'Killing Them Softly' stays alive, relevant
By Daniel Klain | April 9Much content has been written recently reviewing and discussing films like “Outbreak” (1995) and “Contagion” (2011). In times like these, it is intriguing to hypothetically compare and contrast pop culture’s depictions of our environment to our actual situation. Seeing if artists had the foresight to predict what was coming, not just culturally, but also politically and technologically, has this large cultural appeal. We prop up these works of art for their ability to capture the future, praising them for their accuracy. The articles we currently see are just a mutation of a long-running trend about “How x is the thing that properly describes our time now.” These films typically take strong stances on grand topics such as race, technology, wealth and constructs of division and power in the United States. If a film is able to depict our time, it's equally comforting and discomforting, giving us relief because we can tell ourselves that we, the viewer, saw this coming, but at the same time, it's terrifying because it makes the fictional suddenly very real.
