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America's not a country. It's a business. Now ****ing pay me.-Jackie Cogan
Based off the novel by George V. Higgins, Killing Them Softly stars Brad Pitt as Jackie Cogan, a mob hitman who is tasked with tracking down the three men that conspired to rob a mob protected poker game. Directed by Andrew Dominik(The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (2007)), Killing Them Softly takes place in the most dismal of locations in a post-recession city.
One issue I take, not with the film, but rather with several of its reviews that have come out saying that this story is set in New Orleans. Being filmed in New Orleans, of course, there are several locations that look very familiar to a current resident, like myself. But to somebody who has never visited New Orleans before, these locations could be the slums set in any city. While some locals and reviewers may fault Dominik for not capturing the particular essence that New Orleans has to offer, I argue that Dominik kept the locations as non specific as possible.
For example, Roger Ebert says:
Ebert's full review can be found here: http://www.rogerebert.com/apps/pbcs....IEWS/121129985
Unlike Ebert, not only do I not think that Killing Them Softly takes place in New Orleans, I don't think it takes place in any specific city. The location remains undisclosed, so that the viewer could think that this story could possibly happen anywhere. But there is one factor that I don't think Ebert took into consideration in assuming that the movie takes place in New Orleans: legalized gambling. Gambling is legal in New Orleans (sort of), making mob run poker games obsolete. Even if one would argue that underground poker games still existed in New Orleans, which there is no evidence of, why would anyone run the risk of going to an underground poker game, when they could just gamble at a legal establishment? Harrah's casino in New Orleans is so large, it would take a legion of armed gunman to rob it.
Another point in the story that makes it impossible for it to take place in New Orleans, is that it seems that the entire underworld economy focuses on these card games. Even when underground gambling existed in New Orleans, under the reign of mob boss Carlos Marcello, and while illegal gambling played a very large part of his organization's income, it wasn't his organization’s only income. His entire organization wouldn't collapse if one of his gambling houses was raided. Again, since gambling is legal in New Orleans, it would be impossible for a criminal organization to exists solely on the profits of underground card games.
The movie starts with low level thieves Frankie(Scoot McNairy) and Australian junkie Russell(the underrated Ben Mendelsohn) being hired by an equally low level underworld figure, Johnny Amato(Vince Curatola, who is a pleasure to be seen on screen again in a post-Sopranos gangster role), to rob an illegal poker game that is run by Mark Trattman(Ray Liotta). The only reason that Amato is attempting the robbery in the first place is because Trattman's game has been robbed before. Trattman was in on the robbery, and drunkenly confessed it to his underworld colleagues one night. One offset of the card game being robbed is the complete collapse of the underworld economy. Since one of them was robbed, all of the card games in the city were shut down and nobody was making any money. While one may think that Trattman would be killed because of this, he is so liked by everyone, he gets a pass. Amato figures that if the card game is robbed again, the underworld would immediately suspect Trattman and he would be disposed of, ending the investigation there.
The robbery goes off without a hitch. Jackie Cogan is then contacted by a man just referred to as "The Driver"(Richard Jenkins),who is a spokesperson of the leaders of the underworld, to investigate who robbed the poker game. It's explained in the film that Cogan's superior, Dillon(Sam Shepard) received a life threatening stab wound, and is unable to work, so Cogan takes his place. Cogan immediately suspects that Trattman is innocent, but he must be killed anyway to keep up appearances. Another problem with Ebert's review(I'm not trying to pick on him, I swear) is that Ebert can't understand why Trattman had to be killed.
Ebert says:
The reasoning why Trattman must be killed, even though he is innocent, is because everyone else in the underworld would just assume that he ripped off his own card game again. If Trattman gets another pass, then what would stop anyone from robbing mob protected card games if there are no repercussions? After being beaten up to get a confession out of him, in which he pleads his innocence, in a beautifully shot scene, Trattman is killed by Cogan in a passing car.
