Thu, 28 Mar, 2024

Review: The Walk

By Mahan Adhikari

Picture Courtesy: indianexpress.com

‘The Walk’ is a 2015 American drama directed by Robert Zemeckis and written by Christopher Browne and Zemeckis. This movie is based on the life story of a French wire walker in the late 1970’s.  Joseph Gordon-Levitt portrays the role of Philippe Petit, the French wire walker who has a dream to hang his wire between the twin towers in New York and walk on it. ‘The Walk’ is all about Petit and his ragtag crew overcoming daunting physical obstacles, betrayals, countless close calls and overwhelming odds to beat the system and execute their plan.

With a little more than nerve and blind ambition, Petit is determined to achieve the feat no one has ever achieved. ‘The Walk’ is very capable of making its viewer feel supportive and also hateful at Petit sometimes. The most enjoyable part of the movie is when Petit and his crew spy on the Twin Tower from each angle and make a plan on when and how to achieve his ‘artistic coup’(the wire walk between twin towers). Walking on the unfinished towers is obviously an illegal thing to do and the constant sense of threat always makes the viewer intrigued. The way in which Zemeckis gives the buildings a soul is a wonder.

The movie basically starts in the early 1970’s Paris, where Petit begins to plan his coup.  He sees an illustration of the as-yet-unbuilt towers in a magazine in a dentist’s waiting room and decides on the spot what he wants to do. This ambition makes him learn and perfect the art. He also gathers some people whom he could trust and flies to New York.

Depicting a real life story into a camera is always a hard work but Zemeckis has done this job successfully. The viewer feels connected to Petit and his ambition. An exceptional director, a brilliant actor and a super-hit story can only turn out to be a piece of art. This movie is a must watch for all movie goers.