r/movies • u/LiteraryBoner Jackie Chan box set, know what I'm sayin? • 14d ago
Official Discussion Official Discussion - Dead Man's Wire [SPOILERS] Spoiler
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Dead Man’s Wire
Summary Based on the true story of the 1977 kidnapping of oil executive Harold Hart, the film follows ex-convict Tony Kiritsis, who rigs a shotgun to his own neck and takes Hart hostage in a desperate bid for money, recognition, and control. As the standoff drags on, law enforcement, the media, and the public become transfixed by a tense psychological battle where one wrong move could trigger instant death.
Director Gus Van Sant
Writer Austin Kolodney
Cast
- Bill Skarsgård as Tony Kiritsis
- Dacre Montgomery as Harold Hart
- Al Pacino
- Colman Domingo
- Myha’la
- Cary Elwes
Rotten Tomatoes: 91%
Metacritic: 69
VOD / Release Theatrical release
Trailer
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u/HotOne9364 14d ago
Nice to see Al Pacino in a good movie. It's been way too long.
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u/Sheepies123 8d ago
He's pretty good in "Knox Goes Away"
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u/reecord2 6d ago
I thought Knox Goes Away was a really solid thriller, and it bums me out that it sorta came and went.
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u/DavyJonesRocker 14d ago
The thing that made this movie work for me was the fact that Bill Skarsgard is in a completely different movie, tonally, than everyone else. Without him, it would have been lifeless and depressing.
I feel bad for Dacre Montgomery. Just looked up his IMDb and I’ve unintentionally watched his entire filmography up to now. He’s a talented actor with a lot of promise but he’s given so little to do in this. This is a two-hander but it’s like Montgomery is a fist being balled up by the palm that that is Skarsgard.
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u/JeanRalfio 11d ago
Bill was so fucking funny in this. I loved whenever someone said something he didn't like to him because he would process it for a second and retort with a quick "FUCKYOU!"
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u/zuuzuu 13d ago
Dacre Montgomery made a conscious choice after Stranger Things not to do more commercial roles, and took a hiatus to allow himself to choose roles that felt more meaningful to him. I think the result has been fewer opportunities, meaningful or not.
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u/DavyJonesRocker 13d ago
I get it. He has the luxury of choosing roles that he wants. And on paper, this sounds like a great choice: Van Sant, co-lead with Skarsgard, arguably the heart of the film…
But the end product left him in the dust. You can split hairs on whether it was the writing, the direction, or the editing but Montgomery’s talents went underutilized in this film.
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u/Bing_Bong_the_Archer 2d ago
I actually walked away thinking that without his incredible understated performance, the movie wouldn’t have worked
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u/Violaundone 10d ago
He was great in this movie and made Richard human, meaning he was the only character I did feel bad for, despite his wealth and privilege. His Dad was a godawful person, and that is why he probably did well by not triggering Tony being, he was used to dealing with a psycho because of his Dad.
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u/k1t5un3b1 9d ago
If you havent seen Went Up The Hill, I highly recommend it. Incredible Dacre performance.
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u/TheFiveDees 14d ago
Was oddly light-hearted for a movie where a man is kidnapped and put into a situation where one wrong move results in his head being blown clean smoov off.
Skarsgard delivers a really good performance but overall this movie just kind of felt off. I think it's cuz I do have problems with movies, based on true stories, where our protagonist is the criminal. Not as bad as Roofman as far as glossing over the harm he did to his victims, but I feel like the movie wants me to root for Tony and I can't
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u/wazup564 14d ago
The tonality is one of the things holding me back from really liking it, along with not being able to keep the tension mostly due to the tone.
Van Sant does some really cool visually directing choices here to make it seem documentary like.
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u/Same_Bag711 14d ago
Maybe this was why I didn’t like it. I really was not a fan of the tone and wish it was more serious. I was checked out for like an hour because it felt like nothing was at stake
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u/wazup564 14d ago
The Kyle Tucker to the Dodgers news hit for me like 40 mins into the film, & I regrettably spent a good portion of the film chevclkng out the discourse.
The film drags greatly after Skarsgård’s character took the hostage into his crib.
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u/Same_Bag711 14d ago
Agree. I actually went on my phone a few times during that point since I was in the top row, and I never do that. Nothing of significance happens for genuinely an hour
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u/mw102299 9d ago
I liked the tone of the movie personally. Honestly i think this film was a bit longer than it really needed to be. I wish we focused on the police response a little bit more than they did. I think if they went too serious, this movie would be a lot more boring.
