Gus Van Sant has had an up and down career as a director. Through the years, Van Sant has made some amazing films such as Drugstore Cowboy, Good Will Hunting, Finding Forrester, and Milk. On the other hand, he’s made a few clunkers as well. Name the scene by scene remake of Psycho and The Sea Of Trees. His latest film, Dead Man’s Wire, tends to be on the more positive side from my perspective. He does a great job when he directs off of a great script by another writer other than himself, and that’s the case here with a script from Austin Kolodney. This film is based on a true story, and it was very interesting to me because I wasn’t familiar with it, and that’s a good thing from my perspective. 

Tony Kiritsis (Bill Skarsgard) is a disgruntled man who feels he was mistreated by a Maridean Mortgage Company of a deal gone wrong. As a means of revenge, he decides to take the owner, M L Hall (Al Pacino) hostage, except he’s not in the office when he goes there. He ends up taking his son Richard Hall (Dacre Montgomery) instead. He ties a shotgun to the man’s head and himself, hence the term “Dead Man’s Wire”. If any member of law enforcement tries to take him out, he will pull the mechanism, and the Shotgun will go off and blow the man’s head off. It’s not an ideal situation for anyone involved in this crazy hostage scenario.

Van Sant is great at taking stories like this and turning them into engaging and interesting films. As I mentioned before, this is a story I didn’t know about, but it’s a true story. This event was a wild scenario. The 70s was a decade in which a lot of crazy things happened, and this was one of them. It took place in Indianapolis, Indiana, and it was quite shocking considering what was going on in this situation. Van Sant is able to take what seems like a pretty simple thing and turns it into a pretty dramatic moment in history. I loved how the script and direction show all the sides involved, from the main character to the police and some side characters who inadvertently got involved. That’s one of the best parts of the story. It’s not as straightforward as it may seem from the concept. 

Bill Skarsgard is an actor who usually cakes his face in makeup to portray some sinister characters like It, the clown, Count Orloff, in Nosferatu, and Eric Draven, in the Crow remake. Lately, he has started shedding the disguises. He played regular people in Barbarian, Locked, and John Wick 4, although with a French accent. This is another character where he plays a normal everyday man. Even though he is a real person who existed in history. He has a voice that is loud and boisterous, similar to other characters he’s played, but he is a very sympathetic man. His plight is one I’m sure that a lot of people can relate to even today as well as at that time. I’m glad to see Skarsgard playing these more normal characters. They give him a chance to show his range as an actor. 

Besides Skarsgard, there is a decent supporting cast that Van Sant has assembled. First is Montgomery, famous for his role as Billy in Stranger Things. He seemed like an innocent bystander in this scenario because his father was the real target for the Skarsgard character. He didn’t do much in this role except be afraid because of what he has gotten himself into inadvertently. Montgomery is a good actor, but he didn’t have much going on here with his character. Now, Al Pacino makes the most of his little screen time he has. He plays this character as a nasty green man who thinks he hasn’t done anything wrong. He was fantastic as always. He is an American treasure. It’s going to be a sad day when he’s gone from this earth. Another actor who portrays a real man is Colman Domingo. His character is a famous DJ, Fred Heckman, and because he is loved so much by the Skarsgard character, he ends up getting wrapped up in this crazy situation.  I loved his character in this film. He embodies this real DJ so well. Cary Elwes plays a detective, and he’s unrecognizable but doesn’t bring much to the role. Overall, the cast is good, not great. Skarsgard is the reason to see this movie and Van Sant’s direction.

The main reason to see the picture is a moral quandary.  Does an illegal act justify the ends? This man is trying to get the city and country as a whole at the time to go along with. Would any of us as a whole be able to do or get away with something like this today? I’ve felt the way this man feels in this film, but I wouldn’t do what he did to get his point across. If this happened today, would it convince a lot more people to try and copy things like this in the future. Does the end justify the means that is what I’m getting at? As a sympathetic observer, I can’t help but go along with what this man did. Even though today, this would never be allowed to happen. Should we be allowed to take the law into our own hands? I think the voluntary would go to hell in a handbrake as they say if this was allowed to happen. And as we’ve seen recently, that’s not a good way to have things go on in a civilized society. I appreciate the movie, though, and I applaud Van Sant and the entire cast and crew behind this film for making it.

“Dead Man’s Wire” is a fantastic movie that asks some important questions of those who watch it. And unlike most other films, it actually answers the questions it asks. Van Sant is a director who seems to take a side in this story, but that’s fine because I think most people would do that. I love a movie that poses a question to the viewers who are watching said film. This one was an important one. I don’t know if I would go as far as this man went in trying to prove his point, but I felt for what he went through nonetheless. I don’t know if this would be allowed to take place today, but that’s part of the charm of the movie. I’m a sucker for a story about a man who has been treated badly and tries to get revenge for that. Skarsgard is fantastic in the story, and I loved Domingo as well. The script is great, though, and does what a great script should do. It asks and answers the questions it poses. That’s why I loved this movie so much. It’s one of the best Van Sant movies I’ve seen in my lifetime.

4 ½ 

Dan Skip Allen