Man on Wire

Mizz Mazz and I snuck out on Lee Jr. tonight to see the fantastic film Man on Wire. For those of you that live in a cave, it's a documentary on Philippe Petit's 1974 tightrope performance across the World Trade Center towers. I couldn't help thinking of Andy Pettitte's recent early-inning tightrope performance against the Red Sox, but anyway...

The movie's great. I remember when this happened way back-- I was disappointed that the guy didn't look like a superhero. Turns out he did look like one, and I was just too stupid to get it.

I won't spoil anything, but the couple minutes of footage of Petit doing his lope-on-a-rope (to the tune of Erik Satie) was one of the more intense film experiences I've had in a while (I saw 300 on cable, so let's not count that). It's absolutely unbelievable stuff.

The guy's an artist in every sense. It's easy to understand that Petit risked his neck because he had to, just like I imagine Pete Townshend had to make Psychoderelict (equally as terrifying and dangerous to innocent bystanders). The film-sequence was so emotional for me that I could almost feel a communal energy swell amongst the entire New York City art-house audience. That is, until I realized that the mumbling woman next to me was crawling around on the floor picking up random scraps of garbage.

Go see Man on Wire.