Phillipe Petit’s 1974 high-wire walk between the two World Trade Center towers is chronicled in this fascinating documentary, Man on Wire. Man on Wire shows us the years that Phillippe Petit trained as a young teenager.

It shows footage of Petit’s walk between the Sydney Harbour Bridge and you see from the get-go that he’s very, very talented. Footage of preparation for the tower walk is intercut with interviews with the accomplices, some people who saw, and Petit himself. It also has re-enactments of the 12 hours before the walk, a very tense, thrilling sequence. And then, fittingly, there are only still photos of the walk between the twin towers itself, of which you must see to believe.

It fascinates, it entertains, we even laugh occasionally. Very wisely, it opts not to mention the horrible fate of the towers, as it would take away from the beauty of the walk. Instead in this movie, the towers are solid, the world is astonished, and you are kind of moved. A-