Part of my childhood is disappearing with the end of Blockbuster chain stores; however, their loss is ultimately my gain–thanks to these awesome closing sales. Last week I picked up a couple of documentaries that I have been eager to watch and while I was suffering from Norovirus this weekend I was able to sit back and enjoy this unbelievable film called Man on Wire.
If you are wondering if the image on the left is real, I can assure it there is no Photoshop magic here. Man on Wire recounts the mind-blowing high-wire act that took place at the top of the World Trade Center in 1974. Phillipe Petit saw the initial drawings for the towers in a magazine years before they were built. Over the course of a decade he researched and studied the design of the towers, and then lived in New York to learn every possible way to pull off this “coup”, as he called it–remember this wasn’t exactly legal.
The film interviews every individual who had a role in the event and reenacted many of the moments leading up to it. What the filmmaker did brilliantly here is he captured the emotions of stress, fear and excitement that the event caused everyone. The film also does a brilliant job of dissecting the personality Petit, who seems like part madman part icon. Petit simply follows his dream, but in the process he drags everyone through an emotional rollercoaster that he didn’t quite seem to understand; and ultimately his actions after the big moment between the towers further shows us that.
This film does a brilliant job of mixing lightheartedness with suspense, ecstasy and triumph. The images and old footage paint a beautiful picture of Petit as a young man completely engulfed in a dreamworld that relied on the rational people around him to keep him tied to reality. When Petit finally steps foot on the wire, standing between the two tallest buildings in the world at the time, it immediately takes your breath away despite knowing he survives. But part of you is waiting still for that tragedy, which in a sense does occur, just not on the wire at that moment.
Growing up across the Hudson River, the Towers were a major part of my childhood and 9/11 is a day that will forever be stained into my mind. I did not learn about Petit’s high-wire act until long after 2001 and to see him in the film, in what is now considered haunted air space, is unbelievably breathtaking. The details of his 45 minutes on the wire are humorous, entertaining and terrifying at the same time.
If you like documentaries that do an excellent job of telling the full story of an historic event than this film is for you. I highly recommend Man on Wire.
The White Mountains of New Hampshire continue to inspire me every time I visit. It is was where my passion for mountaineering history began and it is where I continue to feed that passion today. So, you may find it unusual that it took me so long to read Nicholas Howe’s book, Not Without Peril, documenting the tragic history of the Presidential Range. It took me a long time because I wasn’t in a rush to spoil the secrets of these mountains. After finally reading this book, however, I think many of these mountains’ secrets haven’t lost their mystery.
It’s rare to find a fictional climbing film that is gripping, emotional and, most importantly, realistic. The German Film, North Face, or Nordwand in German, is that one climbing film that can pull the viewer onto the mountain with the actors. This is a movie that, probably because it is in German with American subtitles, seems to have been overlooked. Director Philipp Stolzl was given the difficult task of recreating one of the most tragic mountaineering stories in history, on the surface of the legendary Eiger North Face, and did it justice.
I'm a journalist, blogger and essayist with a passion for adventure. I write about what I love, how I feel and what I crave to learn more about. 
LIVESTRONG.com
NJ Sports Fitness & Wellness
Ultimate Athlete Magazine