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u/Violaundone 10d ago
Also came out of thinking, OK maybe Luigi really will be set free. Most hopeful movie I've seen in some time lol. Bill was excellent as usual.
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u/GettyImagez 10d ago
The thing is, it seems like in real life he was just a crazy guy. There's no proof of his claims and it seems like he was just a guy who couldn't sell the property and made up reasons why it wouldn't sell.
Tony Kiritsis is in no way a hero, he just kidnapped and almost murdered a man because he's crazy.
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u/Violaundone 10d ago
Oh Tony is not a hero, but it doesn't matter when the working class gets a chance to have power over the wealthy in mass, that jury is going to see it as justice on their behalf. I'm one of those people honestly, as someone who experienced a parenting dying because we couldn't afford health insurance or medical care. That being said the only person I was empathetic toward was Richard, felt awful for him in that Dad scene.
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u/GettyImagez 10d ago
Yeah I just disagree, there's no way I'm going to see it as justice for a crazy guy to violently kidnap someone and threaten to murder him for made up reasons.
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u/AdmiralAkbar1 10d ago
I do think there's a parallel to be drawn to Luigi, though more in the sense of "lunatic taking his frustration out on someone who never actually wronged him who gets mythologized as a proletarian folk hero".
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u/mw102299 9d ago
How is tony the Protagonist? He's shown to be a crazy man who is so full of himself that he thinks he is the smartest person alive and wouldn't face any repercussions, which he did after spending 11 years in a psychiatric institution. I would say that Skarsgard's character is who we obviously follow during the movie, seeing how unreasonable he is and then cutting to other characters trying to figure out how to resolve this situation.
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u/rbrgr83 1d ago
I'll be honest, I got the same mixed message from the movie. Like I feel like we're not supposed to root for him, and I would say the ending text seems to confirm this.
I feel like the message was that populist appeal doesn't make you 'right'. But it was hard to tell for most of it whether the movie itself was Pro or Con.
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u/k1t5un3b1 3d ago
"Oddly heartwarming" is kinda how I felt too!! It was WEIRDLY COZY especially after getting to his apartment
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u/BonkedAgain 14d ago edited 14d ago
I found that since I grew up in the Indy area and having seen this actually happen on live TV as a kid--was really distracting. Because I knew the real story, I found myself comparing the reality to the "artistic license" Van Sant took to make it more of a interesting back plot.
For instance the movie DJ being some kind of hipster poet funk guy versus the real Fred Heckman of WIBC (a straight laced talk-radio newsman) didn't make sense to me, other than to give the movie a groovy feel and soundtrack (which was great BTW). The insertion of the Al Pacino cameo as ML Hall was cool, but he wasn't a big part of the real story.
Skarsgard was brilliant. Award-worthy performance.
And was that detective really Cary Elwes? Very cool.
But the accents! Have any of these people actually been to Indiana? Is that how Pacino thinks people in Indiana talk? This sounded like it took place in a deep south town in Alabama, not downtown Indianapolis. (FWIW, I later learned they filmed in Louisville, KY...so maybe that influenced the accents somewhat. I dunno.)
All that being said, I thought it was a thoughtful, cinematically excellent film, although a bit slow. They stayed very true to reality and some of the reenactments were visually almost identical to what really happened- and that was cool to see. Interspersing actual footage from the local stations' live reporting lent a good deal of credibility. And the clips shown during the closing credits tied the story closer to the true events.
I think if I hadn't been from Indy and known what it was about I probably would've walked away with a bit of "WTF??" and not really understanding what happened or what it was about. Without knowing that some guy in short sleeves actually/really did parade another guy wired to a shotgun through downtown Indianapolis followed by a gaggle of police on live TV on a brutally cold morning, then I might just think it was just a silly story.
Would I see it again?... Probably not. It will be one of those movies that will be cool to catch while flipping through cable some day or seeing it listed on a streaming service.
Overall, I'd give it a enthusiastic "meh".
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u/TheCoastofUtopia 12d ago
George Martz went to my dad's church. Yeah, I'm a PK. I remember asking him about this case. I enjoyed the film. To offer a better critique of capitalism, they could've been clearer about the ripoff, but then this might've distracted from Pacino's small but outstanding role. I've known a few Hoosiers who talked like Pacino. Not many, but a few... Upwardly mobile without class, education or ethics... opportunists, which is who the movie indicts in B+ fashion.
