“The Walk” – honors an artist and the Twin Towers, now in 4K UHD
- Bill Kelley III
- 2 hours ago
- 7 min read
4K ULTRA HD REVIEW / HDR SCREENSHOTS
Joseph Gordon-Levitt plays the French high-wire artist Philippe Petit, and Charlotte Le Bon as Parisian street musician Annie. The two become lovers in the Robert Zemeckis docudrama, which he captured mostly with wide-angle lenses for a more powerful 3D viewing experience.
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“THE WALK”
4K Ultra HD; 2015; PG for thematic elements involving perilous situations, and for some nudity, profanity, brief drug references, and smoking; Digital copy via Amazon Video (4K), Apple TV (4K), DirecTV (4K), Fandango Home (4K), Google Play (4K), Movies Anywhere (4K), Verizon (4K), Xfinity (4K)
Best extra: “The Amazing Walk”
THE 2010s were clearly the decade of the Hollywood 3D movie.
James Cameron’s billion-dollar blockbuster “Avatar” (2009) started the resurgence, offering premium pricing for the special glasses to experience the world of Pandora in 3D.
Then, other top Hollywood directors decided to take a stab at the format. Martin Scorsese’s “Hugo” (2011), received 11 Oscar nominations, winning five for Visual Effects, Art Direction, Sound Editing, Sound Mixing, and Cinematography by Robert Richardson. Scorsese didn’t consider the format a gimmick. “I found 3D to be really interesting because the actors were more upfront emotionally. Their slightest move, their slightest intention is picked up much more precisely,” he told the New York Film Academy.
Steven Spielberg took a dive with his animated adaptation of “The Adventures of Tintin” (2011), voiced by Jamie Bell, Andy Serkis, and Daniel Craig.
Ang Lee’s beautiful “Life of Pi” (2012) was nominated for 11 Oscars, receiving his second Best Director golden statue – the first being for “Brokeback Mountain.” “Life of Pi” also won for its 3D cinematography, score, and visual effects.
Ao Cuarón’s “Gravity” (2013), and its innovative 360-degree filmmaking atmosphere –was first conceived with a simple image: An astronaut floating in the void of space. It won seven Academy Awards, including Best Director and Best Cinematography.
(1&2) The opening sequence of “The Walk,” Philippe tells his story from the top of the Statue of Liberty, with the World Trade Center looming in the distance. (3&4) Philllipe performs his wire act in the same Paris courtyard as Annie’s musical act. She’s upset that the crowds have moved to Philippe’s circle. (5) But, he wins Annie over, and she returns to his apartment, where he shows her the magazine that featured the Twin Towers and his dream to walk between the 1360-foot buildings.
Then in 2015, Oscar-winning director Robert Zemeckis (“Back to the Future,” “Forrest Gump” and “Cast Away”) orchestrated the re-creation of Philippe Petit’s nail-biting tightrope walk between the Twin Towers of the summer of 1974. The 24-year-old Frenchman crossed a 140-foot-long steel cable between the Towers of the World Trade Center.
Petit’s dream began years before the Twin Towers were even finished, when a French magazine published an artist’s rendering of the World Trade Center. “He drew this little pencil strip between them and said, ‘I’m going to hang a high wire between these two towers, and I’m going to walk on it,'” as star Joseph Gordon-Levitt tells the story. “He hung on to this dream.”
Much of the film unfolds as a caper executed under the radar in what Petit calls “the coup.” His first accomplice was a Paris street musician, Annie (Charlotte Le Bon). Petit steals her audience and her heart with his juggling act. He then became a student of the great Czech wire walker, Papa Rudy (Ben Kingsley). Joining them are photographer Jean-Louis (Clément Sibony) and high school math teacher Jean-Francois (César Domboy). Once in New York City, Petit grabs more accomplices: Jean-Pierre, aka J.P. (James Badge Dale), an electronics storeowner who speaks French; Barry Greenhouse (Steve Valentine), the inside man, with an office on the 82nd floor of the North Tower, and two amusing potheads.
(1) Annie became his first accomplice, and he practiced his wire act between two trees at her school. (2) Phillipe performs an unauthorized walk across between the towers of the Notre-Dame Cathedral in 1971. (3&4) Phillipe and Annie make their first visit to Manhattan to explore the possibility of crossing between the Twin Towers.
VIDEO
Zemeckis and cinematographer Dariusz Wolski “put us right on the tightrope – especially in 3D – with Gordon-Levitt as Petit,” I said in my 2016 Blu-ray review. At the time, 4K UHD was in its infancy, so no physical disc was produced. But, in 2018, Sony provided the digital platforms with the 4K version, graded with HDR10 and Dolby Vision.
Finally, 8 years later, we get Sony’s physical 4K disc. It’s sourced from the same decade-old 2K master, which was the common post-production rendering resolution during the 2010s, and then upconverted to 4K. All of the live action imagery was captured on Redcode RAW 6K cameras in the streets of Montreal, subbing for Paris and Manhattan. A nearby studio was used to create the FX Twin Towers, decked in greenscreen material for the VFX. All of the imagery was converted to 3D by the folks at Legened3D.
