Rating summary

Movie		5.0
Video		4.5
Audio		5.0
Extras		2.5
Overall		4.5

The Walk Blu-ray Movie Review

Run, don't walk, to see this extraordinary film.

Reviewed by Martin Liebman December 30, 2015

Perhaps in no other film can moviemaking's magic be better experienced than in The Walk, Director Robert Zemeckis' touching, funny, and in every way inspiring and spectacular true-to-life recreation of the Philippe Petit story. Petit is a French-born man who, in 1974, walked on a wire tightly strung between New York's Twin Towers, crossing back-and-forth to the awe of spectators far below and the angst of law enforcement closing in on him. The towers have long since fallen but Zemeckis' film lovingly returns them to life in a fitting, heartfelt cinema experience that explores their majesty set against one man's determination to fulfill a dream. The film elicits all kinds of emotion -- everything from deep sadness to overwhelming joy -- in what can only be described as a movie as monumentally satisfying as the wire walk performance itself, capturing a spirit of accomplishment in the shadow of tragedy that will undoubtedly stand as tall as the towers as a loving tribute to not only fallen steel and concrete but man's persistence, the power of hope, and the joy of seeing a dream fulfilled.

Walk.

Philippe Petit (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) has a dream, but it's not exactly an easily achievable dream. In fact, it's all but impossible. It will require precise teamwork, total trust, defying the odds, expert planning, and a lot of luck. It will involve travel to a foreign country, breaking and entering, and a whole lot of physical exertion. It necessitates total stealth and working under the cover of darkness. And that's all just for the set-up. Petit is a French magician and performance artist who one day hopes to illegally string a line between the rooftops of New York's World Trade Center towers and walk from one to the other with no safety harness and nothing to save him should he fall to the ground. He finds several key allies, including his teacher, Papa Rudy (Ben Kingsley); his photographer, Jean-Louis (Clément Sibony); and his girlfriend and fellow performance artist, Annie Allix (Charlotte Le Bon). Petit and his compatriots travel to New York with little more than a dream and an unstoppable determination to see his daring plan to fruition.

At-a-glance, The Walk plays as something of a multipurpose movie that's part buoyant character study, part jovial heist film, and part miniature romance, all set against the looming, titular walk that seems always so close yet, until it really happens, so far away. But the movie is greater than the sum of its parts, a complete, spellbinding picture that doesn't bank on sentiment but instead confidence, confidence in its core story, its character, and the purposes that flow though it all. Zemeckis, one of the great movie magicians of his, or any, time, captures a spirit of humanity from the outset, a spirit that soars even above the death-defying heroics and awe-inspiring sight of the towers digitally recreated to astonishing perfection. The movie embraces life -- its challenges, its ups, its downs, and the humanity that continually drives it froward through the best and worst of times -- and that is its most impressive accomplishment and the true embodiment of its purpose in not only recreating Philippe Petit's acrobatic walk but demonstrating its power as a symbol of something that can never be destroyed: the triumph of the human spirit.

The movie's grandeur spreads far beyond its emotional center and satisfying resolution. It's a spectacle of sight to be sure, a movie with painstakingly constructed digital creations that are seamlessly integrated as centerpieces in driving both the outer core story and the story's inner emotional abundance to completion. Whether the towers themselves or the sprawl that extends far below or the in-tight, up-close moments with Petit on his walk that are so artful and intimate that the audience truly feels as if it's walking with Petit back and forth across that razor-thin wire that carries more than a body, there's no shortage of breathtaking spectacle in the movie. Zemeckis' film defies even the lofty expectations for it in its ability to effortlessly mesh scale and intimacy in a way few films can. Alan Silvestri's score certainly helps with its blend of jovial beats and triumphantly rousing notes, but it's Joseph Gordon-Levitt's masterful performance that sells the movie above all else. He not only captures the raw abilities of a wire walker but, much more importantly, the spirit of the man he's portraying and, perhaps without even meaning to, the spirit of humanity. Indeed, Gordon-Levitt fine-tunes an accent and idiosyncrasies and even convinces the audience he's fully capable of walking that wire just as his character once did, but beyond that he inspires a hope for dreamers everywhere and a remembrance of what it means to be alive and embody the world's best, even in the shadow of its worst.

The Walk Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The Walk's digital photography yields a decidedly flat-looking image, but its inorganic and mildly pasty nature doesn't do it any harm. Details are very strong. The image's overall and far-reaching clarity -- evident upon real-life details and digital renderings alike -- is its best asset. General environmental details, particularly dense city elements, are terrific. Facial and clothing textures fare well but never quite find the same level of absolute, lifelike, tangible exactness as seen in other feature films. The Walk takes on a fairly cold, blue-gray dominant color scheme. Various shades stand apart nicely enough -- yellow hard hats and a yellow New York cab, bold natural greens, warmer reds and oranges -- but the cooler look prevails throughout. Black levels are impressively deep and rich. Flesh tones hold a natural shading within the movie's color scheme. Light noise dances across some backgrounds, but the image is otherwise free of any serious, troubling artifacts or compression issues. This is an excellent presentation from Sony.

The Walk Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The Walk's DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 lossless soundtrack isn't a classic example of aggressive, assaulting reference audio, but it's terrific in its own right and a perfect example of refined, supportive sound. Musical recreation is terrific. There's a nice cross-section of styles, each of them presented with exemplary attention to detail, perfect volume and stage balance, strong supportive bass, and natural surround envelopment. Ambient effects are terrific and filling, effortlessly recreating dense Paris and New York streets. Lighter elements gently surround the listener during the upper atmosphere high wire walk. A few examples of more aggressive sound -- tightly pulled and springy wires, a whirring helicopter near film's end -- enjoy precision placement and superb definition. Dialogue drives the film, and delivery is naturally focused in the center. Clarity is strong and prioritization is perfect.

The Walk Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

The Walk contains three featurettes and several deleted scenes. A UV digital copy code is included with purchase.

• Deleted Scenes (1080p): Original Opening (1:59), Philippe Carries Annie (1:05), Wire Rigging Lesson (1:01), JP and Annie See David (0:34), JP Finds Annie (0:36), Philippe Signs Off (0:35), and Central Park Walk (0:27).
• First Steps - Learning to Walk the Wire (1080p, 9:11): This piece looks at the art of wire walking; Joseph Gordon-Levitt's immersion into the world of, and learning from, the real Philippe Petit; Gordon-Levitt's physical and emotional preparations for the role; and more.
• Pillars of Support (1080p, 8:27): A fun look at the supporting characters and the cast that portrays them.
• The Amazing Walk (1080p, 10:48): A look at the magic -- real life magic and movie magic -- that made The Walk a success, converting the film to 3D, painstaking digital effects and recreating the towers, and more.
• Previews (1080p): Additional Sony titles.

The Walk Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Who can say whether Philippe Petit's story would have been made into a film were it not for the events that transpired on 9/11. But that day did happen, and for all that's followed The Walk is, at least cinematically, perhaps the most important. The film is a triumph. While it's a bit slow out of the gate, that sluggishness becomes a sense of anticipation becomes a nearly unbearable wait and hope, and all of that is only matching Philippe Petit's own unquenchable thirst to live his dream. Once the action shifts to New York and the film spends much of its second half in the actual preparations for, and recreation of, the walk, it takes flight like few films before it and commands the audience's full attention not only as visual spectacle but emotional triumph. It's a beautifully crafted film, breathtaking in every way, and a treasure of the cinema world and certainly in the post-9/11 era. Sony's Blu-ray 2D release of The Walk delivers dazzling video, expert audio, and a few good supplement. The Walk earns my highest recommendation.