Critic Reviews

Hanging By a Wire is a nail-biting watch, one that never allows itself to become bogged down in excessive setup or backstory.

Hanging By a Wire may have all the urgency of a Hollywood disaster movie from the 1970s, but also incorporates an undercurrent of commentary on the neglect of poor rural communities in Pakistan.

Hanging by a Wire emphasizes the self-reliance of the people of Battagram, who are accustomed to solving problems on their own. Naqvi brings us along to witness their strength and determination on display.

Perhaps if the film was more polished, and had some added depth, it might feel more substantial. As is, Hanging by a Wire is a gripping story not told thoroughly enough.

Granted, the footage itself and the intense quest to save these eight still make Hanging by a Wire a documentary worth seeking out. It’s just one that doesn’t have as much depth as one would hope.

The movie’s narrow focus on the pre-existing conditions that fed into the cable car crisis does more to flatten the people involved than it does to bring new dimension to their ordeal.

Mohammed Ali Naqvi’s Hanging by a Wire is not without thrills and human drama. Yet it seems focused more on a death-defying rescue than on what could be done to prevent this from happening again.