Review of Killing Them Softly (2012) by Stephen V — 28 Oct 2014

Killing Them Softly begins with some amusing dialogue that lured me into expecting the movie to be along the vein of Guy Ritchie's filmmaking style where Brad Pitt plays the leading role as Micky the boxer in Snatch. The impression isn't maintained though some fun dialogues with Gandolfini's hard drinking hit man personae more three dimensional than the actual significance of his role as related to the overall arc.

Having a cast with a full compliment of A listers, astride a story that is anything else but, should still be able to hold it all together and resolve at the very least as a movie that might leave the viewer with a few good memorable moments as they exit the theatre or resume the Netflix search for the next feature before bedtime.

Instead I watched the closing credits pondering only one thing, the final statement made by Pitt in regards to the second president while words from the just selected one ...

"Barack Obama (on TV): ...to reclaim the American dream and reaffirm that fundamental truth, that, out of many, we are one...

Driver: You hear that line? Line's for you.

Jackie Cogan: Don't make me laugh. One people. It's a myth created by Thomas Jefferson.

Driver: Oh, so now you're going to have a go at Jefferson, huh?

Jackie Cogan: My friend, Thomas Jefferson is an American saint because he wrote the words 'All men are created equal', words he clearly didn't believe since he allowed his own children to live in slavery. He's a rich white snob who's sick of paying taxes to the Brits. So, yeah, he writes some lovely words and aroused the rabble and they went and died for those words while he sat back and drank his wine and fucked his slave girl. This guy wants to tell me we're living in a community? Don't make me laugh. I'm living in America, and in America you're on your own. America's not a country. It's just a business. Now fuckin' pay me.".

This was the most memorable part of the entire movie. For it I felt compelled to take a moment and write something, anything, about this movie that was still quite positive.