The decision by public broadcaster SBS to screen the documentary
‘Man on Wire’ on the tenth anniversary of September 11 seemed at first to be
either incredibly insensitive or downright cheeky. Yet this bizarre
juxtaposition became irresistible to watch and every bit as poignant and
thought-provoking as the many hours of heart-breaking commemorations of the
tragedy of 9/11 on other channels.
In the film, one man's peculiar lifelong obsession with the World
Trade Centre sees him embark on a madcap scheme involving deception, security
breaches and death-defying bravery in order to walk a tightrope suspended
between the twin towers.
Philippe Petit, an eccentric juggler and Parisian street performer
somehow manages to pull off a most extraordinary feat of human ingenuity and
imagination; so that on a brisk morning in May 1974 New Yorkers woke to see the
magical sight of a man on a wire seeming to walk, almost religiously, on thin
air high above their heads. In the preparation for this surreal moment, we see
the story unfold not only of how the twin towers were built, but also the
significance the WTC held as a symbol of the imposing power and monumental
magnificence of the United States in the last century.
The expressions of awe and amazement on the upturned faces of New
Yorkers who witnessed Petit’s illegal feat were in heart-breaking contrast to
those more familiar ash-covered, horrified looks of terror and fear we saw on
exactly the same sidewalk a generation later.
Some of the footage, filmed long before the horrors of 9/11, eerily
predict and evoke the fragility and dangerous vulnerability of the towers. We
see the endless stairwells, the sheer height of the two edifices, and the
criss-cross metallic structures that would come to epitomize the visual
nightmare of Ground Zero, being gracefully lifted into place only a few decades
earlier, high above the Manhattan skyline.
The deception and subterfuge involved in getting the trapeze wire
into place also have uncanny overtones of the elaborate plotting that went into
Al-Qaida’s most infamous act. Months of preparation went into planning the
operation, involving fake uniforms, detailed study of the infrastructure of the
towers, last minute hiccups and the fear of discovery. Strangely, a primitive
weapon – a bow and arrow - is all it takes for Philippe Petit and his ardent
followers to straddle the two mighty towers, just as a pair of cardboard box
cutters was all it took for Mohammad Atta and his evil gang to bring them down.
Equally, the bravery of the tight-rope walker and his unshakeable
determination to conquer the challenges of the ultimate high-wire act and
emerge victorious are as simple and as powerful a metaphor as could be found
for the bravery and determination of the thousands of individual acts of
heroism and self-sacrifice that were performed by the rescue services and
countless others on 9/11.
Dubbed the “artistic crime of the century”, the guerilla-like campaign
detailed in ‘Man on Wire’ can almost be seen as the beginning of an era where
individuals learned that they could capture the entire world’s attention
through one dramatic, sensational and headline-grabbing act of daring.
Post-modern in the extreme, Petit was selling nothing. No message, no protest,
no politics. Just fun and adventure for the sake of his art.
Yet his ability to grab the media’s attention through a visual event
and get himself on the front page of every newspaper in the world is also the
hallmark of the terrorist outrages that culminated ten years ago in the one of
the greatest crimes of this century.
But above all, what comes through so strikingly from the documentary
is the depiction of the gloriously optimistic and innocent times that have now
been lost. Philippe Petit's extraordinary stunt was only possible due to the
trust and complacency of a society living without fear, in a world where human
ingenuity and imagination could be harnessed solely for such child-like
self-belief and daring. The world of unbridled ingenuity and carefree
self-confidence that has always been the hallmark of the West, and at the heart
of the American dream. Thank you, SBS, for reminding us – intentionally or
otherwise - how sorely it is missed.
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