The resolution on the 4K disc is identical to the 2016 Blu-ray, but the biggest difference is the HDR grading. Highlights are more controlled with a wider mid-tone, while the shadows are deeper without getting blocky. Overall, it’s a more cinematic experience in 4K, with its expanded contrast levels, although there’s no night-and-day difference.
I hope in the next 30 days to compare the new 4K disc with my 10-year-old 3D disc of “The Walk.” My last three 4K laser projectors (Sony & JVC) were entry-level and didn’t feature 3D, but I’ve preordered the highly praised $15 million Kickstarter-funded XGIMI Titan Noir 4K RGB laser projector, and it should arrive very soon. It supposedly features remarkable brightness levels (7000 ISO Lumens), deep, dark blacks, and supports 3D. Early reviews are giving this projector exceptionally high marks for its 4K imagery and 3D, and the great part – it’s half the price of my latest JVC 4K laser projector.
No question rewatching “The Walk” in 3D will be eye-popping, since most of the imagery was captured with a wide-angle lens that simulates the depth and perspective of the human eye.
AUDIO
The previous six-channel DTS-HD soundtrack has been ported over, providing a very good soundstage for the front-and-center dialogue. The score fills the room from longtime Zemeckis collaborator Alan Silvestri (“Back to the Future,” “Forrest Gump”). The environmental city sounds are nicely positioned to the sides, rears, and fronts.
(1) Ben Kingsley plays the great Czech wire walker, Papa Rudy, a mentor to Philippe. (2&3) Philippe disguises himself as a tourist and journalist to get vital information and photographs of the Twin Towers. (4) Philippe and his two French accomplices, photographer Jean-Louis (Clément Sibony) and high school math teacher Jean-Francois (César Domboy), recruit electronics storeowner Jean-Pierre, aka J.P. (James Badge Dale). (5) The Coup is set to start on August 6. (6&7) The night before, Philippe can’t sleep and awakens the whole crew to go over the master plan one more time.
EXTRAS
Seven deleted scenes: (6 mins.) Original opening, Philippe carries Annie, Wire rigging lesson, JP and Annie see David, JP finds Annie, Philippe signs off, and Central Park walk.
“High Wire Act” (4 mins.) – previously only available digitally. You’ll discover how stunt workers performed the more difficult wire work, and later, they digitally placed Gordon-Levitt’s face onto the stunt person. They still relied on two streets in Montreal to create 1970s Manhattan. The production design was handled by Naomi Shohan, who said, “We did our best to invoke the real places, and the spirit and look.”
“First Steps – Learning to Walk the Wire” (9 mins.) – The Frenchman worked with the American actor for weeks to copy his dazzling adventure, which unfolded 1,360 feet above the streets of Lower Manhattan. “One thing he [Petit] really stressed, and I think he was right, walking on a wire is even more of a mental game than it’s a physical game,” Gordon-Levitt says.
“Pillars of Support” (8 mins.) highlights the incredible supporting cast of actors who created Petit’s highly organized team of accomplices.
“The Amazing Walk” (11 mins.) – Petit was amazed by the power of the movie, “I could be transported back to the most important day of my life …You’re actually gonna be on the wire with me,” he says.
New CGI software gave Zemeckis and his crew the ability to preview Gordon-Levitt’s wire walk in real time, with a low-resolution graphic impression of the Twin Towers and the NYC skyline fused into the background. Normally, the director sees only the actor and the green-screen background on the video monitor.
A decade ago, Petit said he still practiced magic and juggling, plus two hours on the high wire every day. “I’ll never stop except when my legs refuse to carry the order from my heart and head to keep walking.”
— Bill Kelley III, High-Def Watch producer
A bonus: check out “Man on Wire,” the 2008 documentary of Petit’s story that won the Academy Award for Best Documentary.
Tuesday morning, August 7, 1974
SPECS:
100GB disc
2K mastering and upconverted to 4K
Captured on 6K Redcode RAW cameras, mounted with Zeiss lenses (2.39:1 aspect ratio)
Video bitrate: Varies from the upper 50 Megabits per second to the mid-80 Mbps, with a running time of 123 minutes.
HDR10 maximum light level: 1047 nits
Max Frame average light level: 199 nits
Box office: Surprisingly, only $10 million domestically, but worldwide $61 million, with a production budget of $35 million
Rotten Tomatoes: Top Critics’ 83 percent, Audiences 77 percent
Metacritic: Critics 70 percent, User Score 7.4
Critics Choice Award: Nominee for Best Visual Effects.
Empire Magazine: The 20 Best 3D movies and “The Walk” landed No. 7. “Gravity” was No. 1 and “Avatar” No. 2.
Movieweb.com: Best 3D movies and “The Walk” was selected No. 3. “Gravity” was No. 2 and “Avatar” was No. 1.