The Walk (2015 Movie)

Any thoughts on this one? I don't do heights well, and the trailer in 3D was enough to make me run screaming from the theater.

 

I just saw it in Imax 3-D (worth it............!).

It's a great film! Perfect little fairy tale. I loved "The Walk." At a pleasingly frantic pace -- using a whimsical narration, which luckily grows on you -- the film covers everything from a dash through the life Philippe Petite to his high-wire walk between the World Trade Center towers. It's a story of rebellion and one man's desire to make art of his life. And then there's the walk. It's superbly done. Instead of going for the sweat, Zemeckis turns the film dreamy and beautiful. It's riveting as it transpires passes in what feels like real time. It's thrilling and existential in one big drop. And that's one BIG drop. It's one of the few films I've seen that sustains a one-scene climax for 15 minutes.But the preamble is equally well crafted. Without pausing for breath, we lurch through the entire cloak-and-dagger"coup" of rigging the towers. Adroitly directed by Zemeckis, the clockwork of the caper is kept funny and human. I predict many nominations for this film. Zemeckis tells the story like a mad dream, a fever dream, which it surely was for Petite. The film breezes through a perfectly chosen bouquet of incidents and no one does that better than Zemeckis. He's the master of the cinematic skit, every moment so exquisitely timed it lingers on as a smile even as you move onto the next scene. Zemeckis charmingly mythologizes Petite's tale, not in a heavy-handed manner, but through the eyes of a dreamer, and turns it into a magical quest. Lively and entertaining, its a great film from modern comedy's best director.

 

Looks very interesting!

 

Everytime I see the commercial, I always hope I hear The Cure song......
LOVE that song!
"Take me for a walk!"

 

The documentary Man on Wire was fantastic and contains a surprising amount of real footage from Philippe Petite's planning, training, and walks. Based on its greatness, I wondered if this film was necessary. My attitude was....just watch the documentary and get the real story, not the Hollywood version. However, you guys have me wanting to see the movie now.

 

I'll wait until I can see it at home. Seeing this in 3D would terrify me.

 

I think the point is less to tell the story again and more to simulate the experience of being up there with Petit.

 

Which it does. This film is made for 3d/iMax I loved it.

Terrifying and thrilling despite the fAct we know our narrator is unharmed.

A companion peice to the documentary there's room for both. The director puts us up on those towers. I found it moving.

 

Just viewed it last night. I haven't read any reviews but knew it is being well received. J Gordon-Levitt is becoming one of my faves and I knew the backstory of Petit so I was looking forward to it plus my girlfriend paid for us, so bonus. Like the other above viewers I was moved by the story which zipped by and the effects were amazing but (everyone has a big but!) a day later my opinion wavers beaucoup...

Firstly, the filmmaker Zemeckis is not my favourite. His films are good but never beyond popcorn fare. Forrest Gump I abhorred. Castaway meh. So if you like those films please do not read further because The Walk falls into the same trap as those films, Zemeckis basically says: "please do not think audience member, we will explain everything so you can go back to your nice safe life, thanks for paying for our film, see you next time". It is a great story of an artist seeing his dream come true and the loss of the Towers strikes at the hearts of anyone that remembers 9/11 so why am I complaining? I think it's a slight to Petit's amazing "coup", we don't really get to feel his real story we are told everything through the narration which I really dislike. In one scene Ben Kingsley (always good in everything he does, the guy rules!) is acting his heart out however his emotions are for naught because the narrator tells us what he's feeling. Let us figure it out. Everything is explained, there isn't one second, plotwise, where we feel any trepidation or worry. They should have shown the real footage of his walk over the end credits but that would defeat the purpose of the real intent. It ends with the Towers and I get it but the reason the film exists does not sit in the viewer's heart, hence my dissenting opinion.