It is then revealed that the junkie Russell has bragged to a friend about the robbery that he and Frankie took part in. That is when Frankie, Russell, and Amato become marked men.
Cogan then asks "The Driver" to spring for a second man, Mickey(James Gandolfini), because Amato knows Cogan, and would be aware of his fate if the two would cross paths. Times and resources being tight because of the underworld recession, "The Driver" is reluctant to bring in a second man. When he does agree, he issues one ultimatum for Cogan: "Fly Coach." Another problem, although it being a very small one, with Ebert's review is his "classification" of Mickey in the underworld.
Ebert says:
This may seem like splitting hairs, but Mickey is not a "mob boss." The whole point of being the boss of a criminal organization is to insulate yourself from as much exposure as possible. The very notion that a mob boss would be flown in to commit a murder is ludicrous. Mickey is just another hitman, like Cogan. The two have a history of working together, and that's why Cogan wants to recruit him.
Even though Cogan had a professionally high regard for Mickey, he is not the man he used to be. Mickey is now caught in a downward spiral of alcohol and hookers. Cogan being disgusted by the man he has become, actually sets up Mickey to be arrested at a hotel after he gets in a fight with a hooker. Mickey is on parole and is not supposed to be out of New York, so his arrest and departure would get him out of the picture.
Now that he can't count on Mickey, Cogan decides to take care of the murders himself. Russell is arrested by police on drug possession, so he is now out of Cogan's reach. Cogan confronts Frankie in a bar, where he forces him into driving to the location where Amato is going to be that night. Frankie reluctantly agrees, knowing that if he doesn't cooperate, he will be killed. Later that night, Amato is violently gunned down by Cogan. When Cogan and Frankie return to drop off the car they stole to kill Amato in, Cogan shoots Frankie.
The hits being complete, Cogan meets "The Driver" in a bar to collect his cash. Cogan is upset because he is only paid $10,000 a hit. "The Driver" says that is the "recession price" that his boss, Dillion, accepted from the mob bosses. Cogan then reveals that Dillion died that morning, and that now he is working for the organization , and it's going to be expensive. That is when Cogan says to "The Driver": America's not a country. It's a business. Now ****ing pay me.
Gangster movies often mirror the business climate. Gangster films set during the “Roaring Twenties” portray gangsters as the ultimate capitalist, as businessmen whose illicit profits are on the rise. Classic gangster films like The Public Enemy(1931), Scarface(1932), and The Roaring Twenties(1939) gangsters are flashy and flaunt their wealth to the world. The economic climate being in the gutter that it is today, Killing Them Softly takes a more cynical view of life in America. Throughout the movie, speeches by President George W. Bush and Senator Obama can be heard in the background. News broadcast about the economic crash can be heard in car radios, and a billboard advertising both Obama and McCain’s campaign is shown in the opening scene. The ending scene in the movie shows Obama’s election as President and part of his victory speech. The speeches given by these politicians, who are suggesting things will get better, are juxtaposed to the rotting infrastructure of the inner city. On the eve of Obama’s victory, Cogan can be seen walking past people setting off fireworks, celebrating his election. When Cogan walks past the celebration, he is the only character in focus, as if he is the only one that realizes that things will not get better.
The gangsters in this movie aren't flashy. They don’t live in big houses or drive expensive cars. Most of the scenes in the film are shot in concrete wastelands or urban slums. Mirroring the economic crash of the economy of the United States, the underworld economy is also in crisis. It seems that the desperate criminal syndicate operating in this city only has one source of income left: gambling. No other crimes that generate income are shown. There is no extortion, no drug trade, no other rackets shown that support this criminal organization.