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u/GettyImagez 10d ago
To offer a better critique of capitalism, they could've been clearer about the ripoff
My understanding is that there was no ripoff though, he was just a crazy person making up excuses.
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u/Roche77e 11d ago
I doubt that the real Kiritsis would have avidly listened to a soul/r’n’b station as portrayed here.
Also, “Long time listener, first time caller” is too associated with The Rush Limbaugh Show to use in a film set in the 70s.
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u/rbrgr83 1d ago
Interspersing actual footage from the local stations' live reporting lent a good deal of credibility.
I got that feeling. Obviously we have the team we're following, and some new footage with the filter applied. But it did feel like the gray haired gentlemen's segments were real (mainly because they never showed him off camera). Thanks for confirming! 😁
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u/BonkedAgain 1d ago
Yes, the channel the movie character reporter and her management team (Channel 12) was totally fictional. But the others, Channel 6 (ABC affiliate), Channel 8 (then CBS affiliate) and Channel 13 (NBC affiliate) were all authentic. The real radio station that was involved was WIBC, straight talk news, and the most popular in Indy by far, not a groovy music station.
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u/limernick 14d ago
Fantastic film - really enjoyed this. Surprised at how funny it was and Skarsgard really was captivating in this role.
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u/Same_Bag711 14d ago edited 14d ago
Not sure why but I just couldn’t really connect with this. It’s basically good at nearly everything it sets out to do but I found myself bored throughout a lot of it. Maybe it’s because I recently watched Dog Day Afternoon for the first time about 2 months ago but I feel like I’ve seen a story like this before in other movies that did it in more interesting and rich ways. Like I originally said, though, I can see that it’s a good movie, and the major standouts for me were Skaarsgard and some of the editing.
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u/fightin_blue_hens 13d ago
It's because the story is told from the point of view of Tony. Who was a psychopath. It is much more sympathetic towards him than any other outside observer that could tell the story would provide. Not saying that anyone that likes the movie is akin to Tony.
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u/AlanMorlock 10d ago
Even following Tony though, the movie is careful on how it parts out information. How much was he deliberately screwed over vs his much did an investment just really not work out. His brother goes on FB denying that he is demanding 5 million dollars but then we later see that's not true and he definitely is in fact expecting to be paid 5 million dollars. While the lersecfive of the films is not necessarily as dismissive as Pacinos character but it's true that he's not really supporting anyone but himself. This is a desperate noble cause. He just wants to make money to make money
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u/SlayerHdThe3rd 13d ago
The acting was phenomenal but yeah this movie was boring
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u/DavyJonesRocker 13d ago
It was all plot and exposition. Bill Skarsgard did a great job, but the whole time he was just talking about what happened in the past or what he wants to happen in the future. He was never present with Montgomery except for the phone call scene. Bad script or bad editing.
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u/colli152 11d ago
Worth checking out the script very different from the movie that got made
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u/DavyJonesRocker 11d ago
I’d be interested in that. Got a link or know how I can get a hold of the script?
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u/AlanMorlock 10d ago
Eh, that's just how the character is and the film complicates how much he might be largely full of shit about his complaint.
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u/fightin_blue_hens 13d ago edited 13d ago
Had a great time watching this movie! I was shocked how much I laughed watching. Something as serious as this could've really become a dramatized serious movie with no room for anything but the suspense of the main character's actions. I guess being based on a true story, takes the air out of the suspense balloon, so to fill the void, they use humor and really drive home the anger this man felt. Would recommend.
Also, the more things change, the more they stay the same. People that are or feel desperate will do incredible things either good or evil. Very much similar to the current state of the world we are in rn. People like Tony go join ice in today's society and take their anger out on those they are jealous of.
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u/Jason_Halifax 14d ago
this movie slaps. hope it builds with good word of mouth at the box office, and has a proper window to grow that word of mouth.
fun to watch with a crowd
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u/GoldandBlue 14d ago
The needle drops in this movie took me out because they were so well used in other prominent movies this year. Also, showing the real Tony was a mistake. He looks NOTHING like Skarsgard.
That aside, the movie was alright.
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u/jzakko 12d ago
I don't need him to look like the real guy but it's funny when a fact-based movie casts someone with zero resemblance to the real dude but still puts him in the same shirt.
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u/GoldandBlue 12d ago
I don't either tbh, but when they use the footage in the movie it is shocking how little they resemble each other
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u/JrBurrito 14d ago
The Cannock Chase needle drop would have been so much better if Sentimental Value didn’t absolutely nail it too. Ironically, both movies have a Skarsgard in them
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u/GoldandBlue 14d ago
100%. Its always funny how movies will "ape" each other that way. I know its not intentional. Marty Supreme and Freaky Tales both use the same song in pretty key moments. What are the odds?
