Man on Wire (2008)
Average Rating: 8.4/10
Reviews Counted: 151
Fresh: 151 | Rotten: 0
James Marsh's doc about artist Phililppe Petit's artful caper brings you every ounce of suspense that can be wrung from a man on a (suspended) wire.
Average Rating: 8.5/10
Critic Reviews: 40
Fresh: 40 | Rotten: 0
James Marsh's doc about artist Phililppe Petit's artful caper brings you every ounce of suspense that can be wrung from a man on a (suspended) wire.
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Average Rating: 4.1/5
User Ratings: 25,038
Movie Info
On August 7, 1974, a 24-year-old French high-wire artist named Philippe Petit committed one of the most astonishing performance stunts of the late 20th century: he strung a thin cable in between the two towers of the World Trade Center and not only walked across, from one building to another, but did a nerve-wracking series of knee-bends and acrobatic movements on the cable, some 1,350 feet above the ground, before turning himself in. This occurred to the consternation and chagrin of Port
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Man on Wire Trailer & Photos
All Critics (154) | Top Critics (40) | Fresh (151) | Rotten (0) | DVD (6)
It all makes for an absorbing, mischievously amusing yarn, whose climax unfolds with unexpected emotional force.
Top CriticIn this exhilarating, palm-moistening documentary by British filmmaker James Marsh (Wisconsin Death Trip), the twin towers are back to celebrate one of their finest moments.
By any rational gauge, Petit's WTC obsession was flat-out crazy, but Marsh takes a limpid, nonjudgmental view of it all.
The erasure of the towers adds poignance and irony to a documented event that is inherently thrilling and beautiful.
Though we know how it ends, it unfolds with suspense. And though it lacks any discussion of the towers' destruction, it succeeds as a tribute to their birth.
James Marsh tells Petit's story, the most inspiring 'heist' in modern history, a Frenchman's stroll between two 110 story buildings in lower Manhattan.
The pains of the public eye are acknowledged just as much as the joy this artistic endeavour brought people.
Despite a known outcome, James Marsh's documentary offers sublime thrills - grafting the tense suspense of a heist film onto an existential dissection of artistic accomplishment and true friendship.
The tension builds incrementally, reaching almost unbearable heights at its dizzying climax.
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Interviewed today, Petit is a whale of a storyteller, and he recalls with relish the chilling details of that amazing day.
Man On Wire's cinematic tension that in the wire Philippe Petit balanced on as he walked between the Twin Towers in the history-making high wire stunt shown in this compelling documentary. The film's also a poignant memorial to the hallowed Twin To
Not only a fun heist movie but also a moving tale of spiritual uplift and beauty.
The details of how the event was planned and staged are fascinating, but a crucial element missing from the film is good cinematography of the actual event.
A feat like the one Philippe Petit pulled off deserves to be documented.
I would have found it easier to get emotionally invested in Le Coup (rather than abstractly awed) if I had a better sense of his coup de foudre.
Petit transforms his stories into mini-masterpieces of performance.
Man on Wire is absolutely breathtaking, a documentary as life-affirming as it is artistically intoxicating.
Present-day interviews and modern re-enactments provide the piece with its structure, but it's the awe-inspiring archival footage that makes this a giddy watch.
It's a great deal of fun, playing not unlike a crafty caper film with loads of spine-tingling suspense.
Une oeuvre d'une puissance dramatique inouïe
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.
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- Le Funambule (FR)