But maybe the reason no other rackets could be shown is because the film just focuses on the lower levels of the underworld. The highest ranking person in the film shown is “The Driver”, who is a spokesperson that acts as a buffer between the lower criminal element and the boss(es). “The Driver” is the most well dressed person in the film. He drives the nicest car. Could it be that the higher level gangsters are keeping more of the profits for themselves? Maybe not. “The Driver” hesitates granting any money at all to Cogan to get the job done. When Cogan asks him to pay for Mickey to come in from New York, “The Driver” tries to assure Cogan that the boss(es) will not spend more money on another man. Trattman, though well dressed, lives in a small, run down house in the middle of an urban slum. In a flashback, he is shown living in a small trailer. Amota could represent the struggling small business owner. Suggesting that he spent some time in prison, Amota is trying to start up his criminal business again. His office is not in a bar or a club, but rather a run down, shabby looking dry cleaning shop. Not much is known about Cogan’s personal life, except that he thinks that $30,000 for three hits is well below the regular market price. Frankie and especially Russell live in poverty and squalor. In the beginning of the film, they can be seen traversing gutted neighborhoods, where most of the houses are either abandoned or demolished.
Overall, Killing Them Softly is beautiful. The eroding infrastructure that only post-Katrina New Orleans can offer sets the perfect tone for the movie. What Dominik did for the western with The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, he does for the gangster movie with Killing Them Softly. He is able to make an art film without it feeling pretentious. The dialogue is darkly humorous. The acting is fantastic all around. Seeing Gandolfini and Curatola in criminal roles again after The Sopranos is satisfying. While the soundtrack compliments the film immensely, with Johnny Cash’s The Man Comes Around playing with the introduction of Pitt’s character and Petula Clark's rendition of Windmills of Your Mind playing when Frankie discovers that his identity as one of the robbers is known by the underworld, the film lacks in its score. After being unjustly ignored for his score in The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, I was hoping that Nick Cave would do another score that was as haunting as Jesse James was. Cave not returning for Dominik’s second major feature, results in a score that is easily forgettable.
With all that being said,Killing Them Softly was one of my favorite movies of 2012.
**** out of *****
America's not a country. It's a business. Now ****ing pay me.-Jackie Cogan
Based off the novel by George V. Higgins, Killing Them Softly stars Brad Pitt as Jackie Cogan, a mob hitman who is tasked with tracking down the three men that conspired to rob a mob protected poker game. Directed by Andrew Dominik(The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (2007)), Killing Them Softly takes place in the most dismal of locations in a post-recession city.
One issue I take, not with the film, but rather with several of its reviews that have come out saying that this story is set in New Orleans. Being filmed in New Orleans, of course, there are several locations that look very familiar to a current resident, like myself. But to somebody who has never visited New Orleans before, these locations could be the slums set in any city. While some locals and reviewers may fault Dominik for not capturing the particular essence that New Orleans has to offer, I argue that Dominik kept the locations as non specific as possible.
For example, Roger Ebert says:
"Killing Them Softly” begins with a George V. Higgins novel set in Boston in 1974 and moves its story to post-Katrina New Orleans in 2008..."
"Killing Them Softly” continues as a dismal, dreary series of cruel and painful murders, mostly by men who know one another, in a barren city where it's usually night, often rainy and is never identifiable as New Orleans — not even by the restaurants."
Unlike Ebert, not only do I not think that Killing Them Softly takes place in New Orleans, I don't think it takes place in any specific city. The location remains undisclosed, so that the viewer could think that this story could possibly happen anywhere. But there is one factor that I don't think Ebert took into consideration in assuming that the movie takes place in New Orleans: legalized gambling. Gambling is legal in New Orleans (sort of), making mob run poker games obsolete. Even if one would argue that underground poker games still existed in New Orleans, which there is no evidence of, why would anyone run the risk of going to an underground poker game, when they could just gamble at a legal establishment? Harrah's casino in New Orleans is so large, it would take a legion of armed gunman to rob it.
