Brad Pitt’s Merciless Crime Thriller Will Leave You Shaking
Brad Pitt may have the face of a leading man, but he definitely knows how to pick roles that allow him to flex his acting muscles rather than relying on his Hollywood good looks. A great example of this is his film Killing Them Softly, which is now available to stream on Starz.
This low-key neo-noir film is definitely one of the more underrated entries to Pitt’s catalog and is well worth the watch if you’re in the mood for a thriller.
Killing Them Softly is based on George V. Higgins’ 1974 novel Cogan’s Trade and follows Brad Pitt’s hitman Jackie Cogan as he’s hired to deal with the aftermath of a Mafia poker game robbery. Unlike the novel, the film takes place with the 2008 Presidential election and the financial crisis as a backdrop.
Andrew Dominik, who collaborated with Pitt on the fantastic The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, adapted the novel for the screen and directed the film.
Killing Them Softly is certainly reviewed more favorably by people who decide to check it out nowadays, so don’t let the audience reviews deter you from giving it a chance.
Along with Brad Pitt, Killing Them Softly has a fantastic cast that includes Scoot McNairy, Ben Mendelsohn, Richard Jenkins, and performances from the late actors James Gandolfini, Ray Liotta, and Sam Shepard.
Despite the film’s impressive creative team and cast, it received a fairly muted reception at theaters. It premiered at the Cannes Film Festival and lost the Palme d’Or to Amour before being released theatrically.
Critics and Audiences Torn Over Killing Them Softly
Brad Pitt’s name is enough to drum up at least some interest, and Killing Them Softly brought in around $37.9 million at the worldwide box office. As for reviews, they couldn’t be more mixed. Critics generally loved the film, but audiences had different opinions.
Looking at Rotten Tomatoes, you can see this divide fairly clearly, as the film has a 74 percent rating from critics and a 44 percent from audiences. On CinemaScore, the audiences polled gave the film an F rating, which is an honor(?) that fewer than 30 films share.
The bad reviews for the movie can almost entirely be blamed on The Weinstein Company’s marketing strategy.
It’s possible that these ratings are skewed because people went expecting to see a Brad Pitt thriller, and Killing Them Softly is decidedly a neo-noir arthouse film.
To be clear, there are definitely films on the Cinemascore F list that deserve the rating — such as the terrible Disaster Movie — but Brad Pitt’s Killing Them Softly isn’t one of them. The bad reviews for the movie can almost entirely be blamed on The Weinstein Company’s marketing strategy. As mentioned, they framed it as a crime drama with Pitt in the lead role and then pushed it to a wide release.
When audiences showed up to see Brad Pitt as a cool hitman in a thriller film, they were probably a little surprised to be met with a slow-burn film that acts as an allegory of the 2008 financial crisis.
Killing Them Softly is certainly reviewed more favorably by people who decide to check it out nowadays, so don’t let the audience reviews deter you from giving it a chance. Just don’t expect a high-octane crime thriller like the original trailers might lead you to believe.
While Brad Pitt is the anchor of Killing Them Softly, the film also features one of the final performances of the late great James Gandolfini. Gandolfini has a fairly significant role in the film and gives an electric performance of his own. The late Ray Liotta has a fairly juicy role as well, so it’s also worth watching if you missed out on his performance in this film as well.
Funnily enough, Brad Pitt wasn’t done making films about the 2007-2008 financial crisis after Killing Them Softly. While Killing Them Softly took place during the crisis, and the events of the film could be seen as an allegory for the crisis, he would go on to star in and produce The Big Short a few years later, which is a film that shows how that crisis happened.
If you’re looking for an interesting Pitt double-feature, these two films would actually pair oddly well together.
If that Brad Pitt double feature sounds appealing (and slightly depressing) to you, you can stream The Big Short for free on Pluto TV or Youtube. Killing Them Softly is available to stream on Starz. In the meantime, stay tuned for more news on Pitt’s upcoming projects.
