Walk - A Movie Review

A movie, (a true story), of how a seemingly impossible and crazy dream is made true.

Philippe is fascinated with tight rope walking right since he watches the act in a circus at age four. It becomes his passion and his obsession and he grows to be a high wire artist. He is then looking for that perfect act....the artists coup as he calls it, when he sees a picture of the twin towers during a dentists appointment, yet under construction, and his mind is made up.

To walk a tight rope, without harness, between the twin towers.

In reality, this seemingly impossible stunt was done by Philippe Petit, a Frenchman, on Aug 7, 1974.

The photography or rather the cinematography brings out just how breathtakingly....insanely.... difficult and dangerous the whole walk is. I had difficulty sitting in one place and watching it on my laptop, and can just about imagine how it must have been on large screen and in 3D. I understand men went and threw up in the rest room.

Joseph Gordon Levitt, who plays Philippe is adorable and convincing...... with this boyish charm and hackneyed french accent, you can't help but feel with him. 

While before I watched the movie, the question in mind is 'why?...why would anyone want to do anything so crazy and meaningless?', within two minutes of the movie beginning, the question disappears and you're all set to go along with Philippe on his journey to his dream.

What does come through and stay beyond the passion and the belief, is the physical and mental precision of the process, the thoroughness and attention to detail which marks an extreme achievement.

A critical part was played by Ben Kingsley as Papa Rudy, a french daredevil, who is mentor to Philippe. He says, 'Stop, you're doing too much..no, you're still doing too much...do it from the heart, not out there'.....and Philippe understands that months later. The Aha moments. That was a defining relationship for sure. That it's such a beautiful and enriching relationship is really brought out when the real moment of glory, of achievement is shown not in NY with Philippe, but in Paris with Papa Rudy.

There's only moments where the stress gets the better of him, and his inner conflict, his tumultuous relationship with his wife and friends is left unexplored. (apparently, the earlier made, award winning, documentary by Marsh called Man on the Wire dealt with the complexities of his personality in more depth.)

And it's Robert Zemeckis' genius I guess that makes us experience, not just the lead up to the actual Walk, but the very Walk itself. You experience it physically through every step Philippe takes, the metallic creaking of the rivets, the rustle of the wind in his hair, the stress when it wobbles...and then the inside of his mind...the fear, the doubt, the audaciousness, the defiance and the glory.

This is the moment....the moment when all else fades away...just him and his dream 

Watch it to see how its a single , simple, horizontal line between an unbridgeable gap, across the void as he keeps saying, a void between where you are and where you want to be and how it gets bridged.

Also what clearly comes through is how once you're in the flow, the effort seems to fall away...it's then like music and poetry....a oneness that's almost spiritual in its intensity and beauty.