Dead Man’s Wire
Written by Cameron Geiser
Warning: This review is for Dead Man’s Wire, which is a film presented at the 2025 Toronto International Film Festival. There may be slight spoilers present. Reader discretion is advised.
Image courtesy of the Toronto International film Festival.
America loves a good Outlaw, especially when the story at hand is framed as the lone everyman versus the privileged elite. That was certainly how some perceived the true life story of Tony Kiritsis (Bill Skarsgård), an eccentric oddity of Indianapolis who in 1977 kidnapped Richard Hall (Dacre Montgomery) the son of the President of the Meridian Mortgage Company. Tony felt taken advantage of and that Meridian had exploited him when he couldn't pay for a real estate location he had bought, believing they intentionally drove away potential investors ultimately dooming him. Tony originally intended to kidnap Richard's father, but when he came in for his scheduled meeting he finds that M.L. Hall (Al Pacino) went on an impromptu vacation to Florida- which only enrages Tony further. After securing Richard by wire to the end of a sawed off shotgun, with any quick movement designed to kill the victim immediately, Tony walks Richard out the front door barking at any Cop willing to approach them or draw their guns.
Things get out of hand fairly quickly as Tony and Richard steal a cop car and head to Tony's apartment which he's outfitted with various bombs and traps galore. Once there Tony straps Richard into a seated version of the Dead Man's Wire beginning the negotiations between local and federal police, alongside Meridian Mortgage staff. Oddly enough they are joined by the radio personality "The Voice of Indianapolis" himself, Fred Temple played with an eternally unperturbed presence by Colman Domingo. Tony happens to be a devout fan of the DJ and ropes him into telling his side of the story to the public.
This macabre comedy thriller does an excellent job maintaining a consistently entertaining pace switching between the real threat of danger and the strange, midwest, small town weirdness of the characters resulting in some unexpectedly hilarious scenes and beats. Between Cary Elwes portraying one of the local cops that knew Tony before the kidnapping to even the local news reporters musing about the details of the kidnapping, everyone has something quirky or folksy about them. No one is a better example of this than Skarsgård's take on Tony himself.
Here, Skarsgård has never been funnier. Alternating swapping between righteous fury and earnest hospitality, Tony just wants to be respected and treated fairly. Once Richard’s been strapped into his snare at the apartment, for example, he jubilantly swirls to the fridge and asks his guest if he wants a glass of milk, "You do ice in your milk?" He pauses for a deadpan Richard to slowly blink and monotonally answer, "No, Tony. No ice." Tony spins back around and chuckles, "Alright, well I'm doing ice. I'm weird like that".
Gus Vant Sant's latest film comes at a strange time where the darkly comedic threat of violence in America coming from a place of intense class division certainly fits the mood and atmosphere of our times. This may be more of an indictment of where American Society is at right now, but this true story adaptation of a kidnapping in 1977 middle America is certainly entertaining and worth a watch. The soundtrack is also quite memorable and ferociously funky at times, tying this crime caper in a satisfying bow that brings it all together.
Cameron Geiser is an avid consumer of films and books about filmmakers. He'll watch any film at least once, and can usually be spotted at the annual Traverse City Film Festival in Northern Michigan. He also writes about film over at www.spacecortezwrites.com.