Director: Gus Van Sant
Writers: Austin Kolodney
Stars: Al Pacino, Bill Skarsgård, Colman Domingo
Synopsis: On February 8, 1977, Tony Kiritsis entered the office of Richard Hall, president of the Meridian Mortgage Company, and took him hostage with a sawed-off shotgun wired with a “dead man’s wire” from the trigger to Tony’s own neck.
With his first film in seven years, Gus van Sant has revisited the topic of infamy he so thoroughly picked apart with 1995’s To Die For. In his late ‘70s-set thriller/character study, Dead Man’s Wire, Bill Skarsgård portrays a figure that history may have very likely forgotten. But this story couldn’t be more timely, as society at large has only continued to sour and grow bitter towards mortgage companies, loan providers, and the most parasitic examples of late-stage capitalism. Despite the events portrayed in the film feeling as if they’d been lost to time, such a volatile reaction towards corporate entities has proven to be far more than a one-off blip. Beyond that anger, van Sant and screenwriter Austin Kolodney mine this story in search of a human angle to thrive within. And it’s in Tony Kiritsis (Skarsgård) that this filmmaking team strikes gold.
Upon first seeing Tony, Skarsgård plays him with the intensity he has become commonly associated with. The menacing scowl across his face is only broken by the yelp and subsequent sucking of his finger from injuring himself on his broken key. The image Skarsgård instantly built has been broken, and we instead see Tony’s demeanor for what it is: a bit bumbling. With his arm in a sling and an oversized package in tow, he struggles to get out of the car and through the revolving doors of a commercial building in downtown Indianapolis. His first impression with the new receptionist reeks of nervous chatter and confusion. It’s not until he’s escorted into the office of Richard Hall (Dacre Montgomery), president of Meridian Mortgage Company, that Skarsgård’s intense demeanor returns. It’s only in private that Tony reveals himself as a man on a mission. Once his plan is set in motion, Tony handles himself with a certain determined gravity; it’s quite intense. But even so, Dead Man’s Wire never falls into being too heavy a drama. It’s actually quite a light film which packs in equal thrills and human drama alongside its comedic edge.
All of these tones are balanced wonderfully by Skarsgård. Tony is a complete enigma based on what his behavior reveals to us. When setting up the dead man’s wire to hold Richard hostage, he’s laser-focused. He makes Richard acutely aware of the ins and outs of this mechanism. But as the two spend more time together, Tony reveals himself to be quite the quirky guy. And from what people who seem to know him from local bars and such can attest, he’s just a bit of an impassioned oddball and an occasional loudmouth. Despite all these eccentricities and humorous asides delivered by Skarsgård, Tony remains convicted in his mission. And we, as an audience, totally buy into the justification. It’s an essential element the film requires of us in order to empathize with the human dilemma at its core. It’s just another way Dead Man’s Wire succeeds in its mission at being an entertainment vehicle with something important on its mind.
Despite this film depicting a random blip of oddity in human history, it’s events like these that are ripe with emotional depth. It captures a fragment of the human experience in such startling fashion. In a brilliant stylistic stroke, van Sant utilizes archival footage from coverage of the actual event. Paired with the occasional recreation of imagery using still frames of the film’s actors, Dead Man’s Wire creates a modern iconography for an almost 50-year event. And modern audiences will easily align with this film in large part due to its timeless nature. The machine of capitalism is still preying on those desperately searching for a fair share of peace and something to call their own. Just as modern a touch is the way van Sant highlights a bevy of side characters all looking for a particular angle into the story. In doing so, they have their “five minutes of fame” solidified. We see a priest rush Tony and Richard as they walk down the street to try and have Tony atone for his sins. There’s hungry newscasters looking for their big break. The executives at local television stations are willing to show a man executed on live television for the sake of a ratings boost. Tony included, all of them are acting amidst a moment of opportunity. They are taking fate into their own hands and doing all they can to ensure their voices are heard. Some cases are just a bit more extreme than others.
It’s this extremity that Dead Man’s Wire uses to toy with the idea of infamy. It’s quite telling how easily this film can have its audience get behind Tony despite his erratic decision making. Equally telling is just how easily infuriating Hall, Sr. (Al Pacino) is upon hearing from him. Dead Man’s Wire makes it abundantly clear who it considers to be the true antagonistic force of this story. Richard sees it in Tony (and because of this, we’re delivered a nightmare sequence that provides Skarsgård the opportunity to actually showcase the maximum intensity he’s become beloved for). Richard and Tony’s relationship would benefit from a bit more exploration, as it’s likely an avenue for some of the more complex internal conflicts of the film to be grappled with. This unfortunately isn’t the only aspect of Dead Man’s Wire that feels frustratingly under explored. Local legend radio host, played by a smooth-talking Colman Domingo, is a focus of the film, though his character feels underutilized. One might hope the film delved further into the public perception of Tony beyond mere flashes of onlookers and audiences tuning into radio or TV. But this radio host is integral to the overall target Dead Man’s Wire aims to hit. The very opening of the film has him state that he “smiles at the cards he’s dealt.” Tony’s emotional distress at the unfair nature of predatory business models led him towards a different response. Captured in a way that makes us feel as if we, too, are onlookers on the street, Dead Man’s Wire asks us to empathize with Tony’s dilemma. This is ultimately Tony’s story, so it’s understandable why Kolodney and van Sant shift focus solely on him. All in all, it makes for a film that’s both very entertaining and unfortunately timely in its capturing of times never changing, despite these events mattering more than anything to a majority of people.
Dead Man’s Wire is celebrating its North American premiere in the Special Presentations category of the 2025 Toronto International Film Festival.
