[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/1477f4f9e2e35596b7ef5361903812d7.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:300:Don't rip off poker games. It's bad for business.]]

''Killing Them Softly'' is a 2012 crime film starring Creator/BradPitt, Creator/RayLiotta, Creator/RichardJenkins, and Creator/JamesGandolfini, and written & directed by Creator/AndrewDominik (who'd previously worked with Pitt on ''Film/TheAssassinationOfJesseJamesByTheCowardRobertFord'').

When a mob poker game run by Markie Trattman (Liotta) is held up by two masked gunmen, suspicion immediately falls on Trattman. And with good reason: years ago, he'd actually ripped off his own game, then drunkenly copped to it - to the amusement of his fellow wiseguys. This time, feeling that ''not'' punishing the robbers would be bad for business, [[ProfessionalKiller hitman]] Jackie Cogan (Pitt) is called in. Although Jackie deduces almost immediately that Trattman isn't stupid enough to hit his own game twice, he still decides to make an example of Trattman. Jackie also quickly uncovers the real culprit -- but since they actually know each other, he decides to subcontract that hit to Mickey (Gandolfini), who turns out to be a bitter drunk more interested in working his way through every prostitute in town.
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!! This film provides examples of:
* AdaptationTitleChange: ''Killing Them Softly'' is based on the novel ''Cogan's Trade''.
* AffablyEvil: Markie Trattman... well, out of all of this film's assortment of characters, anyway. Even the gangsters he robbed don't seem upset about it when they learn the truth.
* AwesomeAussie: Averted. Russell speaks with Ben Mendelsohn's natural Australian accent but is about as far removed from a competent badass as you can get, clearly being nothing more than a low-level idiot.
* ArtisticLicenseGunSafety: When Jackie checks his gun's ammo, he closes the revolver's cylinder by turning his wrist. With rotary cylinder revolvers, this can bend the cylinder arm, misaligning the cylinder and leading to a misfire, potentially exploding the weapon.
* BoomHeadshot: Done a few times and shown in full, gory detail.
* BotheringByTheBook: Mickey explains to Jackie that before coming to Boston, he killed someone from the wrong jurisdiction and, per the family's rules, he's only "allowed" to take on one of Jackie's two planned killings. Of course, Mickey isn't actually trying to be subversive; [[OrcusOnHisThrone he's just lazy.]]
* ButtMonkey: Trattman.
* CloudCuckooLander: New York Mickey has simply run out of fucks to give. His appetite for booze and women is matched only by his taste for rambling, incoherent soliloquies.
* ClusterFBomb: The F-word is pronounced a hell of a lot.
* ContinuityCameo: Music/SamShepard's character Dillon, played a much larger role in George V. Higgins' first novel, ''Literature/TheFriendsOfEddieCoyle'', and was played in that book's [[Film/TheFriendsOfEddieCoyle film adaptation]] by Creator/PeterBoyle.
* CrapsackWorld: The life of crime has rarely looked less appealing than in this film, from low-level thieves and enforcers who only do it because they can't find legitimate work to hitmen whose best days are long behind them to bosses who now come across more as frustrated middle-managers dealing with other bosses, bad employees and a changing world than UsefulNotes/AlCapone.
* DamnItFeelsGoodToBeAGangster: AvertedTrope. The film goes out of its way to show that gangsters, once the embodiment of free living, are now just businessmen, complete with budget restrictions and public relations. Hitmen are not mythic badasses and it's clear that the mob has fallen very far from the days when they reigned supreme.
* DestinationDefenestration: When Dillon and Kenny rough up Trattman after the first poker-game heist, they slam him through a window, pull him back in, then toss him out the back door. [[spoiler:Later, after Jackie shoots him, Trattman's car rolls into an intersection and is struck by a truck, causing Trattman's head to smash into the windshield.]]
* EvenEvilHasStandards: Jackie is visibly disturbed when Mickey threatens a hooker.
* TheFilmOfTheBook: Based on George V. Higgins' 1974 novel ''Cogan's Trade''.
* GenreDeconstruction: of the gangster movies.
* HollywoodNewEngland: The film takes place in the grimy, crime-middled parts of Massachusetts.
* HookersAndBlow: What Mickey would rather do than prepare for his hit (albeit with booze instead of blow).
* KilledOffscreen: [[spoiler: Dillon]], who is ailing throughout the film, is mentioned to have died by the end.
* MeaningfulBackgroundEvent: The movie takes place during the last days of the 2008 Obama/[=McCain=] presidential campaigns, as well as the USA's financial meltdown. The last scene appears to coincide with Obama's victory.
* NoHoldsBarredBeatdown: Two {{mook}}s deliver one to Trattman. Later, Jackie and Driver admit they may have been a ''bit'' excessive.
* NoNameGiven: Driver, Jackie's liason with the local mob.
* OhCrap: Trattman's expression after [[spoiler:Jackie pulls up next to his car, gun drawn.]]
* OrcusOnHisThrone: Mickey. Unusually, however, it's not a plot hole; it's a very deliberate illustration of just how far organized crime has fallen.
* ProfessionalKiller: Jackie, Dillon, and Mickey; though one might be hard-pressed to actually describe Mickey as "professional".
* PunchClockVillain: Both Jackie and Mickey, but especially Driver, who looks and acts like an office clerk.
* RuthlessForeignGangsters: Russell, one of the thieves, is Australian, just like his actor Creator/BenMendelsohn. However, being ruthless doesn't mean he's competent or intimidating.
* SawedOffShotgun: [[ExaggeratedTrope Exaggerated]], Frankie's [=DBS=] had its barrels sawed down to the point that ''[[http://www.imfdb.org/images/a/a6/KTS-Sawnoff-2.jpg they're shorter than the shells it's loaded with]]''. He compares using it to a hand grenade going off.
* ShaggyDogStory: Mickey is this, as his entire subplot leads to absolutely nothing, he proves to be completely useless and ends up being PutOnABus.
* SlowMotion: Russell, high on heroin.
* SmashToBlack: The film ends with [[spoiler:Jackie demanding that Driver pay him his full fee, rather than a discounted total for three rub-outs.]]
* StupidCrooks: The robbers who kick off the plot.
* TitleDrop: Jackie prefers to "kill 'em softly" (i.e. from a distance), rather than up close, so as not to deal with the panicked victim begging for his life; director Andrew Dominik reportedly kept secret that he was to be changing the film's title from ''Cogan's Trade'' to ''Killing Them Softly'', so Brad Pitt was unaware that he was invoking this trope.
* TooDumbToLive: The two dimwits hired to rob the poker game. Especially Russell, who makes his accomplice look like Meyer Lansky. [[spoiler:Ironically, Russell is the only surviving participant in the heist by the end of the film, in this case getting arrested for drug trafficking through his own stupidity.]]
%%* WhenItRainsItPours
* YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness:
** When Mickey proves to be unable to carry out his hit, Jackie has him arrested on a parole-violation beef and PutOnABus.
** [[spoiler:Frankie]] shows Jackie to [[spoiler:Squirrel]], and once Jackie's killed [[spoiler:Squirrel]], he proceeds to kill [[spoiler:Frankie]] as well.

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