The Walk (II) (2015)

Summery in Short :

In 1974, high-wire artist Philippe Petit recruits a team of people to help him realize his dream: to walk the immense void between the World Trade Center towers.

Director:

 Robert Zemeckis

Writers:

 Robert Zemeckis (screenplay), Christopher Browne (screenplay)

Storyline

Twelve people have walked on the moon, but only one man - Philippe Petit (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) - has ever, or will ever, walk in the immense void between the World Trade Center towers. Guided by his real-life mentor, Papa Rudy (Ben Kingsley), and aided by an unlikely band of international recruits, Petit and his gang overcome long odds, betrayals, dissension and countless close calls to conceive and execute their mad plan. Robert Zemeckis, the director of such marvels as Forrest Gump, Cast Away, Back to the Future, Polar Express and Flight, again uses cutting edge technology in the service of an emotional, character-driven story. With innovative photorealistic techniques and IMAX 3D wizardry, The Walk is true big-screen cinema, a chance for moviegoers to viscerally experience the feeling of reaching the clouds. The film, a PG-rated, all-audience entertainment for moviegoers 8 to 80, unlike anything audiences have seen before, is a love letter to Paris and New York City in the 1970s, ...

Movie Reviews

Robert Zemekis' film in 3-D 'The Walk' has that immediacy of the old American TV series 'You Are There'. In a little more than two hours he manages to recreate the incredible feat of high-wire walker Phillipe Petit's breath-taking walk between the twin towers of the World Trade Center, 110 stories above the mean streets of Wall Street. The documentary 'Man on the Wire' won an Oscar in 2008 and Petit's book sold well. But Zemekis has brought us closer to the planning and execution of Petit's dare devil performance on 6 Aug 1974, thanks to digital technology on one hand, and on the other, the protean talent of Joseph Gordon-Leavitt, ably assisted by a Franco-American cast. Gordon-Leavitt never does things half ways: he learned French that he speaks fairly well, took to the high wire under the masterly hand of Petit himself, learned riding the unicycle, some juggling tricks and so on. In appearance and accented English, he has entered into the fantasy of Petit's world. And the transformation is well earned: by sheer dint of talent and effort, we enter into the dream, the planning and finally the execution of the Walk. Ably assisted by co-conspirators Ben Kingsley, Charlotte Le Bon, Clement Sibony, Cesar Domboy, Ben Schwartz and James Dale Badge, 'the Walk' takes on the verismiltutde of that day during the sign of the dog of August. The wise use of 3-D heightens the tension of the walk between the two towers. Zemeckis' camera is deftly used in close ups, long shots, and recreating the minutiae of setting up the rigging of the wire. And within us, the emotional tension rises slowly and then more rapidly as Gordon-Leavitt with a Zen calmness walks many times back and forth with grace and shameless boldness. Many will turn their eyes away from the screen; others will fell a queasy feeling rising from the pit of the stomach; and still others a in voluntary touch of agrophobia and wet palms. 'The Walk' is a paean to human will to overcome the impossible because Petit succeeded. In another way, Zemeckis' film has a sweet smell of success, but more--the relief and purgation of emotions of classical Greek drama. In spite of the rip-off in the 3-D glasses fee, don't think twice about seeing 'The Walk'!