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Philippe Petit: The Greatest Man on Wire

It's been a while since I wrote something of note and hence I am starting afresh here. The subject in hand is a documentary and it's titled as 'Man on Wire'. I resisted it for close to five months for the sake of feature films due to various reasons, foremost of them all, documentaries demand your unwavering attention unlike a feature film and since I didn't have that much time to guarantee that much focus, it suffered my apathy. But three days ago, I coerced myself into watching it and rewards I dare say were handsome. You all must watch it for it celebrates an accomplishment which hasn't been reciprocated since or before it. It reintegrates the belief in our life that we can do anything if we are driven enough. Phillipe Petit is the person responsible for that affirmation.

Yes, go ahead and google him. It will be worth your time. Phillipe now all of 70+ years old has been a high-wire artist throughout his life and he still approaches a tightrope walk with child like enthusiasm. I believe 'tightrope walk' to be the most daring of acts among all the entertainment gigs and when Phillipe decided one evening in his Paris flat that he would rig a 550 kg wire between twin World Trade Centre towers that stand quarter a mile above from mother earth and some hundred meters adrift of each other, no one really gave him a chance except for one of his friends Jean Louise. Jean Louise always had tremendous faith in Phillippe's extraordinary talent and Philippe had never disappointed him. Phillippe for the record has never fell from a wire and he has walked all those places on wire where no one has ever before or since. All this he did after his extraordinaire WTC walk but even before that , there was no chance for doubting him.

So coming back to that day in 1984 (check the dates, I might be wrong. I spared them for the first time in my life for the sake of narrating this otherworldly feat), he did the impossible. He not only walked that 100 meters long wire, sagging well above 400 meters of the ground, but also danced on it, ran on it and even slept and knelt on one knee on it!!!! He crossed the wire 8 times in total and he was up there all alone for 45 minutes, a figure of saint like concentration with a zany smile. By the time he knelt to all those who were watching him from underneath, policemen were up there on one of the towers and gasping in disbelief over this most outstanding of human triumph. It was impossible to even think of before those 45 minutes, now it had been conquered, by Philippe.

James Marsh, the director of the film, used some rare stock footage from the planning stage of this gig and directed this movie in the guise of a caper, heist film. Highly entertaining and scarcely believable, it's a champion film that will glue you to your seats. Needless to stay, it won the Oscars too and now there are enough reasons for you to watch it.....‪#‎PhilippePetit‬.......#TheGreatestManOnWire

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