Man On Wire (2008/Magnolia DVD-Video)
Picture: C+
Sound: C+ Extras: B- Film: B
When James Marsh’s Man On Wire won the Academy
Award for the Best Documentary of 2008, I expected there to be a commemoration
of the loss of the World Trade Center towers and celebration of the man who
walked back and fourth eight times in mid air without a net enjoying one of the
greatest wire-walks in history, but not enough people saw this solid
documentary. That it happened is amazing
and that it will never happen again is painfully sad. But there is a great story behind how it
happened at all and is a must-see work you will be happy to out of your way
for.
The walker is Philippe Petit, who had been doing magic
tricks, balancing acts, juggling and all kinds of fancy work that would make
him a perfect circus act, but he ha the personality to be the next Monsieur
Hulot. Intercut with the goal of
eventually getting the idea for and then going to actually wire and walk across
mid air on a wire, they finally did this before construction on the towers were
completed, but enough that the buildings had been topped.
It then becomes a character study of all involved, a look
at how a group of unlikely people become obsessed enough to do something this
great and risky, plus how Philippe (he was the one balancing the Oscar upside
down on his chin when they won) made this his whole life. This runs 94 minutes and I was sad to see it
end, but it is one of 2008’s best and it winning was one of the highlights of
the night for this critic. Now you can
see for yourself.
The anamorphically enhanced 1.78 X 1 image includes 1.33 X
1 full frame footage stretched at the sides (re-adjust to 1.33 on your set to
see how good this can look) from every formats like analog NTSC video and 16mm. The newer footage is digital and likely High
Definition, but it all works and is edited together exceptionally well. The Dolby Digital 5.1 and 2.0 Stereo mixes
are about on par with each other, but this is well recorded either way and
talk-based.
Extras include an interview with petit, animated short
film The Man Who Walked Between The
Towers and 1973 program on Petit called Philippe
Petit’s Sydney Harbor Bridge Crossing.
Don’t miss any of it!
- Nicholas Sheffo
