Andy Summers 🤠’s review published on Letterboxd:
There is something rather unique about this film. All that old footage of the Twin Towers in New York City gave me a feeling I can't quite describe. During my lifetime the attack on the World Trade Center was the single most momentous news story I've ever had the misfortune to witness. It was tragic, heartbreaking, and it invoked anger in me I never knew was there. The how's and why's are now history, but this nostalgic look at an unbelievably audacious stunt to wirewalk between the two towers did bring it all flooding back.
Philippe Petit's carefully worked out attempt back in 1974 to wirewalk over 1300 feet above the Manhattan streets was madness. He was a fascinating individual with a quest for danger that defied both gravity and sanity. This documentary culled from old archive footage, still photographs and some re-enactments using a young lookalike of Petit is an interesting watch, but it gets bogged down slightly in the middle as their attempts encounter problems both with manpower and features some rather dull talking heads moments. Petit's skill as a performer and his bravery (lunacy if you will) to even consider something so dangerous is mind-boggling in it's audacity. Even when he was apprehended afterwards the attitude to his "crimes" were so low-key and the authorities so forgiving after all the publicity it got the city, the whole affair took on a surreal madness as a publicity stunt.
This is an interesting doc. Oscar winner? It must have been a slow year.