Everyone remembers their 18th birthday. I do too. I turned 18 on August 7, 1974. Unbeknownst to me at 7:00am that morning, Philippe Petit stepped on a high wire that he and a team of accomplices had strung overnight between the two towers of the World Trade Center in New York City.
Petit (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) then walked back and forth on the wire eight times and spent a total of 45 minutes out suspended 1350 feet above Manhattan, before he returned and was arrested.
The Walk is a dramatization, first explaining Petit’s character and why he would do such a thing, and then guiding the viewer through the planning and execution, culminating in the walk itself.
I wore sandals to the theater. My feet and hands were soaking wet with sweat when the scenes on the towers started. This is not a movie for anyone with fear of heights.
And always, while seeing the twin towers, their ultimate fate on 9/11 was in front of me.
The Walk is a magnificent movie that tells a unique story about a unique feat conducted between two unique buildings that would only grace New York for a short 27 years.
