Dead Man's Wire

 

Director Gus van Sant

van Sant on the set with Bill Skarsgård

Pulitzer prize-winning photo of Tony Kiritsis and Richard Hall

DEAD MAN’S WIRE           B-                                                                                                  USA  (105 mi)  2025  d: Gus van Sant

I’m a goddamn national hero and don’t you forget it.                                                                  —Tony Kiritsis (Bill Skarsgård)

This film reads like a fictionalized documentary, updating an explosive story making all the headlines in 1977 when Tony Kiritsis kidnapped at gunpoint the president of a mortgage company, wiring him to a shotgun pointed at his head and holding him captive in his own apartment for three days, claiming the mortgage company deliberately sabotaged his 17-acre investment property project of developing a reasonably priced shopping center, believing they knowingly convinced the developer to build elsewhere on property they owned.  In a rampage filled with expletives, he instantly became a media darling when he aired his grievances over the television and radio airwaves, becoming something of a folk hero for some, like a little guy finally standing up the heavily-connected giants of finance, finding himself caught in a post-Watergate world of mistrust and greed that would only be amplified further in the Reagan years a decade later, while faith in core institutions has faded even further today.  All taking place in the Midwest heartland of Indianapolis, the story reads like a plea for vigilante justice that pre-dates all the sensationalism of social media coverage of today, like the arrest of Luigi Mangione for shooting and killing the CEO of a large healthcare conglomerate, with van Sant satirizing a society that allows people to be exploited and then applauds them when they react in extreme ways, a reminder of how much worse things have gotten, as populist anger is reflected in contemporary headlines, with some wondering if these outrageous acts can actually be justified.  Van Sant was born in Louisville, Kentucky, where this film was actually shot, also the birthplace of Hunter S. Thompson, whose groundbreaking Gonzo journalism unleashed a torrent of first-person subjectivity that remade the media in the 60’s and 70’s, though van Sant has long been associated with Pacific Northwest filmmaking, aligned with the city of Portland, along with fellow indie director Kelly Reichardt, crafting compelling portraits of outsiders and outlaws, where the works he’s most associated with are New Queer Movement cornerstones MALA NOCHE (1986), DRUGSTORE COWBOY (1989), and My Own Private Idaho (1991), all shot in Portland, the star-driven GOOD WILL HUNTING (1997) and To Die For (1995), the more experimental GERRY (2002), ELEPHANT (2003), LAST DAYS (2005), and Paranoid Park (2007), and the biographic MILK (2008), which this film most closely resembles, as it’s based on real-life circumstances.  Coming from a long line of scheming, delusional “losers” in van Sant films, from Matt Dillon’s DRUGSTORE COWBOY to Nicole Kidman’s toxic, fame-seeking, TV reporter in To Die For, alternating between experimental films and more mainstream-oriented, star-driven projects, this film will recall Jodie Foster’s Money Monster (2016), but has a more direct connection to Sidney Lumet’s Dog Day Afternoon (1975), with Al Pacino, the appealing young star of that film, reappearing here in a significant role, where it also seems influenced by Alan J. Pakula’s psychological suspense thriller, Klute (1971), which ushered in the era of 70’s paranoid conspiracy theory movies.  While it’s brazenly disturbing and mildly amusing, with the director returning to feature films after a seven-year absence, viewers may find themselves feeling a disconnect with the central protagonist, as taking things to this extreme reveal a greater underlying problem that is never addressed, leaving a giant hole in the heart of the picture, where criminality and bizarre psychological desperation are inevitably linked.  There is a curious musical choice, Labi Siffre - Cannock Chase (Official Lyric Video) YouTube (4:05), which was also heard in Joachim Trier’s 2025 Top Ten List #1 Sentimental Value  (Affeksjonsverdi), sounding very much like America’s Horse with No Name, America - Horse With No Name (1972) (Official Music Video) YouTube (4:08), while music of Deodato, Roberta Flack, Yes, Harper’s Bizarre, and Gil Scott-Heron add subversive undertones.      

