Saroj Lamichhane
Production Editor
‘Man on Wire’ is a documentary made in 2008 about a French tightrope walker. It reveals the struggle of a man, Philippe Petit, who walked on a wire between the two towers of the World Trade Center. He danced on the wire without a safety net before he got arrested and finally the world recognized him and his efforts as an “artistic crime of the century.”
The documentary shows the power of passion for someone to do something. Without passion, everything is impossible. It is interesting to see someone struggling passionately and a perfect example of it is when Philippe Petit decides to walk on the sky in Lower Manhattan in New York City. He walks back and forth for almost 45 minutes.
After a few years, Philippe was a cherished footnote in the annals of New York City. It is considered as one of the awful, crazy, glittering eras in the life of New York City. Philippe was not born and raised in the U.S., and the destruction of the twin towers by the terrorist attack on Sept. 11, 2001, reminded the people of this when the incident took place in the city.
The documentary was released when James Marsh understood and came up with an idea for it. The storytelling is wise at it reveals the situation and struggle of the character. If this documentary would have transformed into a movie, it would not make sense to the audience to believe the incident. People will observe the arch of struggle by a passionate walker as he draws an imaginary line to walk on a rope. There are various questions that may arise while watching this documentary. What kind of person is Philippe? Why does he want to perform it? Is this wise or a life-threatening? The unstoppable Philippe finally decides and conquers the success.
The documentary is interesting in a way that Philippe is energetic and optimistic towards his job. He seems as an idealist man. A hard worker deserves success, not a failure. In fact, Philippe faces a lot of challenges and obstacles while doing it. He had practiced a lot and generated a sense of mission and artistic vision before deciding to walk between the two tallest towers in Manhattan.
The task of Philippe woulhave been impossible with out the belief of his brave friends and supporters and his lover. His confidence let him move forward toward his goal. The documentary thrills the audience and makes it hard to believe. Before the walk in Manhattan, he had already walked in Paris and Sydney. Of course, there was a tension created while a group of people leading forward for a dangerous goal and not being able to refuse it.
There is a significant perspective from the makers of the movie, but evidence that Marsh tries to show throughout the movie is worth watching and analyzing. The documentary is about creating emotion, astonishment, and success. A question may arise, will challenges make someone successful? It depends on the person like Philippe. One must have passion, encouragement, support, dedication, research, and practices.
Talking heads are used in the movie to tell the story in a certain direction. There are important clips of Philippe walking on a wire, but narration through the talking heads tell the audience what to think and where to go for analysis. It is a Cinema Verite type of film. The cinematic opening with the narration of Philippe and the B-roll footages excites audience to follow the story behind it. There is a proper use of lights, background music, and handheld shots. The style of film noir has been created purposely to represent the time. Talking heads have perfect lighting and all of them are in RGB mode. Older footages are in BW mode. There is no voice of God narration in the movie. The performative mode is on as filmmakers decide how and when to tell the specific story in the movie. Although a documentary is about truth, there has to be someone directing or leading for it. For instance, if this movie would have no background sound and a relevant question to the interview, it would be off the story.
The sequences were logically ordered by representing his origination, struggles in life and his workout for the ultimate goal. This drives a movie in a Poetic mode. There is a perspective involved in the making of this documentary when Philippe walks on the rope between the tower, different music would work with various reflection to the audience’s perspective. Cinematic inspirational music would inspire the viewers on the subject; an orchestral cinematic transformation convey the message of changes. or conclude the story. Thus, there is a perspective of the filmmakers involved in the movie. The presence of some authentic scenes that are not transformed.
It is a perfect example of well-edited documentary because it tries to combine two or more than two shots to establish the film’s credibility and aesthetics. This is also known as one of the expository films as there are talking heads involved with a logical explanation of each scene. Few intertitle texts are involved in the movie. The movie is more focused on the incident rather than the dates and information. Transitions like cut and fade in/fade out are widely used in the movies. Cut reveals the spontaneous changes in the action, dissolve is used to connect the difference between the time interval of two related incidents. Fade in and Fade out in the movie had represented the time pass of the event. There are some establishing shots of the World Trade Center and the practice ground.
The takeaway from the movie is teamwork matters. If there is no one in Philippe’s life, he would have not been able to succeed in his aim. Things had gone wrong, but people around him supported him to do his work and he achieve that success. Watching ‘Man on Wire feels like’ watching a fiction movie. There is a romance between Philippe and his wife. There are struggles and co-operations among friends. It somehow follows the arc of the three-act movie structure. At the end of the movie, the police find Philippe walking on the rope from one building to the other in the World Trade Center. This acts as tension in the movie. And, finally, he surrenders himself to the police. It becomes the resolution of the movie.
