Opening the 29th annual Revelation Perth International Film Festival at Luna Palace Cinemas, acclaimed director Gus Van Sant’s Dead Man’s Wire is a gripping thriller based on true events of the 1977 Tony Kiritsis standoff with a mortgage broker he felt had wronged him.
A “dead man’s wire” is a dangerous device comprising a wire attached to the trigger of a sawn-off shotgun and tied to the hostage’s neck, so that any tension would cause the weapon to fire. Mutually assured destruction ensured.
Van Sant grabs your attention from the outset – from the moment Bill Skarsgård’s Kiritsis nervously enters the office building with a shady shotgun-sized box, we figure that he is up to no good.
Determined to expose the wealthy magnate M.L Hall (Al Pacino) who he believes has deliberately foiled his real estate deal, he is instead met with the man’s son, Richard (Dacre Montgomery). After attaching the dead man’s wire to Richard’s neck, what ensues is a 63-hour standoff between Kiritsis, his hostage and the police.
What makes the situation ludicrous isn’t just the premise, but the details: the bizarre character dynamic between Kiritsis and Richard, where they accidentally developed a friendly, collaborative relationship; the media circus that unfolds on live television, and his only demand – for an apology from the corrupt M.L. Hall.
The stellar cast shines. As M.L. Hall, Al Pacino makes a short though memorable cameo as the hostage’s unscrupulous, unsympathetic father. Dacre Montgomery plays to perfection his role of the unfortunate fall guy, to not only Kiritsis’ misdirected anger, but to his father’s unyielding, borderline abusive personality. However the real MVP is Skarsgård, whose Kiritsis is a powder keg of righteous fury and fragile desperation, peppered with a believable amount of unhinged delusion – a man utterly convinced he is the sanest person in the room.
Dead Man’s Wire is tense and utterly compelling – and totally absurd. A bold and brilliant choice as an opener for the Revelation Film Festival, and a reminder that truth, as they say, is stranger than fiction.
Dead Man’s Wire has ended its run at the Revelation Film Festival – check out the rest of the program here.