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Man on Wire
This movie is both a first-rate documentary and riveting social science. It is excellent on how Frenchmen differ from Americans, how young men differ from old, what is art, why some people follow others, how we are led to folly by small steps, whether human behavior can be explained by signaling theory, and the motivations and roots of terrorism, among many other issues. Here is one good review.
Posted by Tyler Cowen on August 9, 2008 at 07:15 AM in Film | Permalink
Comments
I saw the WSJ review yesterday, looking forward to the movie.
Posted by: Speedmaster at Aug 9, 2008 8:44:20 AM
I saw this today based on your recommendation. It was pretty good but left me wondering about one thing- Was access to the roof locked because of this incident and did people die on 9/11 because they couldn't get to the roof to be rescued either directly or by using parachutes that could have been dropped?
Posted by: Tom Kelly at Aug 9, 2008 3:25:44 PM
Um, people couldn't be resuced off the roof of the World Trade Center on 9/11 because of a little problem of flames and smoke rising. What helicopter pilot would fly into that? Further, most people are not trained to use parachutes, especially from low altitudes such as off the top of a skyscraper. There is more to using a parachute than merely having it "dropped" to you from on high.
A little thought perhaps before posting such inane questions.
Even if doors to the roofs were unlocked it is doubtful that such would have done anything for the victims.
Posted by: Dave at Aug 9, 2008 5:43:18 PM
Hardly an inane question, only an inane answer.
Look at pictures and you'll see that at least a corner of one of the buildings remained smoke and fire free for quite awhile.
How much training does it take to put on a parachute and pull the cord or toss out the starter chute? I think if my life was on the line I could manage it with no training at all. So a few (or even most) don't get the chute open- an unsurvivable situation has become potentially survivable.
As far as the heat and flames, I've seen a lot of low flying airplanes and helicopters over forest fires, and there is much less at stake than people's lives. Finding pilots willing to try would not have been hard- if they couldn't land they could get close enough to drop the chutes.
Posted by: Tom Kelly at Aug 9, 2008 6:02:04 PM
"how young men differ from old, what is art, why some people follow others, how we are led to folly by small steps, whether human behavior can be explained by signaling theory, and the motivations and roots of terrorism"
Wow, that's quite a balancing act for a guy on a wire.
Here's an inane question for you. Why aren't wires strung between buildings. They could serve a dual purpose of slicing errant airplanes, at least keeping them from having enough mass to completely bring buildings down, and if people could get to the roof they could zip line to adjacent buildings?
We were caught off guard with the effectiveness of the result of the attacks. What's being done on that end? All that appears to be getting done is keeping grandma from boarding a plane with her knitting needles.
Posted by: Andrew at Aug 10, 2008 4:28:56 AM
Agreed, Tyler. It's a fantastic movie-- mischievous, suspenseful, wildly funny, inspiring, and truly insightful.
Posted by: emerson at Aug 10, 2008 12:06:16 PM
Andrew: What would happen if a plane flew into a city on accident, or an emergency helicopter had to get though? I just don't think the cables would be a good idea. Also, buildings sway. I'm no structural engineer, but couldn't the swaying buildings being cabled together cause some problems for their structures?
I really want to see that film, but it doesn't look like it's showing in my hometown for another two weeks.
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