In passing, I had heard of the man who had walked across the Twin Towers on a tightrope. I racked it in my brain along with equally bizarre feats: the guy who crashed down Niagara Falls in a barrel, Evil Knievel jumping sixteen cars on his motorcycle, David Blaine being David Blaine—they’re all there together. I already knew the outcome; he made it across. It’s interesting and all, but I was skeptical of Man On Wire, a feature length documentary that focuses entirely on a single fleeting moment. Does the tightrope walker, Philippe Petit have a drug addiction and in his recovery realizes that he must fulfill his childhood dream of becoming a circus performer? Is he doing this as a means for funding an expensive surgery for his terminally ill child? Is it an extreme method for conquering his fear of heights? How is filmmaker James Marsh possibly going to engage me with ninety-four minutes of tightrope walking, and what melodramatic background story was he going to try and scam me with?
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