DEAD MAN’S WIRE
(director: Gus Van Sant; screenwriter: Austin Kolodney; cinematographer: Arnaud Potier; editor: Saar Klein; music: Danny Elfman; cast: Al Pacino (ML Hall), Myha-la (Linda Page), Bill Skarsgård (Tony Kiritsis), Dacre Montgomery (Richard ‘Dick’ Hall), Colman Domingo (Fred Temple, radio DJ), Cary Elwes (Michael Grable, detective negotiator), Kelly Lynch (Mabel Hall, wife of ML), Jordan Claire Robbins (Doreen, Dick’s wife)John Robinson (John), Todd Gable (Chief Gallagher), Mark Helms (Frank Love), Michael Ashcroft (George Martz); Runtime: 104; MPAA Rating: R; producers: Cassian Elwes, Joel David Moore, Mark Amin, Sam Pressman, Tom Culliver, Matt Murphie, Andrea Bucko, Vernoica Radaelli, Paula Paizes, Remi Alfallah, Noor Alfallah, Billy Hines, Siena Oberman, Gordon Clark; Elevated Films; 2025)
“The vigilante crime drama, ripped from the day’s headlines, is gripping.”
Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz
A true crime story set in 1977 when a middle-aged Indianapolis bachelor businessman, Tony Kiritsis (Bill Skarsgård), tired of waiting four years for a loan to pay off his mortgage on his property he wants to convert into a shopping center is not given him by the greedy and crooked Meridian Mortgage House who want to take the valuable property from him when he defaults on the mortgage. His nutty scheme has him take the broker Dick Hall (Dacre Montgomery) hostage and demand $5 million in ransom money. His father ML Hall (Al Pacino) is the boss of the mortgage house but couldn’t be reached at the time of the office invasion. Tony uses a “Dead Man’s Wire” to tie his shotgun to the vic’s neck so if the police shoot him Dick would also be killed.
The fictionalized TV reporter Linda Page (Myha-la) covers the unfolding story on TV for the nation, trying to hype up the story further for ratings and her career. Detective Grable (Cary Elwes), an acquaintance of Tony’s, is the chief negotiator who tries to get him to surrender. The tense stand-off began on Feb. 8 in the insurance office and goes to Tony’s apartment, where it’s not resolved for three days.
The vigilante crime drama, ripped from the day’s headlines, is gripping, well-acted and stylishly directed by Gus Van Sant (“Milk”/”The Sea of Trees”) and smartly written by Austin Kolodney. It’s adapted from the 2018 documentary “Dead Man’s Line,” directed by Alan Berry.
The polished crime drama is a retro 70s film reminding one of a similar true story everyman hostage story protesting the wrongs of the capitalist system in Sidney Lumet’s Dog Day Afternoon (1977), an Oscar winner that Pacino starred in. This film is a good one but of a lesser quality than “Dog Day.”
Tony, the everyman protagonist, sounds like a nut job carrying out a mad plan, as even if the mortgage house was unscrupulous and tried to screw him that’s obviously not the way of dealing with them and not to know that says something about his mental condition which the film never looked into.
It played at the Venice Film Festival.
REVIEWED ON 1/1/2026 GRADE: B
dennisschwartzreviews.com