World Trade Center and James Marsh Essay

Submitted By Nathaniel-Lutz
Words: 624
Pages: 3

Nathan B. Lutz
07/12/2015
Christina Nemec
English 1A Heist on the Twin Towers In the movie “Man on Wire”, Philippe Petite attempts the impossible, as he tightropes across the World Trade Center in New York City. The movie recalls all the planning and work Philippe and his team had to do to accomplish this feat. This amazing act is documented by James Marsh in a noir heist type film. The director James Marsh did a fabulous job of portraying Philippe’s adventures in tightrope walking. James Marsh was born in Truro, Cornwall, U.K. on April 30th, 1963 and raised in Sennen a tiny coastal village, and then in Woolrich in south London. Marsh described his childhood home as a miserable and boring house with his family. When Marsh was ten his father became a born again Christian and banned Marsh from watching movies. After, Marsh won a scholarship to Oxford College where he graduated with a degree in English. After that is when he started his career as a director, he started by making some documentaries for BBC. Marsh stayed with BBC up until 1998. Marsh’s first great film was Man on Wire in which he won an Academy award for best documentary. Marsh since then has made The Theory of Everything, Project Nim along with other documentaries. He currently lives with his Danish wife in Denmark with his two daughters. In Man on Wire, James Marsh takes an interesting spin on the movie portraying it as a heist film rather than a straight forward documentary. In my opinion this made the film a lot more enjoyable in every aspect. Looking at what Philippe did, his stunt was a heist in a different way. A heist is when a group of people spend lots of money time and planning to steal an item of great worth. Philippe didn’t steal anything physical; rather he took the attention of the whole world. Philippe and his team snuck all of their equipment into the twin towers and were able to pull of their “heist” without getting caught. As the movie starts, the opening scene is the first part of the heist, when Philippe sneaks into the towers; this comes before any explanation or understanding of what is happening. This makes the viewer curious and intrigued to the plot of the story, making them want more. Throughout the film the scenes of the Philippe’s previous