DEAD MAN’S WIRE – Review by Diane Carson
Dead Man’s Wire stays firmly immersed in a bizarre, true story
Not surprisingly, especially these days, invented stories cannot match real life for bizarre, mind-boggling incidents. That holds true for director Gus Van Sant’s Dead Man’s Wire. Based on a true story that took place beginning February 8, 1977 in Indianapolis, Van Sant chooses to thrust audiences immediately into the startling events and to anchor all subsequent scenes in the ongoing nightmare for Meridian Mortgage Company executive Richard ‘Dick’ Hall. For it is Hall who becomes Tony Kiritsis’ hostage when his father M.L. Hall, the company’s unsympathetic CEO, is in Florida, unconcerned about a scheduled meeting with Kiritsis.
Tony (Bill Skarsgård) is certain that Meridian Mortgage has illegally and surreptitiously worked to dissuade possible investors from helping him develop some nearby land into a profitable shopping center, land Tony has mortgaged to Meridian. Owing an impossible to produce $130,000, Tony has lost all reason. Acting on his rage and humiliation, he arrives at the offices demanding a public apology. He also brings a 12-gauge, sawed-off Winchester shotgun to his expected meeting with CEO M.L. Hall (Al Pacino), learns M.L. basks in Florida’s sun, and takes the firm’s available representative, son Dick (Dacre Montgomery) hostage in a unique way. Tony hooks a wire around Dick’s neck, the wire connected directly to the shotgun’s trigger which Tony controls. Any sudden move, any stumble, any attack on Tony will mean death for Dick, his head blown clean off as Clint Eastwood would say, hence the film’s title, Dead Man’s Wire. Strung as tight as his wire, Tony expounds upon irrational complaints and disconnected topics, plays music, regales Dick with his unhinged thoughts, and positions himself as the victim of corporate greed and criminal treatment.
Several subplots help, but don’t quite succeed, in rescuing the standoff from repetitious tediousness even though Dick’s life hangs in the balance. In one subplot, thanks to a fortuitous drive by, Linda Page (Myha’la), a black reporter who has never been granted a solid news story, just happens to see Tony and Dick leaving the office, heading to Tony’s Crestwood Apartment home where he will hold forth for 63 hours. This gives Page the chance to prove her mettle in covering real news, an explicit critique of the misogyny and racism of the times. Police and officials are also standing by, struggling to find any constructive approach. More appealingly, popular Indianapolis D.J. Fred Temple (Colman Domingo in fine form) factors in as does a news conference. And in an ‘if you blink you might miss it’ appearance, Al Pacino as M.L. Hall chews the scenery, dismissing the crisis, Kiritsis, and Tony as well, accusing his son of Stockholm Syndrome.
Written by Austin Kolodney, some analysis of Kiritsis’ actual situation differs in its conclusions concerning the company’s culpability. Nevertheless, the story has appeal for everyone feeling ignored and exploited by corporate priorities, inhumane behavior proliferating versus support of clients. Markedly, Kiritsis’ anger and outrage mirror that of Teddy Gatz (Jesse Plemons) in Bugonia. In it, Teddy kidnaps Big Pharma CEO Michelle Fuller (Emma Stone), certain she’s an alien but more unambiguously mounting a recognizable protest over his and his mother’s victimization. There, in weighty debates, the punch/counterpunch between Teddy and Michelle keeps audiences engaged, even pondering ways they’d try to defuse the situation. By contrast, Dead Man’s Wire lacks satisfying intellectual complexity even as it elevates and benefits from its dire emotional ordeal. Viewers unaware of the outcome (as I was) should surrender to the roller coaster ride for a suspenseful two hours. Dead Man’s Wire screens at cinemas now with streaming to come.
