MovieChat Forums > Den of Thieves (2018) Discussion > Just now watching this for the first tim...

Just now watching this for the first time here and don't get this part

posted 3 years ago by Jehosaphet (1055)
2 replies | jump to latest

When the cop (Butler) intrudes on the thieve's dinner at the restaurant, going out of his way to stir up shit with his talk about kicking their lazy asses in high school football or whatever, trying to pick some sort of fight.
What the hell was he doing there? Why say anything at all, let alone draw suspicion to his informant like that?

The machismo in this movie is ratcheted up to 11, its hard enough to watch with the continuous stream of dick-swinging dialogue without constantly cringing, but this display just makes zero sense. The idea of this guy being a cop is already so far fetched as to be silly, but for him to intentionally antagonize these guys while surely knowing full well he's putting his informant at risk?

Butler's character is so unlikable that I don't know who to root for, but this was just some outrageous tom foolery...wth was this about?

[–] mobocracy (845) 2 years ago

I just watched this again. Butler and his cop crew are almost more peckerwood than the robbery crew. And they’re so style conscious it’s kind of painful.

[–] [deleted] 2 years ago

It has been awhile since I watched this but iirc that was the point.

Both the cops and the gang have their vices and virtues.

A lot of people compared this to Heat because of the similar themes. In that movie De Niro's crew are intensely loyal to each other, while Pacino's cop was not above using some skeezy tactics to hunt them down.