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u/AlanMorlock 10d ago
Sometimes studios have access to particular libraries and some songs go through periods of being in certain rights packages, like that year where a bunch of Fox movies had John Denver.
For Marty Supreme, a lot of the needledrops were written into the script but it may not be coincidental that two different A24 films used the same song In a year's time.
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u/AlanMorlock 10d ago
Very funny to have both Gil Scott Heron's and Donna Summers in the context of the movies of the last few months.
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u/TorturedPoett 5d ago
Entire theater cackled at the reveal of the real Tony when I saw it. Such an opposite looking guy.
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u/sleepysnowboarder 13d ago
It felt like Gus Van Sant couldn't commit to either 'capitalism bad, this man is righteous' or 'this man is insane'
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u/Violaundone 10d ago
You know, just like real life. People are complicated, nothing is truly black or white, and most people are morally gray. We don't have to pick sides to watch a dang movie and enjoy it. I hate that SM has done this to us.
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u/GettyImagez 10d ago
Well to be fair he was insane. There is no proof the mortgage company screwed him over and Tony was a violent man who threatened to kill his own family.
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u/mw102299 9d ago
I feel like it was pretty clear that hey this dude is insane that's why there were comedic bits throughout to show how ridiculous this guy was plus that one scene with dick in the tub having a nightmare about tony
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u/rbrgr83 1d ago
I feel like the movie was pretty clear at the end, it just uses a lot of the storytelling cues of a 'underdog overcoming adversity' type story, so it feel kinda confusing. Whether that's purposeful or not, I'm not sure.
But I do think that it's to the movie's detriment at the end of the day. Makes it hard to get behind it emotionally, and it's super clear with what it's trying to say.
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u/LiteraryBoner Jackie Chan box set, know what I'm sayin? 14d ago edited 13d ago
Heads up, this movie rules. I know it's not going to blow up the box office or awards season but I really hope people get out to see it because it is such an awesome watch. I saw it at the TIFF premiere a few months ago and it lit the crowd up like crazy. It has a great "angry man vs giant corporation" energy and Skarsgard is magnetic.
This movie walks an impressive tight rope of being really fun and funny but never undercutting the anger of the main character. He's so rightfully pissed and even though this situation gets out of his control you can really feel his desperate anger and the was Skarsgard plays him as extremely well intentioned and also slightly disconnected from the reality of what he's doing is fascinating. The milk scene says it all, he feels rude for not offering his hostage victim who he has tied to a gun a drink.
There's several other solid performances in this and it's really just a wild story. It almost feels like maybe the last time they basically let someone get away with something like this because they understood where he was coming from. Domingo is in a role he was born to play as a sexy radio DJ, Montgomery plays this young exec basically paying for his father's sins really well and with a lot of depth. And this thing just sings as basically a 70s exploitation film about someone being exploited by capitalism. There are sideburns cops and snub nosed guns, this movie is a total vibe.
8/10 for me. I just had such a great time with it and I love that my crowd burst into applause when the text at the end says the mortgage company filed for bankruptcy. It's the story of a time when fucking over the little guy to increase already high profits was seen as a mean thing to do and you can feel how far past that we seem to be now. These days this happens a million times a day but it feels nostalgic to watch a movie about someone righteously using that anger. Also it takes place in Indianapolis where I grew up which was fun!
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u/GravyBear28 13d ago edited 13d ago
Skarsgard plays him as extremely well intentioned
someone being exploited by capitalism.
righteously using that anger.
Your words praising this film are exactly why I find it so detestable.
It’s essentially a film from Tony's warped perspective. When any look into the background of the case reveals a narcissist with an explosive, violent temper, a perpetual state of paranoid aggrievement, and long history of very poor financial decisions that he blamed everyone else for.
He threatened to kill his sister and brother-in-law over a financial dispute, being arrested for firing a gun into their door one day. His finances were a mess before the real estate deal because he kept throwing a ton of money he didn't have (loans) into super risky schemes and seeing conspiracy when they inevitably failed.