At the center of the picture is Tony Kiritsis (Bill Skarsgård, Stellan’s son, doing his best Michael Shannon imitation, is ten years younger than the figure he is portraying), seen arriving at the Meridian Mortgage Company in the early morning after falling behind on his mortgage payments through predatory loans, convinced that the company has deceived him, foreclosing on a mortgage while depriving him of the income to pay it.  He has an appointment with the owner and CEO M.L. Hall (Al Pacino), but he’s out of town, so instead he’s pleasantly greeted by his son Richard (Dacre Montgomery), the firm’s president, walking him back to his office, where things get a little dicey, as the package Tony is carrying is a sawed-off 12-gauge shotgun that has been rigged with two wires, one around Richard’s neck, with another “deadman’s switch” from the trigger to his own neck, Dead Man's Wire Movie Clip - Getting Started (2026) YouTube (1:13).  Walking gingerly through the building, ordering the security guards away, he forces Hall out of the building and onto the streets in near-zero weather with snow on the ground, surrounded by policemen and journalists, where they can’t just shoot him, as it will trigger the shotgun, Dead Man's Wire - Hand's official clip YouTube (1:04), so they’re in a violent stand-off until Kiritsis commandeers a police car and drives to his home in the Crestwood Village apartments, which he claims is rigged with explosives.  A few other details happen simultaneously, as a local TV news crew led by a young and still unrecognized Linda Page (Myha’la), who is not yet an on-air personality, as at the time there were still a shockingly small number of black women broadcasters seen on-air, gets wind of what’s happening and films the incident, drawing her network’s attention, while a police detective Michael Grable (Cary Elwes) also arrives on the scene, holding officers at bay, attempting to remain calm amidst this inflammatory situation before it could get even uglier.  Like any good heist movie or police procedural, the principle players are slowly introduced, becoming recognizable presences onscreen, including the charismatic “voice of Indianapolis,” Fred Temple (Colman Domingo), a revered jazz radio host who regularly interacts with callers, like a voice of the people, and is the epitome of cool.  When he receives word of a live kidnapping in progress, with the kidnapper reaching out to speak to him, it comes as a huge surprise, Dead Man's Wire Movie Clip - Open With That (2026) YouTube (58 seconds).  Temple is the voice of calm and reason, who unwittingly becomes a facilitator at ending the standoff, while Kiritsis remains a hothead throughout, though he goes out of his way to be polite to the people he knows or respects, like Fred Temple, First Time Caller Scene | DEAD MAN'S WIRE (2025) Movie ... YouTube (3:53), and for all the threats and profanity-charged outlandishness, he does have occasional quiet moments of respectability, frequently apologizing for his crude language.  But he’s more of an attention-grabbing caricature than a real human being, as his ever-evolving portrait is a collaboration of police work, news reports, and callers from ordinary people, each seeing things differently, creating a kaleidoscopic, elusively skewed perspective, a precursor of how the Internet and cellphones have changed how news is presented, yet it’s hard to find a film more reflective of the inequitable times we currently live in.

Written by first-time screenwriter Austin Kolodney, who comes from a comedy writing background, having written for Comedy Central, yet the characters are imperfectly realized, with little to no backstory, and while understandable for the part they play in the story, there’s simply no depth to any of them, making it difficult to engage with this picture.  While M.L. Hall is vacationing in Florida, with Kiritsis insisting on speaking to him, demanding an apology, along with $5 million dollars in compensation and a promise of no prosecution, Dead Man's Wire Exclusive Movie Clip - Power (2026) YouTube (1:33), Hall’s cold indifference is built into the film, fueled by his own sleazy, larger-than-life ego, never wanting to get his hands dirty, yet his decisions drive the entire scenario, completely disconnected not only from his mortgage holders, but also his own family, which includes the callous disregard and willing sacrifice of his own son Richard, as he’s willing to allow him to become collateral damage rather than apologize directly to Kiritsis in order to free him, Dead Man's Wire Movie Clip - Apologize (2026) YouTube (1:10).  This doesn’t sit well with viewers (or Richard, by the way), or the radio listeners, holding him in utter contempt, much like the equally disconnected billionaires of today who simply refuse to ever admit to any wrongdoing, yet are responsible for some of the worst and most atrocious human behavior.  Watching this play out is like witnessing an ongoing train wreck, with Kiritsis always having the final word, delivering obscenity-fueled monologues on the air, with footage of all-American hero John Wayne appearing on his television screen, where his People’s Choice Award acceptance speech is interrupted, cutting straight to live coverage of Kiritsis, creating a true-life interplay of outlaw entertainment with news of the day, where he’s simply much more relatable to the man on the street than the overly privileged CEO’s of the world who are used to getting their way and always want to control the narrative.  This was originally scheduled to be filmed in 2018, with Werner Herzog as director and Nicolas Cage as the lead actor, but the production lingered, eventually needing someone who could make the film quickly, so van Sant took over the project, crafting a 1970’s-inspired visual language rooted in handheld realism and cinema vérité.  Shot in just 19 days by Arnaud Potier in something of a run-and-gun production of an American Dream gone wrong, it triggers a moment in time when media expanded their power while also probing into the excavation of contemporary mythmaking, elevating one man’s misguided sense of heroism into a protracted class struggle, happening in small town America where things like this rarely occur, though the mother of all exceptions to the rule would have to be the Truman Capote journalistic exposé of the heartbreaking murders in Richard Brooks’ In Cold Blood (1967).  With epic rants and sardonic twists, and with van Sant exploring the shadowy psychological corners of a life-and-death experience, the emotional rollercoaster takes us on a wild ride, but where it all leads is open to question.  There is an existing 2018 documentary film by Alan Berry and Mark Enochs (local Indianapolis guys who are listed as consultants on this film) entitled DEAD MAN’S LINE, Dead Man's Line | The True Story of Tony Kiritsis (Full ... full movie on YouTube (1:37:39), which documents the rise of voyeuristic TV news and the 24-hour news cycles, with the filmmakers sending Kolodney police reports, newspaper clippings, and video coverage of the original incident, 'Dead Man's Wire' revisits infamous Indianapolis hostage ... YouTube (4:06), with actual footage playing out over the end credits, where a photograph of Kiritsis with the rifle pointed at the back of the neck of Richard Hall won the Pulitzer Prize in 1978 (A Pulitzer Picture).