Is Philippe really a bad guy?

Did he really abandon his friends?

I just saw the movie and was looking for some answers to the ending here through the threads and seems many are blaming Petit for the end of his friendships with the others including his girlfriend at the time.

While I do agree that he probably had something to do with it, reaching big fame at the time and not having the same kind of time or even location (didnt he stay in the states for awhile after that and they had to go back to france?). I have a hard time believing that Philippe was / is that cold.

To me it felt a little like his friend's had been pushed to their limits. They lived through coming very close to being arrested, having to watch their friend almost kill himself (what if something had gone wrong?), the stress and time of all the planning, set-up etc.

How would you feel after an experience like that? How would you know what Philippe would have up his sleeve for his next stunt? Would you want to continue to be a part of that (seeing your best friend some so close to death)? Or would you want to go back to having some kind of normal life of your own? I am sure these were tough choices for these people.

Philippe probably felt secure in planning his stunts knowing that he had such close friends who would back him and he could rely on. So as long as they were around....who knows what kind of crazy stunts he would have attempted after that. His friends had to choose, do they continue to back and help him...leading up to his possible death? or do they move on and let Phillipe calm down from his crazy ideas? (more of a Catch 22).

I think these may be the real reasons that Jean Louis was so upset at the end....the choices they were forced to make.

So while I am not here to defend the guy, I think that there is this other side to the story which kind of wasnt explained very clearly. (But I think it could have been and would have even made the film even deeper).

But this is also what makes this a facinating social psychological film, because people / friendships are being pushed to their limits here...as little as we may realize it because we are distracted by the event itself.

Point is, I don't think they were so thrilled about staying his friend either...it was all a bit too much for them.

Great film...because we can ask ourselves a lot of these questions. How far would you go for a friend?