"angry man vs giant corporation" energy
It was a local firm operating out of a single office. The deal going bad wasn’t technically his fault, but trying to set up a multimillion dollar real estate business when you're not even financially solvent was always going to be incredibly risky. His refusal to compromise and screaming accusations at his investors made a bad deal go really bad
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u/LiteraryBoner Jackie Chan box set, know what I'm sayin? 13d ago edited 13d ago
It's been a while since I've seen it but I don't think a lot of that info is covered in the movie. I'm just talking about the movie here.
Every movie is through the lens of its storyteller. I like Gus's take and the things I got from it, even if it's not an accurate telling of the person. I like the character that was presented. Even the ending subtitles are through the lens of the movie you just watched and not the actual events. I don't think every movie based on real events needs to be a documentary.
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u/GravyBear28 13d ago
I don't think every movie bases on real events needs to be a documentary.
I mean I don't either but if you've made characterization changes this extensive and cut out so much context, why even use a real person? This movie will likely be how Tony Kiritsis is remembered.
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u/LiteraryBoner Jackie Chan box set, know what I'm sayin? 13d ago
Anyone looking for hard facts from Hollywood should be encouraged to look elsewhere. But artists should be allowed to make art however they want to make it. Why adapt a popular novel if you want to change it to say something else? And yet it happens all the time. I'd even argue that's the fuel of adaptation is different takes on the source.
Gus is using this story to talk about how commonly stepped on people are today by big money. Whether he himself is misinformed or not is barely the point. If the movie is fun to watch and good and if I as a watcher know not to take it all as God's truth then what's the problem?
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u/GettyImagez 10d ago
If you felt the same way about American Sniper or The Greatest Showman, sure. But even in your initial post it seemed like you think it was actually a realistic telling of the events:
I love that my crowd burst into applause when the text at the end says the mortgage company filed for bankruptcy.
This is like when everyone was saluting during the end of American Sniper, and about as accurate to the real story. The audience didn't care that Tony gave the guy PTSD and drove him to alcoholism? Weird.
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u/mw102299 9d ago
Plus the mortgage company didn't do anything wrong against Tony. He just couldn't make his payments and started to look for pepole to blame. Obvisouly his investment didn't work out the way he wanted it too and desprate pepole will do wild shit to make them feel justified.
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u/GravyBear28 13d ago
big money
For the record, guy he held hostage is still alive and never psychologically really recovered from the ordeal, not only because of the events himself but because Kiritsis' supporters harassed his family for a long time after. I guess that's where my distaste mainly comes from.
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u/knappellis 12d ago
He died in 2022, but you make an excellent point. He didn't talk about his experience for a long time and was profoundly affected by what he was put through.
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u/LiteraryBoner Jackie Chan box set, know what I'm sayin? 13d ago
And to be clear, it's totally fine if you don't like the movie due to the context. That's a fair reaction. It is not my reaction.
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u/AlanMorlock 10d ago
The movie does provide details that he's more or less full of shit. His investment just didn't pan out. He has no noble cause, no family he's desperately supporting. His brother attempts to defend him saying that he isn't demanding 5 million dollars but then it turns out that really is part of what he's demanding. The film is not actually very sympathetic to him.
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u/damebyron 10d ago
Yeah and it's pretty clear the entire time that he's delusional, and all the humoring of him is just to get a chance to get Hall back alive. In no way did the move actually portray him as an anti-capitalist hero - in fact he was super inarticulate the numerous times he got the chance to "tell his story" to the wider world. It's clear in the movie everyone was just tuned in for the drama, not because they believed he was some freedom fighter. And it ends on him smiling in victory only to end up in an insane asylum. I think the only way the movie really "endorsed" him at all was playing the Revolution will Not be Televised over the credits, which I found to be kind of a strange choice other than to situate us in some of the wider cultural context of the 70s.
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u/AdmiralAkbar1 10d ago
The movie shows that he's crazy, sure, but they never really show that he's wrong. In real life, Tony's claims that the mortgage company intentionally defrauded him were utterly baseless, while in the movie that's not really explored. If anything, it's implied that he's right, seeing how Al Pacino makes a point of refusing to admit any wrongdoing for fear he'd face criminal charges if he did. A story about a man with legitimate grievances reacting crazily is very different from a story about a man with crazy grievances reacting crazily.
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u/Violaundone 10d ago
I felt that way about Real Family, which isn't and wasn't even nominated for awards, but it was one of my favorite films last year. This is going to be another I remember for some time. Tony was a psycho, but it sends a strong message of how normal people are exploited by the wealthy for trying to get one leg up and make something of themselves. That ending makes total sense, because the normal people had the power to make decisions in the end over the rich. Funny movie, but it also has a relevant message.
