Death-defying high-wire acts

The DVD Beat
Reviews by Nathan Weinbender

Two of the year’s best movies are being released on DVD today. One is the biggest blockbuster of the last ten years; the other is a modest documentary that played in limited release earlier this fall. They couldn’t be more dissimilar, but they both represent pinnacles of their genres—an action movie with a brain and a non-fiction film that plays like a riveting thriller.

The Dark Knight
Since its release in July, “The Dark Knight,” Christopher Nolan’s follow-up to his critically-lauded “Batman Begins,” has grossed nearly $1 billion internationally—no doubt it’ll be the biggest DVD of all time. But overlooking box office figures, “The Dark Knight” is a masterpiece of storytelling, and a damn exciting action picture, and it is going to be admired, I think, for a very long time. I have already written extensively about the film, and my original review can be found here.
Grade: A+

Man on Wire
The real find of the week, though, is James Marsh’s superb “Man on Wire,” which recalls French wirewalker Philippe Petit’s greatest feat: In 1974, he strung a wire between the top floors of the towers of the World Trade Center and traversed it eight times. Marsh combines archival footage, re-creations and interviews (heavy echoes of Errol Morris) to create the most harrowing and exciting documentary I’ve seen since “Touching the Void.” The story unfolds like a great thriller, and, although we already know how everything will end, the tension is palpable as Petit and his crew prepare for their great exploit. Much of the movie consists of recent interviews with Petit, and he is filled with such childlike enthusiasm that it’s impossible not to be caught up in the fervor of “Man on Wire.” Watching him glide across the cable, over a thousand feet in the air and just one wrong step away from death, is pure poetry, and as a testament to the Twin Towers, the movie is breathtaking.
Grade: A+