Man on Wire gets your attention from the get go to the very last scene like a heist movie. Its one of those movies that could inspire you to let go of the handle bar doing 70 or try doing a stoppie at the next red light, if you happen to ride a motorcyle to the theatre. But, Man of Wire was not just about a man wanting to walk between the twin towers. It was also a character study of the man, Philippe Petit, the man on wire, and the few people surrounding him in his Twin Towers "heist". The relationship between Philippe and his girlfriend was certainly typical of a relationship between a dreamy charismatic person and the girl who wants to weave her life around him. Such relationships prove to be the very core, the very support system for these people to pursue their dreams. The friendship between Philippe and his partner in crime, Jean-Louis Blondeau, also seem to suggest this kind of an unusual productive relationship. It was an assymetric partnership where Philippe's mind was set only on walking between the Twin Towers on a wire and Jean-Louis found satisifaction in helping Philippe achieve his dream. There would have been no man, nor a wire between the two buildings without any one of the two. The other relationships in the film are less intriguing. We want the society to keep us busy, or we will find weird ways to keep ourselves busy. The other two characters in the heist were in it for the adventure!
Theres the visionary, then there are followers who are are drawn towards the visionary, more than his vision. The documentary surprisingly brings this idea out, when Jean-Louis breaks down into tears when he talks about how the smile on Philippe's face, midway between the two towers, told him that Philippe was alright. People were drawn towards Buddhism not by virtue of what Buddha said, but by Buddha's beautiful serene smiling face! Philippe Petit spent 45 minutes on the wire and did almost eight walks between the two towers before he was forced to end it by the police. The people, half a kilometer below, could only see a small speck of a man, dressed in black, walking in the clouds!
"It's impossible, that's sure. So let's start working."
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