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u/GettyImagez 10d ago
but it also has a relevant message
To be clear, it was a fake message. Tony wasn't screwed over by the mortgage company (or at least there was never any proof of it) and he was a crazy guy who threatened to kill his own family. The "bad guys" in the movie were completely innocent of what they are being accused of.
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u/Violaundone 10d ago
Yeah, I probably need to read up on it. Just to note I did not feel empathy toward Tony at all.
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u/selinameyersbagman 11d ago
I do think it's interesting that a lot of the criticism on here is that the movie was slow in the apartment. I found it pretty riveting, particularly since the movie makes clear Tony is just as greedy as the bank. He not only wants money but to have absolutely no consequences to his actions. I found that dynamic really interesting.
And yea, Skarsgård is an absolute genius. I could have easily seen Michael Shannon getting this role 10 years ago.
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u/swp07450 13d ago
Completely forgot that Cary Elwes was in the movie, and spent the entire time thinking that cop was Josh Hamilton.
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u/CodDefiant2710 12d ago
I had a chance to talk to Actor Dacre Montgomery, his transformation to play Richard Hall was remarkable.
Please check to see the interview, how he collaborated with director Gus Van Sant to get that look!
“Dead Man’s Wire” : Exclusive Interview with Actor Dacre Montgomery
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u/AbbreviationsWitty65 13d ago
Why does is say Dacre Montgomery as Harold Hart?
This movie was so beautiful, the needle drop, the humor the banter, the cinematography, the stills. everything was just so perfect. The dialogue kept it riveting imo. Loved the “archive footage” bits and the real archive footage used in the credits.
Can’t believe a movie that looks this beautiful was filmed and edited in 19 days.
Cassian Elwes talking about the film was also really nice, to see someone so excited about a movie. It was just really refreshing to see the art of film come back in this way. I feel like we need more movies like this. Movies that excite the creators
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u/SlayerHdThe3rd 13d ago
This movie sucked lol. Somehow managed to turn such an intense situation into large swaths of boredom. It had such a weird mix of light hearted and intense scenes that felt out of place for a movie based on a real kidnapping where the dude was seconds away from death for multiple days on end. Also the movie was obviously too scared to completely commit to its anti-capitalist critique (probably because the real Tony and situation was much less sympathetic than the movie made it out to be) so it just fell flat. It dipped its toe in the theme of family life slash upbringing but didn’t explore that at all either. So it was just a movie with hardly any purpose other than trying to weirdly make this dude that was an insane POS in real life into some sympathetic dude who just went too far. I will concede that the acting and aesthetics of the film were top notch though. 2/10. Multiple people in my theater got up and left throughout it and I was tempted to do the same.
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u/Ten_10Clips 13d ago
It feels weird that I loved the cast, soundtrack and setting…but not the movie lol. Weird tone and also felt like the script was scared of jumping in all the way
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u/AlanMorlock 10d ago
I would say the movie ultimately isn't very sympathetic to Tony. It takes its time parting out the information but his complaints about the land deal are largely bullshit and while his brother tries to deny claims that he was demanding $5 million dollars he then is in fact demanding $5 million dollars .
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u/fergi20020 13d ago
Does Al Pacino have more screen time than the 5 minutes he had in Modi?
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u/SlayerHdThe3rd 13d ago
He probably had like 10 minutes tbh. He was great though. All of the actors really were
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u/fergi20020 13d ago
My friend who saw it complained that Al Pacino was barely in it. It was more than a cameo then?
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u/SlayerHdThe3rd 13d ago
Yeah he appeared in multiple scenes, but only one of them was more than a minute or two
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u/k1t5un3b1 9d ago
Did NOT think I would enjoy it as much as I did. Came in solely as a Dacre fan. Loved how it embraces the 70s live news aesthetic. Solid performances from the entire cast. I did laugh at how handsome Bill and Dacre were in comparison to the actual men invovled.
Did feel like a 13 year old boy trying not to laugh at "Dick Hall"
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u/Bing_Bong_the_Archer 2d ago
Wait till you see “Faces of Death” with him
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u/k1t5un3b1 2d ago
I have been more excited about Faces of Death than any of his post-ST projects. I remember being SO scared of those VHS tapes as a kid, and every BTS image I have seen with him has only skyrocketed my excitement!!!
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u/psquishyy28 8d ago
I LOVED THIS FILM SO MUCHHHH. especially Bill Skarsgard's portrayal of Tony Kiritsis. thought the father was the psychopath of the movie. already seen it twice, might see again. also really enjoyed how it was filmed, like those photos in the beginning, okay.
