I saw it this afternoon and enjoyed it. There’s even unicycling in it! Anyone else see it?
i want to! it looks awesome.
WOW thats awesome, tightrope between the towers! It looks like an interesting film to watch.
It opens here later this week. Can’t wait to see it.
It’s a great CRIME movie, huh?
I’m surprised it’s not out on DVD yet.
It’s about one of those guys who conspires with others to violate the laws of this great land and disrupt the functioning of the city, knowing such lawbreaking will actually ENHANCE his employability with money-grubbing anti-union fat cats like the brothers owning Ringling Brothers Circus.
Petit got a big contract with that circus immediately after.
Most people find an arrest record hurts their chances of employment.
Don’t try this at home. Remember, Petit is a professional conspirator.
[ A buddy of mine, Mike Parry, was a Ringling clown and the Clown Union Steward. They violated the clowns contract by making them work 7 days straight. Mike did his job and filed against them, and lost his job as a consequence. Now he’s a Ronald McDonald!!!]
Billy-
This thread is all about you and your philosophical beliefs. Couldn’t you make it more personal?
Not “spectacle” entertainers. Steve McPeak also got famously arrested at least once, while generating huge amounts of “free” publicity for himself, and his feats. This was for walking and unicycling on wires that were part of a crane system at Hoover Dam in 1975 or so. He used to hold the tall unicycle recird at 101’ 9" and still holds the highest unicycle ridden on a wire record, at 41’.
Clowns have a labor union! I never knew that. Doesn’t “the show go on” at RBBB seven days a week? I guess not. Then again, it’s not like you’re working a 40-hour week or something. Show biz has to use different rules.
I tried to look up a clown union on Google but couldn’t find any reference. Do you know what it’s called, or is this just more of BTM being BTM? I’m familliar with the COA (Clowns of America) and the WCA (World Clown Association) but they aren’t unions.
And these are role models for the kids!!? No wonder the world is in such bad shape.
All the athletes and entertainers are cocaine addicts and outlaws!!!
I remember somehow getting in touch with Mike, who now lives in Pittsburgh,PA, through this, or Yoops, or maybe someone PMd me, but I cannot figure out whether there’s a search function on our PMs.
Anyway, I lost his email address, but I’ll try to locate him again, and get the history from him.
I think the main problem is that the Feld’s (Ringling’s owners) are very powerful and influential, and this happened long before this stuff was documented on the internet–late 1970s.
More proof:
Search Results
Who’s Ray Johnston?
Ray Johnston is a Clown who has worked and studied with numerous Ringling Bros. … co-authoring a book on clowning with former Ringling Clown "Mike Perry. …
rayjohnstonfunny.com/Who.html - 30k - Cached - Similar pages
Billy
I just saw this tonight. This was a really good documentary. They had lots of authentic footage from the early 70’s. Very appropriate use of Satie’s Trois Gymnopedies. A little bit of footage of Petit unicycling as a street performer and a couple of shots of his tireless wire unicycle on the practice tower but none of him riding it on the wire. This is something you would want to see on a big screen.
I just finished watching it. It was wonderful and moving. It does a nice job of dramatizing the suspense involved in setting up and executing the entire scheme and gives the viewer a taste. And it provides a glimpse of the wonder and beauty of the actual walk. The tears and inability to verbalize his feelings of one of Petit’s co-conspirators speaks volumes about the event.
Petit is a rare individual and to the extent and within the circle that he is a legend, it is deserved.
Given all the planning and details involved, after the fact the walk seemed so inevitable, but in fact was not. It makes one wonder about others with similar dreams who were thwarted by being caught or encountering unsurmountable technical problems. Like the line in Close Encounters about those others drawn to meet the aliens but who never figured out where to go or quite what their visions meant.
A really nice movie both for its specifics and world view.
This one looks good enough to not download. Ill go out and rent it soon. I saw it at the mall too, so I may just buy it.
It’s been short listed for the Documentary Oscar this year!
Greg,
Do you EVER drop the sarcasm?
Billy
How many others actually make film documentaries of their illegal activities, and then profit off it? Proof of the whole conspiracy – they waited til after the statute of limitations expired.
Can you name any others?
Leni Riefenstahl?
That’s going very low.
They made that comparison to Spielberg when he was going to film the Olympics in China with all the atrocities they commit.
Petit is no Leni Riefenstahl.
Billy, would you eat Petit or Riefenstahl?
Riefenstahl is dead, no?
Do you eat dead flesh?
Picked this up on DVD this afternoon.
Comes with a nice 8-page booklet full of information and pictures.
I’m just about to watch it now.
Hold all my calls for the next 93 minutes.
Petit sometimes looks uncomfortably like Malcolm McDowell as Alex in Clockwork Orange.