Man on Wire

Did you watch the Academy Awards last night? The highlight was the acceptance speech for Man on Wire, which won for Best Documentary Feature. Director James Marsh and producer Simon Chinn invited the subject of the film onstage to accept the award, whereupon he made a joke, did a magic trick, and balanced the Oscar on his chin! Philippe Petit, now 59, is quite an engaging character, and was featured on CBS Sunday Morning and interviewed on The Colbert Report. Man on Wire tells the story - through interviews, archival footage, and the testimony of Petit himself - of 6 years spent planning and finally executing an illegal feat of tightrope-walking between the twin towers of the World Trade Center in 1974. Embarrassed to admit I haven't seen it yet, it's next on the list. Somehow, this directed risk-taking is more acceptable to me than the potential deadliness of living with a wild animal.