{"id":3231,"date":"2012-12-16T10:20:49","date_gmt":"2012-12-16T10:20:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/?p=3231"},"modified":"2015-03-31T13:03:03","modified_gmt":"2015-03-31T13:03:03","slug":"film-review-brad-pitt-in-killing-them-softly","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/?p=3231","title":{"rendered":"FILM REVIEW: Brad Pitt in ‘Killing Them Softly’"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Killing<\/a><\/p>\n

By Ray Bennett<\/p>\n

Andrew Dominik\u2019s \u201cKilling Them Softly\u201d, starring Brad Pitt, is a crime picture with punks, hoodlums, and hit-men but it\u2019s really about banking and the callous, ruinous way Wall Street cowboys go about their selfish business.<\/p>\n

J.C. Chandor\u2019s excellent 2011 movie \u201cMargin Call\u201d depicted a financial meltdown within an investment bank. Dominik\u2019s film takes a similar story and plonks it in mob territory in the wasteland of post-Katrina New Orleans.<\/p>\n

The film, which was in competition at this year\u2019s Festival de Cannes, was released in theatres in September and will be on Blu-ray Disc and DVD in the UK on Feb. 25.<\/p>\n

It has disappointed a lot of Brad Pitt fans because it\u2019s not a conventional gangster picture even though it has several scenes of extreme violence. Just as \u201cThe Godfather\u201d was about politics, \u201cStraw Dogs\u201d was about the Vietnam War, and Dominik\u2019s masterpiece \u201cThe Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford\u201d was about fame, \u201cKilling Me Softly\u201d is about money as the root of evil.<\/p>\n

It is based on the 1974 novel \u201cCogan\u2019s Trade\u201d by the late George V. Higgins, a former prosecuting attorney who wrote a series of idiosyncratic crime stories filled with richly detailed conversations between low-lifes in Boston. The best known is \u201cThe Friends of Eddie Coyle\u201d, which Peter Yates filmed in 1973 with Robert Mitchum, Peter Boyle and Richard Jordan.<\/p>\n

Dominik, who adapted the novel for the screen, places television coverage of the recent banking crisis in the foreground with speeches from politicians that range from naive to cynical to idealistic. He cuts to the bone with his depiction of how the same heinous greed in men driven by hubris and ego plays out amongst bad guys with guns.<\/p>\n

Ray Liotta plays a mob guy named Markie who oversees a big-money poker school that is robbed at gun-point and when he foolishly boasts that he organised the robbery himself everyone laughs and let\u2019s it go. But a fellow hoodlum played by Vincent Curatola from \u201cThe Sopranos\u201d sees that if someone else were to raid the gambling den a second time then Markie would get the blame.<\/p>\n

He hires a callow thief named Frankie (Scoot Mcnairy) to do the robbery and he brings along his flakey and permanently stoned Australian mate Russell (Ben Mendelsohn). When they get away with it, a mob middleman (Richard Jenkins) turns to fixer and enforcer Jackie Cogan (Pitt) to sort it out.<\/p>\n

They are all identifiable types from the revelations about Wall Street and City and the lies, double-dealing and back-stabbing, and complete disregard for anything that resembles civilized behaviour. James Gandolfini (pictured with Pitt) plays an over-extended and dissolute hit man whom Cogan manipulates blithely into a violent meltdown, thankfully offscreen, with one of his many hired women.<\/p>\n

Dominik\u2019s dialogue is crisp and savvy and his images show the banality of the characters with heightened effects to convey their inflated sense of themselves. He draws first-rate performances from the entire cast, with Pitt as good as he was in \u201cJesse James\u201d. He has terrific help from cinematographer Greig Fraser, production and costume designer Patricia Norris and editor Brian A. Kates. Marc Streitenfeld provides evocative piano pieces on the soundtrack and the director uses Johnny Cash\u2019s \u201cThe Man Comes Around\u201d and sentimental standard ballads with considerable irony.<\/p>\n

The film\u2019s title is taken from a beautiful song but that is not heard. Cogan uses the phrase to describe how he prefers to deal with his victims, from a distance so he doesn\u2019t have to listen to their cries and deal with the mess. Much like drone-missile operators and corrupt bankers.<\/p>\n

Opened: Friday, Sept. 21; UK: Entertainment; US: The Weinstein Co.; Cast: Brad Pitt, Scoot McNairy, Ben Mendelsohn, Richard Jenkins, James Gandolfini, Ray Liotta, Vincent Caratola; Director: Andrew Dominik; Screenwriter: Andrew Dominik, based on the novel \u201cCogan\u2019s Trade\u201d by George V. Higgins; Director of photography: Greig Fraser; Production and costume designer: Patricia Norris; Music: Marc Streitenfeld; Editor: Brian A. Kates; Producers: Brad Pitt, Dede Gardner, Steve Schwartz, Paula Mae Schwartz, Anthony Katagas; Executive producers: Megan Ellison, Matt Butan, Bill Johnson, Jim Seibel, Adi Shankar, Spencer Silna; Production: Plan B, Chockstone Pictures
\nUK rating: 18; US rating: R; 97 minutes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Ray Bennett Andrew Dominik\u2019s \u201cKilling Them Softly\u201d, starring Brad Pitt, is a crime picture with punks, hoodlums, and hit-men but it\u2019s really about banking and the callous, ruinous way Wall Street cowboys go about their selfish business. J.C. Chandor\u2019s … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,14],"tags":[1807,1808,405,1809],"class_list":["post-3231","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-film","category-reviews","tag-killing-them-softly","tag-andrew-dominik","tag-brad-pitt","tag-george-v-higgins"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3231","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3231"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3231\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6771,"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3231\/revisions\/6771"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3231"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3231"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3231"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}