The crime drama Killing Them Softly is based on a 1974 novel by George V. Higgins, but the movie is set against the backdrop of the 2008 economic collapse. Brad Pitt’s hired killer may be derided as a “cynical bastard,” but he’s the closest thing to an honest man in this movie, where the underworld has a lot of the same problems that are destroying corporate capitalism: The big bosses are mired in groupthink, and most everybody else is too drunk, drugged-out, or stupid to do their job. The final scene is set on election night, and Barack Obama’s victory speech plays in the background as Pitt realizes he’s getting stiffed. Pitt sneers at Obama’s claim that we’re “one people,” going after that “American saint,” Thomas Jefferson, “a rich wine snob who was sick of paying taxes to the Brits,” so he wrote down some eloquent words to inspire others to get themselves killed to protect his privileges “while he drank his wine and fucked his slave girl.” America, Pitt concludes, “is not a country. It’s just a business. Now, fuckin’ pay me.”
