This weekend I watched an amazing movie. Man on Wire won the Academy Award for Best Documentary, and I believed that it deserved it. It was an interesting film that was amazing and captivating. I often found myself thinking and saying out loud “wow.”
I thought “wow” a lot when Philippe Petit (the man this documentary is about) was talking about his passion. Wire walking is a unique hobby, and he has perfected this skill. He was 16 when he first learned about the World Trade Centers and that is when his dream began. So he started to build his reputation. He put a wire between the two towers of Notre Dame, and he put a wire between the two towers of the Sydney Harbor Bridge. He successfully walked in each of these places and he successfully brought attention to himself and people liked him. So then he put his dream into motion. He had dreamt of walking between the Trade Centers and now he was actually making this a possibility. His dream was tangible, and he was about to achieve it.
Most often when I said “wow” out loud was when Philippewas actually walking on his wire. This man is completely amazing. The movie is about his quest to string a wire between the World Trade Centers and walk between them, without any harnesses or safety equipment. He literally was balancing a quarter of a mile above the earth on a rope that was less than one inch thick. I was completely shocked that anybody in their right mind would put themselves in that kind of situation. But, when I look at the big picture, Philippe’s life story and his childhood, I realize that this is not a normal person. He is a wirewalker. This is somebody that walks on tightropes stretched out between two points (trees, buildings, et cetera) and performs for a crowd. He can lie down, walk backward, do summersaults, and juggle while he is on the wire. This kind of person has a sense of balance unlike anything else. There is some home footage in the movie of Phillip practicing wire walking, and his friends are jumping up and down on the wire and pulling it and doing anything they can to make him fall off. But he doesn’t. He stays on the wire and walks from end to end with the wire bouncing and shaking and swaying. The concentration on his face is intense. His face is a stone mask and nothing can be done to disrupt him. He is a man that belongs on a wire.
I thought “wow” a lot when Philippe Petit (the man this documentary is about) was talking about his passion. Wire walking is a unique hobby, and he has perfected this skill. He was 16 when he first learned about the World Trade Centers and that is when his dream began. So he started to build his reputation. He put a wire between the two towers of Notre Dame, and he put a wire between the two towers of the Sydney Harbor Bridge. He successfully walked in each of these places and he successfully brought attention to himself and people liked him. So then he put his dream into motion. He had dreamt of walking between the Trade Centers and now he was actually making this a possibility. His dream was tangible, and he was about to achieve it.
Most often when I said “wow” out loud was when Philippewas actually walking on his wire. This man is completely amazing. The movie is about his quest to string a wire between the World Trade Centers and walk between them, without any harnesses or safety equipment. He literally was balancing a quarter of a mile above the earth on a rope that was less than one inch thick. I was completely shocked that anybody in their right mind would put themselves in that kind of situation. But, when I look at the big picture, Philippe’s life story and his childhood, I realize that this is not a normal person. He is a wirewalker. This is somebody that walks on tightropes stretched out between two points (trees, buildings, et cetera) and performs for a crowd. He can lie down, walk backward, do summersaults, and juggle while he is on the wire. This kind of person has a sense of balance unlike anything else. There is some home footage in the movie of Phillip practicing wire walking, and his friends are jumping up and down on the wire and pulling it and doing anything they can to make him fall off. But he doesn’t. He stays on the wire and walks from end to end with the wire bouncing and shaking and swaying. The concentration on his face is intense. His face is a stone mask and nothing can be done to disrupt him. He is a man that belongs on a wire.
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