Killing (the) U.S. Softly

“America’s not a country, it’s a business,” scoffs Jackie Cogan (Brad Pitt) at a televised then-Senator Obama promising change and national unity. This is only one of many scenes that all serve as one big testament to Australian director Andrew Dominik’s sizeable directorial talent and story-telling ability in his cynical and aggressively philosophical film, Killing Them Softly. In his adapted version of George V. Higgins’s novel, Dominik tells the story of modern-day gangsters living in a dystopian version of contemporary America. While at first, it seems that the explicit message of a corrupt nation via archived televised political speeches doesn’t directly tie into the plot, it eventually becomes clear that America is a place in which no one, especially our political institution, has anyone else's best interests at heart. 

The plot begins with two young, greedy thugs who rob a group of men participating in a high stakes poker tournament run by Markie Trattman (Ray Liotta), earning themselves $30,000 simply by disrupting a dozen angry, well-connected mobsters in the middle of a game. It sounds pretty dangerous, but there's a twist: a few years back, Markie once staged a robbery of his own game, pocketed the money for himself, and later bragged about it. So if his own game gets hit again, he'll be the first suspect. Now that the tournament has been robbed a second time, confidence in these illegal poker games is at an all-time low. Powerful, angry mobsters are missing a lot of money and the boss-men need to settle them down. The higher ups embark on a mission to find a hitman to kill Markie regardless of who actually committed the robbery. They don’t want justice, they only want to send a simple message: if you mess with their business, there will be consequences.

And so unfolds a core idea of the film: the disconnect between those who are truly responsible and those who have to do the dirty work and suffer any possible consequences of their actions. Peppering the movie with “uplifting” televised political speeches especially during the most intense of crime scenes, Dominik shows the audience that while the government can make empty gestures to buy time, the common men on the streets don't have the option to put their lives on hold. Each of his characters is painfully alone in the world, constantly disappointed by the actions and the ethics of others.

This is especially true of Jackie, the hitman hired to take out Markie and the two men actually responsible for the heist. Jackie explains that he prefers not to kill people that he knows, unsettled by the emotionality behind imminent death as people beg and plead for their lives. Instead, he prefers some distance from his victims, allowing him to "kill them softly." He wants to believe that he's the kind of guy who can detach from his own cruelness, who doesn't let the darkness of the world into his heart. But as Jackie gets more and more blood on his hands, eventually there's no one left on his side but himself. Although subdued at first, Pitt brilliantly reveals how inner anguish is slowly tearing Jackie apart, while Dominik shows us how corruption is tearing apart the nation around him.

            This is not your typical crime-mob story. Crime films have always been about desperate men trying to get out of desperate situations, but Killing Them Softly gives them plausible circumstances that make theft, murder, drug dealing and other bottom-feeder jobs seem somewhat legitimate, if only for the fact that they are available and offer substantial paydays. The powerful scene depicting a hopeless, crippled Markie hobbling away after enduring punishment for a crime he didn’t commit is perhaps the clearest indication that Dominik has no interest in delivering a typical thriller about criminal mobsters. Instead, he focuses on the bleakness of our future in America as we become more and more worn down into mere Darwinian species fighting for survival. Even Jackie realizes that it's a dog-eat-dog world. "We're all just on our own," he sneers as Obama delivers his speech about hope and a unity on election night. Despite what political leaders tell us, the government is looking out for the government, and we are all left to fend for ourselves.

Dominik controls the cast and the development of the story extremely well. The film is elegant and beautifully crafted, and in scene after scene, Dominik keeps his audience captivated, whether with creative soundtrack choices or with outstanding camera moves. He shining directorial moments lay in his bold ideas about how to shoot the few outbreaks of violence that punctuate the picture. When bloodshed does occur, it's both brutal and beautiful, as seen in one point-of-view slow motion scene that combines a car accident, a gunshot to the head, and chillingly tranquil music. While slow-mo hit scenes accompanied by ironically peaceful music are not entirely original, Dominik’s scenes are executed with unique camera angles and a plentiful supply of humor, suspense, and drama within the dialogue. With Dominik’s distinguishing techniques tied into a shrewd, ruthless critique of the nation, Killing Them Softly is a mostly actionless movie clearly made more from brain than brawn.

Wicked, cynical, and surging with furious political unrest, Killing Them Softly definitely wasn’t made for everybody. This film dissolves the naïve idea that America is a community, that we all care for one another, and that we remain in any way united. And if that sentence alone bothers you, there’s a big chances that Dominik's film will drive you absolutely crazy throughout and then leave you enraged. From the chilling opening shot to the cruel, bitter closing line, Killing Them Softly makes the metaphor about the current political and economic state of America absolutely loud and clear.

Cast and Credits:

James Gandolfini, Richard Jenkins, Ray Liotta, Brad Pitt

Plan B Productions, 1984 Private Defense Contracts, and Annapurna Pictures (Matthew Budman, Will French, Brad Pitt, and Douglas Saylor Jr.) present film written and directed by Andrew Dominik. Running time: 100 minutes.