Gordon-Levitt is terrific but what falters is the character's arc. He is so confident we know he can't fail, any scene that shows any character flaws is quickly followed by him succeeding. A bloody foot is all that really can stop him in the final act. The other characters are two-dimensional, all are present to help the story move along, one character is introduced and then never really does anything. The love interest is just that an interest. At the end she just leaves, au revoir, thanks for helping.

As I said above the effects are seamless, you do feel up there but you know it's not real. You can suspend (get it?) reality but you know it's a bloody green screen behind him! Yes I know movies are not real but true epic films make you feel it is real. Think of The Ride of The Valkyries in Apocalypse Now that is terrifying and thrilling because those were real helicopters, those were real people.

Many will love this film and they should, however (got rid of my big but) the failings are very present. I respect the film and the attempt to film this amazing story. Au revoir.

 

I don't believe there is any footage of Petit's walk -- only photographs.

 

I assumed there was...well there are many still photographs and footage of him being arrested, post-interviews etc.

 

Saw it IMAX 3D yesterday and really enjoyed it.

Never knew much about the original story....

 

I saw the excellent documentary Man on Wire, which tells the same story, and I was looking forward to this until I read some of the Rotten Tomatoes reviews that say The Walk doesn't really get going until its second half.

And just now I read chadbang's review and I know I'm not going!

 

Wow, I'm amazed that the movie did so (relatively) badly. They were really thinking this would be a fairly big hit, and it hasn't even made $27 million in over two weeks! The good news for director Bob Zemeckis is that the film was fairly inexpensive ($35M), so it'll more than likely break even by the time the dust has settled. But it's been a big disappointment all over the world.

Here's what Peter Bart and Mike Fleming have to say about it on Deadline: Hollywood...

I’m still troubled that Robert Zemeckis’ The Walk didn’t draw a larger audience. I saw it early, in IMAX 3D, and totally felt the vertigo and fear as Zemeckis put me on that wire with Philippe Petit, 110 stories high, between the Twin Towers. I walked out thinking, I’ve never seen anything like that on a movie screen before. Maybe it was the much repeated Tweets by some journalist about racing to the men’s room to vomit in a press screening and seeing other weak-stomached journalists had beat him to the crappers. Something turned off the potential audience. I’m telling you, this is a movie worth seeing, the rare 3D movie worth paying a couple extra bucks and wearing those glasses. Maybe the best one since Life of Pi.

BART: The reluctance of audiences to embrace The Walk, Mike, points up once again the great divide between the critics and the filmgoers. Critics tend to review the entire work of a filmmaker–in this case Robert Zemeckis–rather than his current film.

http://deadline.com/2015/10/jennife...tle-star-salaries-political-films-1201586975/

 

Agreed. I thought it was a fun, fun film. Charming. Maybe it's making so little because people don't want to shell out the premium ticket price for Imax 3D which ran me $17!

 

Has this movie had any sort of marketing behind it? I don't think I've seen either a trailer or a TV ad. It's like it wasn't so much released as snuck out.

 

Im more a documentary guy. And when its been done as well as the documentary on this tale, I dont think Id enjoy it much. My goal is to get a giant screen TV this year ( have no idea what kind or anything about them--but I want one), so maybe itd be a fun suplimental film to the doc. to watch.

 

It has seriously bombed at the U.S. Box office

 

Shame very good movie...

 

I enjoyed the documentary "Man on Wire", but had hopes to see the 3D IMAX debut for "The Walk", Zemeckis last couple films haven't faired so well!

 

You mean Flight? I thought that was excellent.

 

Zemekis' films always make me smile when leaving theatre and this was not exception.

 

Just saw this at home on DVD. Marvelous film despite being nerve wracking as all get out for a bit of an acrophobic like myself. Could not have watched it in a theater! Petit seems like a really interesting guy to and done some other interesting work since 1974 like hand building a a barn with hand only and 18th century tools. Interesting fellow!

 

I should have seen it in the theater. Oh well, the blu-ray should be pretty good.

Here's a gif I created:

 

Just kiddin'