‘Dead Man’s Wire’ Does ’70s Era Filmmaking Proud

Gus Van Sant’s “Dead Man’s Wire” is the true story of the “Indianapolis Hostage Crisis” that occurred in February of 1977.

Bill Skarsgård stars as Tony Kiritsis, the Indianapolis citizen who entered his bank one morning, placed a shotgun to the back of loan officer Richard O. Hall’s head and took him hostage.

A chilling detail is that Kiritsis had a wire wrapped around Hall’s neck that was attached to the trigger of his shotgun, a “dead man’s wire” to ensure that Kiritsis could pull the trigger anytime he wanted. Kiritsis exited the bank with Hall on foot, established a back-and-forth with authorities and managed to reach out to the one person he considered an ally.

That’s local DJ (Coleman Domingo) who Kiritsis had never met before.

As in “IT” (as well as the recent triumph of the HBO series “IT: Welcome to Derry”) and “Nosferatu” (2024), only his eyes give Skarsgård away and the only actor with a scarier gaze than him is Michael Shannon. This is unlike anything we’ve seen Skarsgård play before; the actor manages the impossible, as he makes Kiritsis manic, uncomfortable and, against all odds, sympathetic.

Playing Kiritsis’s hostage, Dacres Montgomery has a tough role and plays it well. Al Pacino pops up in a key supporting role, a nice nod to his starring in “Dog Day Afternoon” 50 years ago. Pacino only has three scenes, but they’re juicy and he makes an interesting vocal choice for his role.

Skarsgård dominates but Domingo, playing the DJ who Kiritsis bizarrely felt connected to, is a pro scene stealer.

While Pacino and John Cazale’s characters in “Dog Day Afternoon” were easier to root for, especially as their scenario grew more dire and out of hand, Kiritsis, as depicted here, is the kind of anti-authority oddball who you can’t help but sort-of admire, because his plan took guts to carry out.

It’s interesting to see how movies from the 1970s went from being a cluster of standout examples of cinema to an actual genre itself, as we now have ’70s-set stories being portrayed in a manner that aims to mimic the look and feel, not just of the era but of the cinema of the period.

David Fincher’s “Zodiac” (2007) remains the best of the lot, but I enjoyed this one, too.

The editing suggests the looseness of a 1970s-era film. In some scenes, still photos are interspersed with the action. A detail I can’t help but be nitpicky about: a photo shopped picture prop of Pacino’s character doesn’t convince.

Otherwise, Van Sant does an excellent job at recreating the stakes and feel of this awful incident and injects it with his wit and visual playfulness where appropriate.

“Dead Man’s Wire” is gripping and funny. While the milieu and subject matter are familiar, as nothing here matches or tops Sidney Lumet’s “Dog Day Afternoon” (1975), but at least Van Sant doesn’t play it safe. Van Sant is aiming for the rising tension and extreme mania of Lumet’s film and manages to keep things entertaining, even as we’ve seen this type of story before.

The conclusion is extremely satisfying, especially if you don’t know this real ending. Van Sant has always excelled at making films about outsiders who infiltrate the system – his “Drugstore Cowboy” (1989) and “Good Will Hunting” (1997) come to mind.

Or, his characters remain on the outskirts as rebels with a cause, such as “My Own Private Idaho” (1991), “Gerry” (2003), “To Die For” (1995) and “Milk” (2008), his best films.

Kiritsis may be unhinged and possibly crazy, but the way Skarsgård plays him suggests a bruised ego pushing against utter bureaucratic favoritism.

I’m not saying I sympathize with Kiritsis and neither does the film, but Van Sant captures how feeling sorry for himself was all the push Kiritsis needed to disrupt an entire city. “Dead Man’s Wire” won’t turn Kiritsis into a folk hero any more than the media did in 1977, but it captures what it was like to be in the presence of someone so driven and dangerous.

Three Stars (out of four)