Doing the Impossible

[Jane Ekhtman]

The Philippe Petit we were introduced to in Let the Great World Spin is passionate and mischievous, and I think that came across in Man On Wire as well. I was immediately taken aback at how Philippe views the world; for him, the idea of tightrope walking between the Twin Towers is a story of conquering the impossible. As one of Philippe’s friends said, even though the nature of the tightrope walks is illegal trespassing, none of the people involved had any malice. Rather, they wanted to create something beautiful for the bystanders, an art form.

Philippe’s attitude about the walk was that the possibility of death made it all the more exciting, almost as if him and his friends were planning a bank robbery or a heist. From what we know about Petit, we should be grateful he chooses to use to his cunningness and immense passion for the greater good, as I’m sure he would make a great thief as well. I also felt admiration for Petit. I couldn’t believe that hearing the police officers at the Towers waiting to arrest him didn’t hinder him, but rather fueled his show.

I think it’s clear that Petit is driven by his passion and wish to conquer the world through risks and art, but at first I couldn’t believe how many of his friends joined him. On one hand, those must be some great friends. But also, it speaks to how much of Petit’s enigmatic charm is able to touch the hearts of so many other folks to want to do something illegal.

I was most shocked to learn that as soon as he got out of jail, Petit cheated on his girlfriend. As much as he had the enigma and charm, it seems he also had the ego that fame brought him. But at the same time, it was beautiful how both him and his ex-girlfriend thought that the Tower walk represented a new chapter in Petit’s life, one that signaled the end of his journey with her.

I loved seeing so much of the actual footage that Petit and his accomplices captured, it really was a snapshot of the spirit of carefree friendship in the 1970s and the chaos they were trying to cause. My takeaway is definitely that I can more clearly see the beauty and art in his walk, how it connected friends and strangers alike and made everyone in awe of how possible it was to do the impossible.

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