Even Hollywood has noticed the recession. Killing Them Softly features some money conscious gangsters who, much like the United States government, cannot seem to take much decisive action to help themselves. Andrew Dominik's metaphor of criminal society may not be subtle or elegant, but it tells the story of the financial crisis in an insightful way and through an ironic comparison.
Just out of prison and looking to make some extra cash, Frankie, Scoot McNair, takes some advice from his local crime lord and holds up a poker game. According to his boss, no one will ever suspect him because there is already a man for whom the crime can be easily blamed. Recruiting a friend, they hold up the card game and make tens of thousands of dollars, but they may not get off scott-free. The poker players bring in Jackie Cogan, played by Brad Pitt, to get to the bottom of this mess and "take care" of the people responsible. However, the crime lords are indecisive and clumsy, and Jackie finds himself filling in for their own lack of foresight.
Killing Them Softly starts out as a simple story; a hold up. The criminals' own indecisiveness and greed befuddles the simplicity and further complicates things for poor Jackie, who is resigned to cleaning up these types of messes. The story serves as a metaphor for our own crisis of greed and indecision, one that we are still feeling the impact of today. Right away there is evidence of big promises with no delivery. The film opens with sound bites of President Obama's 2008 election campaign, with pledges of hope and change. These clips are heard over the bleak image of an empty parking lot full of trash blowing in the wind and a silhouette of a raggedy looking man smoking a cigarette. The message is clear.
According to the film, both our nation's situation and the gangsters' situation were created not just through indecisiveness and empty promises, but by mixing the interests of all with greed and emotions. There is no better example of this than Mickey, played by James Gandolfini. Brought in by Jackie to take care of one of the robbers, Mickey is crippled by his emotions. His alcoholism only fuels the pity and nostalgia he feels and Jackie finds him completely unreliable. He spends a solid three days holed up in his hotel room with nothing but booze and hookers, trying to fill the void of his recent divorce and an infatuation with another hooker. Mickey is too caught up in his lust and emotions to be of any use to Jackie. Gandolfini's performance as the wallowing has-been gangster is right on target, a gem in the film. Pitt and Gandolfini create the dynamic of a pair with a worn-in friendship, and the scene where Jackie tries to coax Mickey out of his slump is one of the most organic scenes in the film.
The film continues peppered with political speeches from both President Bush and President Obama, political commentators, and news about the situation on Wall Street, drawing parallels between the gangsters' dilemma and the current political and financial crisis. Jackie is called in to protect a group of criminal poker players, people who are unlawful and already putting their money on the line for sport. When he tries to fix the situation, they only complicate things with their lack of indecisiveness, and it seems the people that robbed the game in the first place were just acting out of greed. The parallel to the government bail out of Wall Street is uncanny, even if the story gets a little preachy at times.
When Jackie finally finishes his work, the liaison tries to short him and claims his superiors are cash strapped from the recession. Without any sympathy, Jackie replies that this is America, and it's a business. While we may not all be equal as the constitutions claims, we must all abide by the laws of business. Ironically, Jackie is a hit man with his own moral code, one dictated by the rules of money and its exchange. Perhaps the point Dominik is trying to make is that even a moral code based on money is better than no code at all. The criminals who had no sense of honor had no limits, nothing to keep them from stealing from themselves. Their lack of code kept them from making decisions and allowed them to be crippled by their desires. Dominik paints a cynical portrait of the lawless who lack moral maturity and presents an unapologetic juxtaposition of government and criminals.
Directed by Andrew Dominik; Produced by Dede Gardener, Brad Pitt, Paula Mae Schwartz, Steve Schwartz; Written by Andrew Dominik ; With Brad Pitt, Scoot McNairy, Ben Mendelsohn, James Gandolfini, Ray Liotta ; Running time 100 min
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