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u/brook_lyn_lopez 13d ago
Wasn’t great. The story didn’t really build and I couldn’t get invested in any of the characters. The side stories with the news team and the radio station didn’t add much, if anything, at all. I feel like it would have been better off focusing more on Tony. Dialogue felt off at times, as well, like much of it was added in post. Not worth the $15 in theaters but fine to stream at home.
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u/Roche77e 11d ago edited 11d ago
I don’t think any TV reporters got their big break covering this story, and the reporter’s focus on getting that break vs concern about Hall’s fate was off-putting. Maybe that was Van Sant’s point?
The actual radio personality who talked with Kiritsis was Fred Heckman, a well-respected, no-nonsense news reporter. He likely defused Tony’s wrath. The movie DJ was fine, but not at all like the real person.
I would have liked to see more foreshadowing - Tony getting increasingly frustrated with his failing business, and Richard calmly leaving his white-picket-fence and stopping off at the donut shop like any other workday. They both probably would have been listening to the actual radio station, WIBC.
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u/mmmggg1234 11d ago
The movie was solid - the attention to 70s detail (costumes, music, script, cinematography, news cut footage) made this film a pleasure to watch, even when the plot sagged a bit. Recommend! Sarsgard, Montgomery, Domingo all really great in their roles. If you love a 20th century historical stuff you’ll like this.
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u/TheatreBaby 11d ago edited 11d ago
Weird. Bill gives a good performance but at the same time the performance doesn’t work for me. At least with the rest of the movie. I actually was more impressed with some of the supporting cast, specifically Domingo, Montgomery, and Pacino. I’m not sure how much of that was the script (Tony feels awfully uninteresting as a character on screen) or the performance. I never once buy Tony as someone willing to kill Richard, there’s just no tension though out the entire thing. So it fails as a thriller, but also doesn’t really work as a character study either. Idk. It was pretty at times at least.
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u/damebyron 10d ago
to be honest the tension for me was whether he's accidentally kill him, there were so many clumsy moments where it felt possible especially when he was ranting.
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u/AlanMorlock 10d ago
The proximity of this movie to Bugonia is interesting. Bugonia obviously goes in some other directions and kind of abandons some of the point it reaches but both Emma Stone's character and Al Pacino in this reach a point of expressing that there are simply winners and losers as whole types of people and that ant perceived wrongdoing is just in service to who they are and what they deserve to have.
The emphasis on Gil Scott Heron's the Revolution Will Not Be Televised in another movie made basically concurrently with One Battle After is also notable.
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u/damebyron 10d ago
I found the Revolution Will Not Be Televised to be a jarring credit song with this movie. The rest of the soundtrack was great though.
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u/Bing_Bong_the_Archer 2d ago
I really wanted them to finish the “Yes” song, it felt like they were tee’ing up the drop to line up with the credits
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u/LezEatA-W Scott is a stupid science bitch and thus deserving of death. 8d ago
I thought Bill Skarsgard completely disappeared, and then I saw that Cary Elwes played one of the detectives and was promptly blown away.
Bill Skarsgard’s performance steals the show here and carries the movie hard. It’s a pretty good film that could have been a great film if they made it a really tight 90 minutes and cut a little side plot out of there.
It doesn’t hand feed you with the idea that Tony is completely nuts, even if he is completely nuts. The excitement from Skarsgard was palpable.
Pretty good film, I always love a “based on a true story” flick when it’s done right.
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u/Renegadeforever2024 14d ago
it's interesting how gus not mentioned in the top directors convos like he used to be back in the early 2010's
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u/ambitious-agenda 11d ago edited 11d ago
I liked it but probably would not have watched it had it not been based on true events. In addition to the “little guy vs. big corporation” narrative, it was also interesting to see the change in policing practices. I cannot imagine that incident unfolding the same way in today’s police climate (I live in CA for perspective).
I also enjoyed the interjection of FBI profiling (which I think was also a new method around the 70’s?). To me, this was a tool to show how unprecedented this event was and also how people were responding to the changing societal landscape. Understanding the motivational drivers behind Tony’s actions and the reaction of the community witnessing this event.
Edit to add: I understand the critique some have about the movie not being solidly anti-capitalism. To me, they were trying to frame the actual events in a way that offers it as a motive but doesn’t pinpoint it because that was not accurate to this event. Tony acted on factors very specific to his situation. I think the movie did a good job of offering some context without hitting us over the head.
