The idea of film being used as a medium for political themes and socio-economic commentary is nothing new, even recently with films such as Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps and Margin Call aiming to tackle the financial crisis. But few films have been as unsubtle as Killing Them Softly. Set to the backdrop of the election, the criminal underworld of an American city has been hit by its own financial crisis after a mob poker game is robbed by two criminals Scoot McNairy and Ben Mendelsohn.
With no trades or money being moved, a mob manager Richard Jenkins brings in a fixer, Jackie Cogan Brad Pitt , to solve the situation. But none of his actions brings back confidence, whether right or wrong. Dominik has no faith in his audience to draw these connections, and even worse, come away with its own conclusions; he opts to spoon-feed us the cliff notes as we watch.
This is most evident with the constant use of speeches by George W. Bush and Barack Obama made at time, enforcing the parallels Dominik wanted to make. There are constant references to terminology used at the time, particularly the theme of bringing back confidence to the world, the theme that public perspective is more important than actual actions and we are reminded that the gangster world's situation is the same as the financial world's one.
This forceful approach does not allow us to see a natural story. Killing Them Softly is a very dialogue-driven film that breaks the old cinematic maxim of "show, don't tell. It would have been more interesting to see mob bosses arguing and coming up with theories and seeing that gangsters were unwilling to make any deals in the midst of the crisis.
Killing Them Softly ends up rather dull as a result. There are some moments that show what Dominik is capable of: the robbery scene was filled with tension and things felt like they would actually kick off. Whenever violence was used in general, it was incredibly grim and brutal. The film hits hardest in these scenes. The big saving grace of Killing Them Softly is the acting. There is a great cast with Pitt, Jenkins and James Gandolfini being the biggest draws.
They were committed actors doing the best they could, elevating the dry material provided with excellent delivery and chemistry. Pitt and McNairy played the most likable and I use that term loosely characters, and were the most well-drawn and conflicted characters in the film.
McNairy was the most human, reacting naturally to his situation, and Pitt is able to be cold-hearted and professional when he acts upon his deadly task. Killing Them Softly is a film that feels its political parallels are enough of a mask for it to be seen as an intelligential masterpiece, but it feels too demeaning to have everything spelled out like that, which was made worse given the story played second fiddle to these political parallels.
There was potential for a great film if there was a good re-write, but it ends up being one of biggest disappointments of Details Edit. Release date November 30, United States. United States. Cogan's Trade. Box office Edit. Technical specs Edit. Runtime 1 hour 37 minutes.
Dolby Digital Datasat. Mickey has devastating insight. In June , a few months after Killing Them Softly was released, Gandolfini had a heart attack, and died.
Cinematic deaths do not move me. The character is dead, not the actor. War films will do it, although the last instance was, of all things, a nostalgia-drenched BBC Wales documentary about Llanelli rugby club called We Beat the All Blacks. Of course, if I had seen Killing Them Softly when it came out, while Gandolfini was still alive, it would not have made me cry.
There are not many scenes that give away the location. However, some landmark locations are easily recognizable. In the early moments of the film, street-smart hitman Jackie Cogan meets mafioso Driver under a bridge.
The scene was filmed under the Claiborne Avenue Bridge, a vertical lift bridge over the industrial canal on North Claiborne Avenue in the city. Jackie summons Mickey, who walks through the air terminus with a trolley suitcase. In another early scene just after the heist, Russell walks out of a train terminus to meet his buddy, Frankie.
The scene was filmed at Union Passenger Terminal, a train station located at Loyola Avenue in the city.
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