High Tension

In 1974, Frenchman Philippe Petit illegally erected a wire between the World Trade Center towers and proceeded to tight rope walk between the structures.

This feat required incomprehensible levels of luck, determination, imagination and skill, and the story is beautifully told in the 2008 documentary film Man on Wire. Petit is charming and his enthusiasm is infectious; it takes but a few minutes for the viewer to become completely engrossed in his grand scheme.

A few things:

• The footage of the towers doesn't seem sad or eery at all. The event being chronicled here is so lighthearted and beautiful that it overshadows the grim reality of the WTC's demise.
• Petit and his crew amassed a brilliant collection of photographs and video back in 1974 that are used to great effect in this film. There's enough footage (original and reenacted) for plenty of cuts and pans so that the movie moves along at very energetic clip. Really entertaining film making.
  
• How? It's unfathomable that a person could tightrope walk 110 stories above the streets of Manhattan, yet Petit's breezy conviction makes the event seem magically simple. It's just a man on a wire.

Really an excellent film and worthy of the Best Documentary Academy Award it received.