Um, Speed Racer? There is a reason that I stayed away from it and it was because the film reeked of awfulness from the moment word hit that anyone was going to adapt it to live action form. However, with your inclusion of this film on your top 10, you are going to force me to waste a couple hours of my life to watch it. Thank the Lord for the internet. Now, on to my choice for #10…
Documentaries have a stigma attached to them as boring, with uninteresting antiquated topics, dull voiced narrators, and something you watch on PBS during their telethons. Every few years though, a documentary comes along and erases all your preconceived notions about what the medium is. In 2005, we were treated to the fabulous March of the Penguins, and this past year, we were treated to Man on Wire. While the former had the regal voice of Morgan Freeman narrating the story of emperor penguins in Antarctica, Man on Wire features the very enthusiastic stories of all involved in what is called “the artistic crime of the century”, with main attention paid to the wire walker himself, Philippe Petit.
Told as a crime story which puts much of what Hollywood puts out as crime films to shame, I was immediately captivated by the parallel stories of the planning and background of the wire walk, and the actual execution of the event. The pure zeal that Petit had for his craft seeps through the screen and the majority of the brisk running time I spent in awe of this amazing event in the history of New York City.
Lastly, the film is great because it allows us to see the birth of the World Trade Center. In a post-9/11 world, seeing this piece of cinema documenting the genesis of not only the Twin Towers, but also the dream of this man from France to come to America and walk between them, a stunt of the like that we will never witness again, is truly beautiful, and makes me proud to be an American. James Marsh, the director, wisely makes the choice to not even touch that subject, and in doing so, allows us to have some positive history attached to those buildings. A truly remarkable film, one that I will never be able to forget.
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