Add to your Bluray collection: Killing Them Softly

From the start of the film you see that, besides being a gangster flick, it is also a very political film.  It takes place during the presidential elections of 2008, and we meet the first characters, two heist-men, having a meeting in an empty lot with Obama and McCain billboards in the skyline.

The heist-men do a sloppy—but successful—job robbing a card game run by local mobsters.  This is where Brad Pitt’s character, Jackie Cogan, is brought in: to hire independent contract killers to take care of those heist-men.

One of the many interesting scenes involves Jackie Cogan telling the mob representative who hires him how emotions can sometimes hinder an assassination attempt.  He tells him he likes "killing them softly," from far away.

Another interesting thread in the story is how they handle the guy running the card game, Markie (Ray Liotta).  Markie had nothing to do with the robbery, but since people on the street think he had something to do with it, then Markie needs to get whacked.  (If you read all the above and don't think about Blackwater, drones, Iraq, or Afghanistan, then I don't know what to do with you).

In a statement found on a promotional website for the film, Director Andrew Dominik says:

"I've always felt that crime dramas are essentially about capitalism, since they show the capitalist idea working in its most base form.  It's also the only genre where it's completely acceptable that the characters are motivated only by a desire for money.  None of this 'family values,' 'follow your dream,' moral compass bullshit."

Unfortunately, this film fell way under the radar when it was released in theaters in 2012.  It is also very much dialogue driven, which can be hard for an audience that has been trained to love only action driven films.

If you didn’t love Brad Pitt before, you’ll love him in this role, as a no-nonsense enforcer who delivers some of the best dialogue that takes a shit on American Democracy—which also includes some of the best final lines in any movie I can remember.

They Live, We Sleep

On November 6, 2012--the same day that millions of American citizens hit the voting polls to "choose" who was going to run the country-- John Carpenter's 1988 classic cult film, "They Live," was released on DVD (Collector's Edition) and Blu-ray.

In this film, Carpenter gives us a world where poverty is abundant and groups of people have to live in homeless camps; where only the rich prosper; where police are brutal enforcers; and despite all this--people are still stuck to the television!

What we soon learn is that, aliens from a far away planet control everything.  With their technology, they have hidden themselves among regular people and send out signals through advertising in magazines, billboards, and (mostly) television, that are designed to numb the regular masses and keep them submissive as happy consumers.

Soon though, we are introduced to John Nada (played by Roddy Piper, a famous wrestler), who by pure accident, discovers this astonishing truth when he stumbles upon a pair of sunglasses that reveal to him who is really human and who is alien; and also let him see the subliminal messages that are being forced on the masses. Messages like, "Obey," "Reproduce and Marry," "No Independent Thought," "Consume," "Watch TV," "Stay Asleep, "Buy," and many others.

John also discovers a small underground resistance group and enlists himself, and his new buddy Frank (Keith David), to reveal the truth to the American public, and encounter lots of blood and betrayal along the way.  Without giving away too much about the ending, it is not a typical Hollywood-ending. I would describe it as more of a love-letter to those who spit in the face of authority, and also a personal statement on the sacrifice of the individual.

What really makes this film work is the changes the characters go through.  In the beginning, John is a very pull-yourself-by-your-own-bootstraps kind of guy.  He doesn't like handouts and believes he's just going through a rough time.  "I believe in America," he says during an early scene.  Frank, however, has seen factory owners give themselves raises while he was taking pay-cuts.  He tells John that he believes in the Golden Rule, "He who has the gold, makes the rules."  But, despite his feelings toward a system that he knows is rigged, he strongly refuses to accept the truth that John has discovered.  In fact, he wants nothing to do with him, and it is only through a lengthy street-fight among the two friends that Frank finally puts on the sun glasses and sees what is really going on.

This, of course, is why I hold this film close to my heart.  Anyone who's read Lenin's "What Is To Be Done?" can see that this is an allegory for one of the main points in that polemic: that class-consciousness is not spontaneous; in fact, it can only come from without.  I love this movie and I recommend everybody get a copy and share it with others.

'Boardwalk Empire' as Allegory of Capitalism

This Sunday will see the premiere of the second season of Boardwalk Empire on HBO, a period drama that critics have been raving about since its inception last September. Indeed, it is the best writing that I have witnessed since The Wire was on television.

Some have pointed out that the show describes how "criminals became our leaders," as the show reveals levels of government corruption, from the City Treasurer all the way up to the highest office, the President. I, however, would go a step further and say that the show, not only reveals the beginnings of capitalism, but is an allegory for capitalism imperialism itself.

In the pilot, we meet Jimmy Darmody, a young man coming back from War World I, who is very impatient with the tasks he has been given by the show's main character, Enoch "Nucky" Thompson, the City Treasurer who runs Atlantic City. Jimmy sees all the money going through Nucky's hands and is not content with just being a driver. He confronts Nucky and tells him, "All I want is an opportunity." To which Nucky eloquently responds, "This is America, ain't it? What's stopping you?" Jimmy views this as permission to pull a truck heist that sets many storylines in motion. Later on, in this same episode, after Jimmy gives Nucky his cut of the heist money, he reminds him that he can't be "half a gangster" anymore. Indeed, some of the first season does revolve around just how much Nucky is willing to do to insure his place as crime lord of Atlantic City.

Early in the first episode we also meet some of the big gangsters from New York and Chicago who are there to meet with Nucky, and throughout the series we see them teaming-up, double-crossing, killing, and making deals with each other. It's never personal; they care only about profits and expanding their territories. And everyone knows that in capitalism the number one rule is, "expand or die."

Not sure how much this new second season will explore these topics, but it will be fun to watch as the entire cast is very talented and the writing is top-notch.

"God Bless Capitalism"

Check out the banter below between two villains, (one of which is off-screen),
in a recent first-issue (reboot) of Venom [click on pics to enlarge]:





Usually it's some "communist" cold-war era super-villain talking about the evils of capitalism in comic-books. Here we have two villians talking, though in a bit sarcastically, about their love of capitalism. This is from the first issue of Venom, that came out a little over a month ago. Of course, we can't expect more, as the anti-hero of this book actually works for the U.S. military, but that was a breath of fresh-air in that dialogue and the main reason why this blog was created!