Another point in the story that makes it impossible for it to take place in New Orleans, is that it seems that the entire underworld economy focuses on these card games. Even when underground gambling existed in New Orleans, under the reign of mob boss Carlos Marcello, and while illegal gambling played a very large part of his organization's income, it wasn't his organization’s only income. His entire organization wouldn't collapse if one of his gambling houses was raided. Again, since gambling is legal in New Orleans, it would be impossible for a criminal organization to exists solely on the profits of underground card games.
The movie starts with low level thieves Frankie(Scoot McNairy) and Australian junkie Russell(the underrated Ben Mendelsohn) being hired by an equally low level underworld figure, Johnny Amato(Vince Curatola, who is a pleasure to be seen on screen again in a post-Sopranos gangster role), to rob an illegal poker game that is run by Mark Trattman(Ray Liotta). The only reason that Amato is attempting the robbery in the first place is because Trattman's game has been robbed before. Trattman was in on the robbery, and drunkenly confessed it to his underworld colleagues one night. One offset of the card game being robbed is the complete collapse of the underworld economy. Since one of them was robbed, all of the card games in the city were shut down and nobody was making any money. While one may think that Trattman would be killed because of this, he is so liked by everyone, he gets a pass. Amato figures that if the card game is robbed again, the underworld would immediately suspect Trattman and he would be disposed of, ending the investigation there.
The robbery goes off without a hitch. Jackie Cogan is then contacted by a man just referred to as "The Driver"(Richard Jenkins),who is a spokesperson of the leaders of the underworld, to investigate who robbed the poker game. It's explained in the film that Cogan's superior, Dillon(Sam Shepard) received a life threatening stab wound, and is unable to work, so Cogan takes his place. Cogan immediately suspects that Trattman is innocent, but he must be killed anyway to keep up appearances. Another problem with Ebert's review(I'm not trying to pick on him, I swear) is that Ebert can't understand why Trattman had to be killed.
Ebert says:
"Here is where the Catch-22 comes in: Now that Markie has claimed credit for knocking off his own game, another one of his games is stuck up. Does it now seem inevitable that he, too, becomes a marked man? Not to me. Who with any common sense would think he was that dumb? There's some of the Higgins brand of humor in a conversation about how badly he should be beaten up."
It is then revealed that the junkie Russell has bragged to a friend about the robbery that he and Frankie took part in. That is when Frankie, Russell, and Amato become marked men.
Cogan then asks "The Driver" to spring for a second man, Mickey(James Gandolfini), because Amato knows Cogan, and would be aware of his fate if the two would cross paths. Times and resources being tight because of the underworld recession, "The Driver" is reluctant to bring in a second man. When he does agree, he issues one ultimatum for Cogan: "Fly Coach." Another problem, although it being a very small one, with Ebert's review is his "classification" of Mickey in the underworld.
Ebert says:
"A high-level mob boss named Mickey (James Gandolfini) arrives in town, hauling his in-flight luggage through the airport like a traveling businessman."
Even though Cogan had a professionally high regard for Mickey, he is not the man he used to be. Mickey is now caught in a downward spiral of alcohol and hookers. Cogan being disgusted by the man he has become, actually sets up Mickey to be arrested at a hotel after he gets in a fight with a hooker. Mickey is on parole and is not supposed to be out of New York, so his arrest and departure would get him out of the picture.
Now that he can't count on Mickey, Cogan decides to take care of the murders himself. Russell is arrested by police on drug possession, so he is now out of Cogan's reach. Cogan confronts Frankie in a bar, where he forces him into driving to the location where Amato is going to be that night. Frankie reluctantly agrees, knowing that if he doesn't cooperate, he will be killed. Later that night, Amato is violently gunned down by Cogan. When Cogan and Frankie return to drop off the car they stole to kill Amato in, Cogan shoots Frankie.