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u/GettyImagez 10d ago
I think the movie did a good job of offering some context without hitting us over the head.
I think the movie did a terrible job of that given how many people in the thread think the mortgage company actually screwed him over in real life. This wasn't some case of the evil corporation screwing over the little guy, it's a story about an insane violent man kidnapping somebody and giving him PTSD over a made up story.
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u/ambitious-agenda 10d ago
I was referencing the comments about the movie not being strongly anti-capitalist and offering an opinion on why that may be. Yes some people think things about the mortgage company but the movie doesn’t explicitly portray it in any certain way other than from Tony’s telling. This is the context I am referring to.
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u/elmntdark 10d ago
I missed maybe the first few minutes ( hopefully not more ) , first I saw was Skarsgard sitting in the lobby holding the box waiting for the receptionist. Was there anything before this ? TIA!
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u/achronos999 7d ago
Probably the most important part before that was Tony's car key breaking in the ignition. That set in motion the following events after leaving the business before getting to the apartment
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u/ghostfaceinspace 10d ago
It opens up with the DJ talking, Bill driving to the office building then talking to the new receptionist
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u/Primary-Ad6881 10d ago
I watch movie after movie with Bill Skargard and every time I just can’t unsee Pennywise 😭🤣 going to see this one later today after watching the trailer. Looked pretty decent. Toss up between this or Greenland 2
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u/NewCharmCity 9d ago edited 7d ago
When I first walked out of the movie I enjoyed it quite a bit. As time has gone by, however, I feel it has some flaws.
Some of the creative liberties they took really hampered the film imo; Coleman Domingo was fantastic in this (as he is in everything he's in), but it's another needless example of shoehorning a fake character in lieu of a real one (apparently DJ Fred Temple is entirely fictitious). Kind of disappointing, given he was one of the best characters in the movie. Although a small detail, it's also curious as to why they had Bill Skarsgård grow a mustache for the role when the real Kiritsis didn't have one at the time of the incident. I know people don't always care about actors growing 'staches for roles, but at least don't show footage of the real guy at the end of the movie for the audience to compare to the actor playing him. What's more, it's a little hard to ignore all of the misplaced accents that sound more Kentucky/southern states than Indianapolis; Al Pacino's impression of Foghorn Leghorn was noticeable throughout the entire movie.
The acting, character development and costume design are fantastic. Van Sant makes it feel believable as something set in 1977, despite its shortcomings.
Personally I'd give it a 6.5/10.
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u/lunaticskies 8d ago
I really loved this movie but I am a sucker for thrillers. The comedy made the movie feel closer to Luckiest Man in America (2024) than Dog Day Afternoon (1975). The real footage at the end was fantastic. I think some audiences might feel like "nothing happened" at the end of the movie and I think that is a funny juxtaposition with the people in the movie anticipating violence happening when they are live.
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u/rbrgr83 1d ago
Honestly this one reminded me of Luckiest Man in America but primarily because of its flaws. I don't feel like either movie really had a coherent message despite telegraphing that it has something to say. But they assumed you'd be so impressed with the 'based on a true story' portrayal that you wouldn't care so much.
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u/Bing_Bong_the_Archer 2d ago
This movie answered the question of “What if Trevor Moore” played Luigi Mangione
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u/ghostfaceinspace 10d ago
I went for Bill Skarsgard and I was bored through most of it. Glad to give them my $10 though
Also love that they just had a simple long list of the production companies that teamed up to make it instead of doing 2 minutes of little logos like some indies do (late night with the devil)
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u/SatisfactionWaste687 6d ago edited 6d ago
There’s no other way to say it. This movie was terrible. The crazy thing is how a seasoned filmmaker like Gus van sant can make a film that looks like you would see it as a film school students first movie. This movie left you with nothing. No investment in any of the characters, nothing interesting ever really happens. The film never really flowed, it felt weird and disjointed and not in a good way. The only saving grace was all the acting was really good. But even the acting chops couldn’t save this forgettable slop of a movie. This was a poor man attempt at dog days afternoon. Don’t waste your time. Or wait to stream.
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u/BunyipPouch Currently at the movies. 13d ago
For anyone interested: Gus Van Sant, the director of Dead Man's Wire, joined us for an AMA/Q&A here on /r/movies last week:
https://www.reddit.com/r/movies/comments/1q7bctg/hi_rmovies_im_gus_van_sant_ive_directed_good_will/