before he was arrested for disturbing the peace.
James Marsh's sublime documentary, its title taken from a police report document's description of the event: Man on Wire, is deservedly an Oscar front-runner. Already available on DVD, the film should be required viewing for all creative types. Certainly any writer should see it, perhaps on a yearly basis, as a kind of talisman for You Can Do It faith.
What Marsh both documents and recreates with actors is the story of a man who felt, the moment he laid eyes on a news article about the not-even-built-yet towers, that he was meant to walk between them on a wire. After successfully walking between the towers of Notre Dame and across the top of Sydney Harbor Bridge, he schemed, plotted and against all rational odds, ended up where he'd long dreamed of being.
Philippe Petit, on his first reconaissance mission to check out his projected site: We are at the top of the world. I see two slabs of concrete, barely inhabited with some construction, no fence, no net, nothing, and I am frozen to death. I see the other tower, and I imagine the void, and if I were to run and slide I would just fall to another life. And slowly I thought, okay, now it's impossible, that's sure. So let's start working.
There's something so profoundly mythic about Petit's quest (he himself describes the arc of his life as a fairytale) that anyone watching the film can't help but see his or her own life-quest writ large. Ultimately the metaphor is absolutely clear: Everybody needs to string a cable between two towers and walk across it.
Petit: I didn't have any "why." To me it's really so simple: that life should be lived on the edge of life. You have to exercise rebellion. To refuse to taper yourself to rules, to refuse your own success, to refuse to repeat yourself, to see every day, every year, every idea as a true challenge, and then you are going to live your life on the tightrope.
The documentary sounds like a real interesting exploration of bizzare life choices. Would be VERY curious to see what Philippe Pettit had going on in his life. My point is: dude may not have had anything of substance to live for (wife, family friends), hence, "The what the cufk?" attitude.
"Everybody needs to string a cable between two towers and walk across it." And YOU, Mr. Mernit, with a deep romantic bend that dates into the 1920s. Why whatever are you suggesting, you wiley fox?
- E.C. Henry from Bonney Lake, WA
Posted by: E.C. Henry | January 11, 2009 at 10:20 PM
Wow. I really like this guy. Not just because I find extreme sense of balance cool -- but because he is, in the truest way, a rebel.
Posted by: j | January 12, 2009 at 06:28 AM
Such a great movie - did you love David Forman in it??? I almost choked when I saw him on the screen. What a lovely, more innocent time. True inspiration, true dedication to living one's life in art and in the present.
Posted by: binnie | January 12, 2009 at 04:49 PM
As someone who is afraid of heights,my stomach did a flip just looking at that photograph,
thinking,"Oh my God why?"But of course it is the people like Philippe, who give those of us who are more pedestrian that wonderful spark of inspiration.
What a wonderful way to look at challenges..."okay its impossible,
that's sure.So let's start walking." I think that's another quote for my vision board.
Posted by: Judith Duncan | January 12, 2009 at 11:17 PM
Saw some clips from the movie today and it looks beautiful. A lot of symbolism there. And on top of it, what a strange feeling to see the man between those two buildings, knowing they will collapse in the future...
Posted by: Anna from Sweden | January 13, 2009 at 01:56 AM
Oh, Mernit - that's one gorgeous metaphor! Thank you.
Posted by: Barbara | January 14, 2009 at 04:14 PM
Well done. Both the movie and your response to it. When the task is clearly impossible, the wire grows thin, the landing seems far, and the wind begins to move everything beyond reason, I'll think of Phillipe Petit and Billy Mernit.
Posted by: Phillip | January 16, 2009 at 10:40 AM
EC: Petit actually had plenty to live for. Check out the DVD and see what's up (so to speak).
j: rebel, rebel. to the bone.
binnie: Innocence, right. A fierce kind of innocence. David Forman was a kick.
Judith: One of the great quotes, ever!
Anna: I know, it's such a haunting subtext.
Barbara: You're welcome. But talk about picking something out of the air...
Phillip: What are you, a poet or something?
Posted by: mernitman | January 18, 2009 at 07:10 PM
I loved this movie, too, and have always had an inarticulated fascination with tightrope walkers. Thanks for the cogent words -- your ability to review what's essential is so great --
Posted by: ElizabethE | February 09, 2009 at 11:28 AM
Thank you ElizabethE!
Posted by: mernitman | February 09, 2009 at 11:38 AM
I have seen this documentary and can say that this is very unique and ambitious man with no fear at all. I loved his agenda and his views on life.
Posted by: download movies | September 12, 2010 at 03:36 AM