By Susan Granger
What happens when two filmmakers are inspired by the same true-crime event? You get similar stories – but from different perspectives.
Gus Van Sant made the 2025 movie Dead Man’s Wire, while Shawn Ryan & Eileen Myers created American Hostage, an eight-part mini-series. Both emanated from a real-life drama in which a trusted legendary radio newsman was contacted by a kidnapper, demanding to be interviewed on his show.
On February 8, 1977, in Indianapolis, Indiana, used car salesman Tony Kiritsis (Giovanni Ribisi) took Meridian Mortgage broker Dick Hall (Kristoffer Polaha) hostage.
Holding him captive in his dingy apartment with a sawed-off shotgun affixed with a so-called “dead-man’s switch,” deranged Kiritsis demands that popular WIBC-AM news director Fred Heckman (Jon Hamm) become an intermediary, broadcasting his grievances to the radio audience.
Eager to advance his national visibility after spending 22 years doing local news, perhaps leading to a bigger/better job in New York, Heckman encourages fast-talking Kiritsis to reveal – on-air – how he was mistreated and deceived by the mortgage company, recalling various scams that led him to this desperate act.
Behind-the-scenes, lawyers are negotiating an ‘immunity’ agreement and police are preparing to end the bleak, three-day ordeal by placing a sharp-shooter in a nearby building.
Meanwhile, Fred’s ambitious newsroom colleague Ben (William Jackson Harper) discovers that Meridian routinely offered mortgages to low-income buyers, only to quickly foreclose when payments are missed. And novice reporter Ginny (June Laporte) learns that Dick is not Tony’s first hostage.
Inevitably, there are complications involving Fred’s supportive wife Barbara (Mireille Enos); Dick Hall’s wife Ibby (Kat Cunning); Tony’s brother (Fred Ewanuick); and FBI forensic profiler Cormac McNally (Jonathan Tucker).
Once again, Jon Hamm delivers a riveting performance. Having established himself as Don Draper on Mad Men, he’s since scored in Your Friends & Neighbors, Landman, and Black Mirror.
As for this limited-series thriller, the premise is intriguing but the agonizing, drawn-out stand-off goes on far too long. The pacing is tedious.
On the Granger Gauge of 1 to 10, American Hostage is a stranger-than-fiction 7, streaming on MGM+, Amazon Prime, Fubo TV, YouTube and Roku.
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Susan Granger
Westport resident Susan Granger grew up in Hollywood, studied journalism with Pierre Salinger at Mills College and graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with highest honors in Journalism. In addition to writing for newspapers and magazines, she has appeared on radio and television as an anchorwoman and movie critic for many years. Read all her reviews at susangranger.com.
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