The Iceman.

Richard Leonard "The Iceman" Kuklinski (April 11, 1935 – March 5, 2006) was an American contract killer who worked for both the Newark's DeCavalcante crime family and New York City's Five Families of the American Mafia. The 6'5" 21.5 stone Kuklinski claimed to have murdered over 100 men between 1948 and 1986. Kuklinski claimed to have committed his first murder at the age of 13. He lived what seemed an ordinary family life with his wife and children in the suburb of Dumont, New Jersey. His story has been documented in two documentaries, two biographies and a feature film. The feature film has been directed by Israel born film director Ariel Vromen and stars the superb Michael Shannon as Richie Kuklinski an actor that I have much admired since his appearance as Peter Evens in William Friedkin's horror/thriller Bug in 2006 a part he incidentally played in the play of the same name, described as ‘probing the blurry lines between paranoia and nightmarish reality, an intense mind bending psychological thriller.’ 

 

How many people did they kill between them?

Based on the book The Iceman: The True Story of a Cold Blooded Killer by Anthony Bruno and the documentary The Iceman Tapes: Conversations with a Killer by James Thebaut the story of The Iceman (2012) starts around 1992 when we witness a heavily bearded man in what appears to be a prison where an unseen interviewer asks the question "Mr Kuklinski do you have regrets for the things you have done in your life?"  Before he can answer we are taken back to the 24th April 1964, Jersey City, New Jersey and Richie Kuklinski is seated at a table in a restaurant opposite his future wife Deborah (Winona Ryder). Within 10 years he has two children, a big house in a decent neighbourhood and became, unbeknown to his family, a professional killer for Roy DeMeo (Ray Liotta) a member of the Gambino family who leads a gang suspected by the FBI of murdering between 100 and 200 people between 1973 and 1983. Its when Kuklinski’s killing spree connects with an ice cream van driver and fellow hit man called Mr Freezy (played by Captain America himself Chris Evans) that the bodies really seem to mount up, freezing to obscure the time of death and then months later dismembering them as a method of disposing of their victims.

 

The Iceman and Mr Freezy join forces.

I don’t think it’s a spoiler when I tell you that Richie Kuklinski was sentenced to two life sentences and thereafter never saw his family again! In 2006 aged 70 he died in Trenton State Prison New Jersey coincidently just before he was scheduled to testify at the trial of a Gambino family underboss.  Its Shannon’s performance as one of the most prolific contact killers in American history that really carries this film and makes it a genuinely good reason to see it but I must say that the role would have benefitted from a little more in-depth character study.

Killing Them Softly.

Since I’ve only recently seen the class act that is Pulp Fiction (1994) I am able to confirm that Killing Them Softly (2012) appears heavily influenced by the Tarantino film? Its about a hit man Jackie Cogan (Brad Pit) as brutal and matter of fact as either Vince or Jules. The story is driven by dialogue that is only interrupted by bouts of gross violence that’s inflicted on some poor sole. Recognize the template?

Hit man Jackie Cogan.

Andrew Dominik set his film in 2008 at a time when America embarked on a transitional stage in its history. It was a period when the collapse of the Banks was rattling the very bedrock of America’s capitalist system and an African American called Barack Obama was competing with George W Bush in an electoral campaign to become the first black President of the most powerful country on earth. Dominik is a New Zealand born Australian who has already directed two award-winning movies, Chopper (2000) and his first collaboration with Brad Pit, The Assassination of Jessie James by the Coward Robert Ford (2007).

Russell and Frankie.

Based on the 1974 novel Cogan’s Trade by George V. Higgins, Killing Them Softly is a neo noir crime drama where a local mobster Johnny ‘Squirrel’ Amato (Vincent Curatola) employs Frankie (Scoot McNairy), a low life thug who is just out of prison, and his friend Russell (Ben Mendelsohn), an unstable petty criminal whose addicted to heroin, to hold up and rob an illegal card game. Markie Trattman (Ray Liotta) has already robbed his own game previously, and although the local Mafia knows he did it, he was never punished.  Which is the reason Squirrel thinks they can get away with it, banking on the fact that the crime bosses will think Markie’s at it again. When the truth comes out Jackie Cogan is employed by the mobs agent Driver (Richard Jenkins) to carry out retribution on those deemed responsible for the robbery.

Jackie chews the fat with fellow hit man Mickey (James Gandolfini) 

As he did with Jessie James, Pit fits the part of cool hit man like a glove. The slow motion killing scene of a driver in a car against the soundtrack of Ketty Lester’s Love Letters (a single I still play on my Juke Box) is extremely well done, as is in fact the whole of this politically tinged film. I must give a special mention to Francine Maisler who was responsible for assembling such a great cast. Mr Dominik confirms his filmmaking abilities with his CV getting better and better.