The hits being complete, Cogan meets "The Driver" in a bar to collect his cash. Cogan is upset because he is only paid $10,000 a hit. "The Driver" says that is the "recession price" that his boss, Dillion, accepted from the mob bosses. Cogan then reveals that Dillion died that morning, and that now he is working for the organization , and it's going to be expensive. That is when Cogan says to "The Driver": America's not a country. It's a business. Now ****ing pay me.
Gangster movies often mirror the business climate. Gangster films set during the “Roaring Twenties” portray gangsters as the ultimate capitalist, as businessmen whose illicit profits are on the rise. Classic gangster films like The Public Enemy(1931), Scarface(1932), and The Roaring Twenties(1939) gangsters are flashy and flaunt their wealth to the world. The economic climate being in the gutter that it is today, Killing Them Softly takes a more cynical view of life in America. Throughout the movie, speeches by President George W. Bush and Senator Obama can be heard in the background. News broadcast about the economic crash can be heard in car radios, and a billboard advertising both Obama and McCain’s campaign is shown in the opening scene. The ending scene in the movie shows Obama’s election as President and part of his victory speech. The speeches given by these politicians, who are suggesting things will get better, are juxtaposed to the rotting infrastructure of the inner city. On the eve of Obama’s victory, Cogan can be seen walking past people setting off fireworks, celebrating his election. When Cogan walks past the celebration, he is the only character in focus, as if he is the only one that realizes that things will not get better.
The gangsters in this movie aren't flashy. They don’t live in big houses or drive expensive cars. Most of the scenes in the film are shot in concrete wastelands or urban slums. Mirroring the economic crash of the economy of the United States, the underworld economy is also in crisis. It seems that the desperate criminal syndicate operating in this city only has one source of income left: gambling. No other crimes that generate income are shown. There is no extortion, no drug trade, no other rackets shown that support this criminal organization.
But maybe the reason no other rackets could be shown is because the film just focuses on the lower levels of the underworld. The highest ranking person in the film shown is “The Driver”, who is a spokesperson that acts as a buffer between the lower criminal element and the boss(es). “The Driver” is the most well dressed person in the film. He drives the nicest car. Could it be that the higher level gangsters are keeping more of the profits for themselves? Maybe not. “The Driver” hesitates granting any money at all to Cogan to get the job done. When Cogan asks him to pay for Mickey to come in from New York, “The Driver” tries to assure Cogan that the boss(es) will not spend more money on another man. Trattman, though well dressed, lives in a small, run down house in the middle of an urban slum. In a flashback, he is shown living in a small trailer. Amota could represent the struggling small business owner. Suggesting that he spent some time in prison, Amota is trying to start up his criminal business again. His office is not in a bar or a club, but rather a run down, shabby looking dry cleaning shop. Not much is known about Cogan’s personal life, except that he thinks that $30,000 for three hits is well below the regular market price. Frankie and especially Russell live in poverty and squalor. In the beginning of the film, they can be seen traversing gutted neighborhoods, where most of the houses are either abandoned or demolished.
Overall, Killing Them Softly is beautiful. The eroding infrastructure that only post-Katrina New Orleans can offer sets the perfect tone for the movie. What Dominik did for the western with The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, he does for the gangster movie with Killing Them Softly. He is able to make an art film without it feeling pretentious. The dialogue is darkly humorous. The acting is fantastic all around. Seeing Gandolfini and Curatola in criminal roles again after The Sopranos is satisfying. While the soundtrack compliments the film immensely, with Johnny Cash’s The Man Comes Around playing with the introduction of Pitt’s character and Petula Clark's rendition of Windmills of Your Mind playing when Frankie discovers that his identity as one of the robbers is known by the underworld, the film lacks in its score. After being unjustly ignored for his score in The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, I was hoping that Nick Cave would do another score that was as haunting as Jesse James was. Cave not returning for Dominik’s second major feature, results in a score that is easily forgettable.
With all that being said,Killing Them Softly was one of my favorite movies of 2012.
**** out of *****
Last edited by Gangland; 05-14-14 at 11:03 PM.
