Everybody who can should check out this awesome movie about Phillipe Petit, a man who set up a high wire between the two world trade towers and walked across it. It is showing at the Belcourt Theatre in Nashville and the Landmark's Century Centre Cinema in Chicago but nowhere, unfortunately in New Orleans. Petit didn't act alone; the help and planning of his friends and accomplices was absolutely essential and it took them years to plan before they executed the feat in 1974.
The movie is an in-depth documentary about the whimsical, bizzare nature of Petit that looks at his other high wire accomplishments such as spanning the Notre Dame Cathedral in his native country of France. There is ample footage from his entire life that the film makers had to work with, which is not all that surprising when you think about what kind of showmanship it must take to inspire someone to balance thousands of feet above a concrete carpet. Petit does things to be seen and this movie serves that purpose.
But ultimately what he accomplished is more whimsical and inspiring than egotistical and showy. Some of the people watching him that day were moved to tears and even the policeman who later arrested him can't hide the awe and admiration in his voice as he describes what he saw.
Check it out here and then check it for yourself.
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