If you are familiar with the film, which was formerly titled Cogan's Trade, then you're aware that it's the third movie from writer-director Andrew Dominik.  The Australian auteur made a big impression with his outrageous debut, Chopper, which he followed up with the magnificent, elegiac The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford.

After those two wildly different movies, Dominik is taking on modern crime in the USA, and based on the almost-universally positive word from the Cannes Film Festival in May, Killing Them Softly is no mere stylish crime story.  Instead, it's apparently an insightful commentary on the state of our national mindset, political, economics, and ruthless Darwinian impulses.  All that is alluded to in this amazing trailer, which also incorporates Johnny Cash's "When the Man Comes Around," a song scientifically proven to add value to any piece of visual entertainment.

The full theatrical trailer debuted on The Huffington Post, so we extend a thanks in that direction.

Based on the George V. Higgins novel Cogan's Trade, Killing Them Softly is built around a fundamentally misguided robbery during a mob-protected high stakes card game.  In order to sort it all out in the heist's aftermath, interested parties bring in Jackie Cogan, an enforcer played by Pitt, to find the guys responsible and make them pay.

Despite his prominence here, Pitt's one part of an ensemble that includes Scoot McNairy, Richard Jenkins, Ben Mendelsohn, Garret Dillahunt, Ray Liotta, James Gandolfini, Sam Shepard, Max Casella, and Trevor Long.

Get excited now because Killing Them Softly arrives in theaters on October 19th.