Wednesday, December 10, 2008

Movie: Man on Wire



This morning sucked. I've been running low on sleep, fighting a cold and mental exhaustion, frantically trying to either get my final projects done or find justifications to procrastinate. Last night I was up til 3am finishing a presentation for today and it was really difficult to get out of bed this morning. I've been tired, cranky, and probably no fun to be around (sorry Bryn).

And yet.

My morning at school started out how I expected. Fighting to find a computer in the lab to use for printing out an assignment that was due ten minutes ago. Rushing up and down the stairs. But then in Construction Technology, instead of presenting our projects and running out of the room, the teacher had brought in a movie. Man on Wire is the name of the film. It was, as the cover promised, "exhilarating."

I'd seen the trailers and figured it would be a decent movie. But it also wasn't something I figured that I would watch anytime soon. Maybe in a few years if I happened upon in the library or something like that. I'm so glad I didn't wait. Phillippe Petit's passion and single-minded drive was inspiring and the whole movie was very well crafted with old footage, recreations, and contemporary interviews. No wonder it has been so well received and won so many awards. It was also nice to get a sense of the World Trade Center without dwelling on 9/11. In fact, 9/11 isn't mentioned at all in this movie, which is as it should be. The beauty of Petit's daring act is more than enough.

3 comments:

Snotty McSnotterson said...

We just watched this movie this weekend, and holy fucking shit, dude. So epic. And so beautiful. I'm glad you saw it!

Didn't you think it was a bit... cool/strange when he was like, "And then after walking a tightrope between the two Twin Towers, I saw a woman in the crowd, and went to her place and had amazing sex with her." I was like, uh--they kind of glossed over the details.

I also love how French the break-up was between him and his woman back home. Just... simple. And classy.

Anonymous social worker said...

ROUGH morning :(
sound like a great movie.
Ill see it in the near future.

Manthony said...

Snotty: This movie just confirmed that I was supposed to be born French. Next best thing is to become an expatriate I suppose.

France: The morning started okay, but at least the movie made it better!