Dead Man’s Wire **** (2025, Bill Skarsgård, Dacre Montgomery, Al Pacino, Cary Elwes, Colman Domingo, Myha’la, John Robinson, Kelly Lynch) – Classic Movie Review 13,853

Gus Van Sant’s 2025 American crime thriller film Dead Man’s Wire is written by Austin Kolodney, inspired by the real-life 1977 hostage standoff involving disgruntled kidnapper Tony Kiritsis (Bill Skarsgård).

Director Gus Van Sant’s 2025 American crime thriller film Dead Man’s Wire is written by Austin Kolodney, inspired by the real-life 1977 hostage standoff involving disgruntled kidnapper Tony Kiritsis (Bill Skarsgård).

On 8 February 1977, disgruntled and angry Tony Kiritsis enters the mortgage company office of M L Hall, president of the Meridian Mortgage Company, who he finds has left on vacation, and instead takes his executive son Richard Hall hostage with a sawed-off shotgun wired with a ;dead man’s wire’ from the trigger to Tony Kiritsis’s own neck. Actually, of course, it is Kiritsis who is ‘wired’. He believes the Halls cheated him after he bought land to develop, and now seeks to expose them by involving the media.

Bill Skarsgård is on-fire tremendous as live wire Tony Kiritsis in this brilliantly lively, unsettling and engrossing, if rather depressing and perhaps slightly bewildering real-life US crime drama biographical movie. You just don’t know what Tony Kiritsis is going to do next, suffering confused and uncertain along with the film’s characters, and Skarsgård conveys his character’s loopy logicality with practised ease. He’s probably playing too many nutty villains, but never mind, he’s extremely good at it. The Swedish actor seems convincingly American, with just the odd hint of his home accent creeping in very occasionally, convincingly troubled, conflicted and nutty, a rebel with an anti-capitalist cause (as well as his own, wanting to end up with a fistful of dollars as well as a public apology), a temporary Seventies folk hero. Stellan Skarsgård and Alexander Skarsgård better watch out. Bill Skarsgård’s on his way up.

If the film is bewildering, it is because its purpose is obscure. Are we looking for enlightenment or entertainment? Or what? Are we on Tony Kiritsis’s side, or not? He declares himself a national hero on live TV and many folk believe him. But is he and are they deluded? Or are we on Richard Hall’s side? They both seem basically okay sorts of blokes. They could have been buddies in a better world. Who’s the hero, who’s the villain? Well, there isn’t one. Life’s a mess, particularly in America with its climate of greed, apparently. The film is rather subtle. There are messages, but they are mixed and hidden. Anyway, Gus Van Sant is just the right man to bring this Seventies story back to life, lovingly recreating the era, the cars, the phones, the buildings, the attitudes and the whole damn thing in an impeccable period production. He brings a great deal of energy and dynamism to the show.

Dacre Montgomery is very strong and rock solid as the scared to death Richard Hall (a tricky victim role that he lights up broodingly), and Al Pacino his usual entertainingly extravagant self in an extended cameo as Hall’s greedy, selfish, up-himself father, whose arrogance and lack of care stokes up the crisis. (Okay, Al Pacino’s M L Hall character is the villain. He’s the one who started it and won’t stop it.)  Cary Elwes has his moments as Detective Michael Grable, and so does Colman Domingo as local radio DJ Fred Temple, both sympathetic presences in Tony Kiritsis’s sorry saga. Van Sant casts John Robinson as John the Cameraman and Kelly Lynch as Mabel Hall in small roles for old times’ sake.

It helps not to know the story, with the outcome a surprise, and there is plenty of foreboding and tension as it goes along. You have a horrible sinking feeling as you watch it, for you know it is not going to end well. But the end is a real surprise. Danny Elfman’s minimalist score is a good help. Arnaud Potier’s cinematography is sharp and period stylish. Everything conspires to help the film’s authentic feel.

At the end we see the real Tony Kiritsis and Richard Hall. They look nothing like the actors, of course. Original choice of Nicolas Cage (to have been directed by Werner Herzog) would have looked more authentic maybe, but that would have robbed us of Bill Skarsgård’s brilliant performance, the film’s crowning glory.

The script was written in 2020 by Austin Kolodney, who worked with historical consultants Alan Berry and Mark Enochs, who together made the 2018 documentary Dead Man’s Line examining the same events. It was shot over 19 days in Louisville, Kentucky, in January 2025. Pacino filmed his part in just one day (a couple of scenes basically) while Domingo shot his much more considerable role in two days.

Dead Man’s Wire premiered at the Venice Film Festival on September 2, 2025, then had a limited release by Row K Entertainment in the US on January 9, expanding wide on January 16, 2026, grossing $1.23 million over the four-day holiday. It will need a bit more support to cover its $15 million budget,

Production: Pressman Film, Elevated Films, Pinstripes, District 9 Productions, Sobini Films, RNA Pictures.

John Robinson (born October 25, 1985) made his screen debut starring in Gus Van Sant’s psychological drama film Elephant (2003). Kelly Lynch (born January 31, 1959) was nominated for the Independent Spirit Award for Best Female Lead for her performance in Gus Van Sant’s Drugstore Cowboy (1989).

© Derek Winnert 2026 – Classic Movie Review 13,853

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