I decided that I wasn't going to review or discuss documentaries in this blog. Part of the reason is that discussing documentaries often leads to long diatribes about the film's subject matter (as if there aren't already enough long diatribes in this blog). Rather than talking about the film as a cinematic piece of art (or piece of trash), I'd just ramble on and on about how I agree with this person or how I think this person is a complete idiot. With a few exceptions (such as the documentaries of Werner Herzog or Errol Morris), it's hard to differentiate between cinematic documentaries and an episode of Frontline or some other PBS show.
The reason I'm breaking this personal policy is that Man on Wire goes beyond simple reportage and instead crafts a beautiful and inspiring narrative. In fact, I'd go so far as to suggest that the closest analog to Man on Wire would be something like Norman Mailer's Executioner's Song and Truman Capote's In Cold Blood. Whereas Capote and Mailer crafted a new genre, the non-fiction novel, Man on Wire, a documentary about Phillipe Petit, a french street performed who walked on a wire across the twin towers back in 1974, also attempts to redefine a genre by putting storytelling elements usually found in narrative films by Soderbergh or Tarantino into a non-fictional story.
The film's director, James Marsh, had three previous films to his credit the most notable being his 1999 debut, Wisconsin Death Trip. I didn't realize while watching Man on Wire that Marsh was also the same person who did WDT but when I learned of the connection, I was not surprised at all. Both films stretch the definition of documentary not by twisting the truth but instead of twisting the narrative to get at the truth. For those of you who have not seen Wisconsin Death Trip, I highly recommend you track it down. The film is based on a collection of 19th-century photographs that depict the harshness of frontier life in the midwest. The pictures mostly depict death and suffering. What Marsh attempted to do was take this collection (which in 1973 was published in book form under the same title) and get across the feeling of despair and struggle in cinematic form. He stayed true to the facts but presented those facts in a way that stayed true to the emotions one might feel from those facts.
It's very rare that any film would get a 100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. When I first saw that Man on Wire got such a rating I was skeptical. Really, how could a movie be so good that it would receive a unanimous endorsement from critics all over the country? Well, after seeing the film, I can certainly see why. Of course, part of the reason has to do with the limited audience for documentaries. The guy who regularly gives Adam Sandler movies a thumbs up (and if you really think that any of his comedies after Happy Gilmore are worthwhile then you need to get a clue, my friend) probably wouldn't bother to see a documentary much less a documentary about a guy who walked across a wire back in 1974. For anyone out there who does enjoy documentaries and especially any who appreciates film, has a vested interest in film, this is a definite must see. And there I go breaking another one of my rules: I want this blog to be a discussion of films not a simple rating or review of films. But, again, this is an exception. GO SEE THIS NOW.
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