A man who believes he has been wronged by a mortgage company takes hostage the president and demands justice.
Inspiring and hopeful!
Some stories sound too absurd to be true. Dead Man’s Wire is one of them. Based on the extraordinary true story of Tony Kiritsis, the film follows a financially desperate Indianapolis businessman who, believing he had been ruined by the lending practices of powerful institutions, took the president hostage in 1977 using a sawed-off shotgun rigged to a “dead man’s wire” around the victim’s neck. Any sudden movement could trigger the weapon. What followed was a tense, televised standoff that captivated the United States and forced the country to confront questions that reached far beyond one desperate man.
Once again, Gus Van Sant proves why he remains one of American cinema’s most thoughtful filmmakers. Rather than sensationalising the hostage situation, he patiently constructs the circumstances that led to it. The production design, costumes, soundtrack and editing beautifully recreate the funky atmosphere of the 1970s, immersing the audience in a period where the colours were warmer, the rhythms slower, and television had become a national stage. The editing, in particular, embraces that era’s pacing, allowing scenes to breathe while steadily escalating the tension.
What is understood, though, is that Austin Kolodney’s script’s pace can be considered, in modern terms, a “drag”, as sometimes the film slows down a lot. Having said that, even in these moments, especially Bill Skarsgård and Dacre Montgomery, Colman Domingo, and Myha’la, next to him, do all the heavy lifting. Al Pacino is there just for marketing purposes, unfortunately.
The build-up is where Dead Man’s Wire truly excels. Every conversation, every decision, and every emotional crack gradually tighten the psychological noose. Ironically, in the end, once the legal proceedings begin, the narrative loses a lot of its momentum. The trial feels surprisingly anticlimactic after such an effective development, leaving the final act without the emotional impact one might expect.
My attention, however, was drawn elsewhere. The events take place in the late 1970s, yet the issues they expose painfully persist. Long before the 2008 financial crisis – and long after it – ordinary people have continued to find themselves overwhelmed by institutions whose size, influence and resources make resistance seem almost impossible. Different decades, different corporations, similar stories.
That is why films like Dead Man’s Wire matter. They re-tell that story that behind every headline is a human being pushed to a breaking point. They also belong to a long tradition of David versus Goliath cinema alongside films such as The Insider (1999), Erin Brockovich (2000), Puncture (2011), Spotlight (2015), The Post (2017) and Dark Waters (2019). These films do not argue that the little person always wins. Quite the opposite. They acknowledge how difficult the fight truly is. Yet every small victory against corruption, negligence or abuse of power becomes a victory for all of us.
That is what makes Dead Man’s Wire worth watching. Not merely because it recounts an unbelievable true story, but because history has a habit of repeating itself whenever power is left unquestioned.
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Solidarity for all the innocent lives that suffer the atrocities of war!
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