Killing Them Softly

There are certain stars who just naturally exude confidence and coolness without putting forth much effort at all. But every decade or so there’s one that tends to stand above the rest and right now that person has to be Ryan Gosling. I hate to admit that because I am clearly stating the obvious and every time you mention that you see him around town a girl just completely loses it. Rarely am I jealous of another dude but basically Gosling is the white Billy Dee Williams of our generation. Maybe they should give him his own liquor commercial too; he can be the new spokesman for St Ides and bring that awesome drink back. The reason I bring this up is because Brad Pitt used to be this guy until he realized that he was already with the then hottest woman on the planet and had already made Se7en and 12 Monkeys. So then he decides to stop being the cool guy and make serious dramas in the form of Moneyball, Jesse James, and Babel.

Well in Killing Them Softly he finally combines his natural cool factor with relevant political and socio-economic material. Let me say that if you are looking for the typical gangster flick, then this movie is not for you and you should probably move on. This movie is a commentary of what’s happening in the corporate world today under the guise of a Sopranos esque movie. It is based off of George V. Higgins’ book Cogan’s Trade from the 70’s and was adapted for the screen by Andrew Dominik. He goes out of his way to show how the themes written then are still relevant today by filming this entire movie in desolate New Orleans and he includes bits of speeches from political heads in a number of scenes that paint the picture of the economic downturn. 

You are first introduced to a couple of low level ex cons who are picked out by a local wise guy to knock over Markie’s (Liotta) card game. These two clowns barely pull it off in an unbelievably long and intense heist scene. But as soon as they get away clean, everything starts to spin out of control for them. The local crime syndicate is no longer making money because all of the card games have been shut down as a result of this heist; so they reach out to Jackie(Pitt) to come find out who pulled the job and to take them out.  Jackie is basically playing the role of the industrial psychologist or as you know The Bob’s from Office Space (“what exactly would you say you do here?”) and his only communication with the crime bosses (playing the role of a board of directors) is with a nameless middleman (Jenkins). It seems like it takes forever for decisions to get made and you see how the change in the economic climate affects most of their decisions. 

The entire time you get a sad and depressing view on life as gangster. It is by no means glamorous as everyone seems to be struggling to get by and the work is wearing on both their health and their personal lives. This is no more evident than in the introduction of Mickey (Gandolfini), the extra hitman that Jackie hires to help with the job. The movie almost slows to a halt as you see this Willie Loman type character sleeping with hookers and boozing his way through life as he can no longer handle the pressures of the job. 

Where’s the killing and the action you ask? Well it’s there but only in bits. The entire time it seems like the only one who truly has his head on straight is Pitt as he works his way to knocking off everyone that was involved in the robbery. He’s cool as a cucumber as he casually shotguns to death people or threatens the lives of those that get in his way. Dominik gives you one of the cooler murder scenes you’ll see when a certain character is taken out in a car. With the slow motion shot,he makes the murder almost artful as you see the bullet going through shattering glass and eventually the head of it’s victim as Domik also uses the light in the background to enhance the shot. He also uses this same style as one the cons in the film is fading in and out of consciousness while high on smack. This is one the funnier drug scenes in recent memory. 

This film hit home with me as it should with everyone in corporate America, as the syndicate (board of directors) decides to first beat up and blame Markie for everything before eventually killing (firing) him. Something that they knew they were going to do anyway. This entire film is basically a dark as hell version of Office Space as my friend put it. It takes it’s time telling the story and in my view they nailed it in doing so. I rate this movie as FRESH and definitely suggest you see it as long as you know what you’re getting into.