Man on Wire BBC2 21:00 tonight

[5t3IIa]

I wondered a little about his parents/background. Those crazy kids certainly had enough money to throw around.

 

[Biddlybee]

i shall keep my fingers crossed and try and watch it tomorrow

Tis on there http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00m0mbt/Man_on_Wire/

I was surprised to see another film on there last week (Half Nelson).

 

[London_Calling]

Fwiw, I looked him up on Wikipedia last night:

Petit was born in Nemours, France in 1949; his father, Edmond Petit, was an author and a former Army pilot.

He needs to get a more realistic rinse for his hair.

Ths bit is good:

One of the officers, Sgt. Charles Daniels, later reported his experience:

I observed the tightrope 'dancer'—because you couldn't call him a 'walker'—approximately halfway between the two towers. And upon seeing us he started to smile and laugh and he started going into a dancing routine on the high wire....And when he got to the building we asked him to get off the high wire but instead he turned around and ran back out into the middle....He was bouncing up and down. His feet were actually leaving the wire and then he would resettle back on the wire again....Unbelievable really....[E]verybody was spellbound in the watching of it.

 

[The Octagon]

I think I lost about a litre of sweat through my hands watching this last night, brilliant film though.

 

[5t3IIa]

Ooooh that police officer at the end was good value.

I was having trouble relating to the 'Mon dieu! Tres belle! Tres extraordinare! Son bel art!' stuff that his friends gushed about but that poor cop standing there going 'We were trying to arrest him but...but...it was spellbinding' brought it home and made me well up a bit.

 

[London_Calling]

Remarkable quality of English as well. He nailed it with "quixotic", in more ways than one.

 

[5t3IIa]

Jesus everytime I think about it I get the chills Like a tiny physical 'nooo' of vertigo and I'm sitting down quite firmly ta

 

[paulhackett]

Am I allowed to say 'these crazy french..'? Alain Robert frightens the livingness out of me as well..

 

[spacemonkey]

I watched this after I saw it was one of the few films on Rotten Tomatoes with 100%.

Glad I did.

 

[London_Calling]

They've got a great tradition in free rock climbing, pretty well all climbing. It's all about art and beauty, you see.

 

[toblerone3]

They've got a great tradition in free rock climbing, pretty well all climbing. It's all about art and beauty, you see.

I get feelings of panic in my stomach when I watch this Frenchman hanging at the top of crane hundreds of feet above the ground.

 

[christonabike]

But it is strange that after all that, that there is none of the actual walk

This was because the police were piling up the elevators to nick 'em all

They did have cameras to record the walk, or at least the first few steps of it, but the bloke given that job thought it would be better to get the fuck outa there

It's all in the book

I was most interested in seeing the machine that tensioned the wire, how big it was, how heavy it was, and how they acquired it (another interesting story) but there was fuck all about this in the film. Also, they never had anything about the bloke who he bought the secrets of his craft from, he was well interesting, but again, fuck all in the film

The towers sway, I don't think they covered how they got around that little problem, either

Having stood at the foot of the twin towers on the day before they got rammed by planes, it still seems weird that he did what he did, and how they have now gone

What he did was amazing

 

[Onket]

Bugger, only just seen this thread.

I read the book a couple of weeks ago so would have loved to have seen it.

I think he comes across as a bit of a tosser in the book, btw. I wanted him to be likeable, but he just wasn't.

 

[The Octagon]

I get feelings of panic in my stomach when I watch this Frenchman hanging at the top of crane hundreds of feet above the ground.

Oh god, my feet are tingling and my hands are sweating again, why the fuck would anyone do that?

 

[Orang Utan]

he's a right nob

 

[Onket]

he's a right nob

In the book he is.

I've just found this on reply on the digital telly thingy so I'm watching it now. He comes across slightly better (so far). He does cheat on his missus though, the cunt.

 

[Onket]

Yeah, it was alright. Disappointing though.

 

[weltweit]

It was quite a long tv programme and infortunately I took a call towards the end.

But it was amazing what he did. It had to be done, someone had to do it.

Like these free climbers and base jumpers, you know somewhere in the world there will be someone who will do it and live to tell the tale.

 

[Orang Utan]

It was quite a long tv programme and infortunately I took a call towards the end.

no, it was quite a short film

 

[Onket]

But it was amazing what he did.

I think the whole stunt was amazing. The actual walk bit wasn't anything special really cos you can't really get the perspective right on telly.

I preferred his mates to him, and if you compare the book to the film you can really see him take the credit for stuff that others did. His missus (while praising him a bit too much IMO) kind of said how much it'd changed him at the end. I thought she'd aged quite well actually, as it goes.

Anyway, when I heard about it I thought it was incredible. I read the book & was disappointed cos he came across as a spoilt arse. Then in the film it was a bit better but he lied about stuff & then fucked his missus over. And his really nice mate got fucking deported, while he was hailed as a hero! Shame really, it had a lot of promise.

 

[Gingerman]

Fuckin aged pretty well,still fit looking,everyone else got older,fatter and balder,though it was refreshing that they did'nt mention the elephant in the room as well.