I think you got some things wrong here, plus a few things that deserve some additional explanation.
What you forget is that Bob explains to Eric before he pulls out his gun and shoots him without hesitation, is that he never was intimidated by Eric because he knew he was a phony full of hot air who had never killed Richie because he himself killed Richie.
Yes, Bob knew that Eric's claim to being a tough guy (the Richie Wheelan murder) was phony. But as Bob explains to Nadia after killing Eric is that guys like him will never stop bullying and taking from you unless you make them stop. In this regard, Bob was almost certainly more concerned about the substantial ongoing threat that Eric posed to Nadia and Rocco than the threat Eric posed to himself.
What would happen is Bob pulled the gun and told Eric to get out? Eric would kill the dog, hurt Nadia, and might even lay in wait to kill Bob, just to get back at him. You seem to dismiss that this guy broke into Bob's house and put the umbrella in Rocco's crate, a clear threat that he could come in anytime and do whatever he wanted to Rocco, and was committing armed robbery on Bob. You act like just because Eric didn't actually kill Richie that Eric didn't pose any threat to Bob, Rocco, or Nadia, when clearly he did.
But Marv thought Eric killed Richie and Marv thought Bob was unnerved by Richie. Why did Marv think that? Because Bob acted that way around him.
Marv didn't think that Eric killed Richie; Marv knew that Bob killed Richie because Marv ordered Bob to do it. At the very beginning of the film, after the toast in the bar to Richie, Marv talks to Bob about it and says, "and I bet you paid for it, too." This is Marv acknowledging that Bob paid for the drinks because of his sense of responsibility for Richie's murder.
The scene where Marv tells Eric that the whole situation with the dog is making Bob nervous is Marv's way of telling Eric that Bob isn't someone to mess with without saying outright that he knows it was Bob who killed Richie, not Eric.
If you watch the movie again, you'll see that Marv chooses his words carefully and always says that Eric
claims to have killed Richie. He never says, "Eric is the guy who killed Richie," like someone who believed Eric's claim would.
But Bob was acting that way because he was acting.
Bob set up Eric from the start. He could have stood up to him the first time they had an encounter and scared the hell out of him.
Maybe that's what you think Bob should've done, but that isn't Bob's way. Bob will do just about anything to avoid confrontation. Everything about Bob says that he wants to lay low and blend into the background. He doesn't act scared of Eric -- his character keeps that wounded monotone expression pretty much all the time, with only subtle variation. Acting all tough to "scare" Eric off is the exact opposite of what Bob would do; that's the type of thing that Eric would do, not Bob.
The fact that Bob doesn't try to scare Eric off isn't an indication that Bob is "setting up" Eric.
Yes, he gave Eric the $10,000, but he also had a gun hidden. It was a set up. He wanted to kill Eric. He probably hated him for cashing in on killing Richie.
What a total misread.
Bob would've been perfectly content to give Eric the money -- in the morning, as agreed, not at the bar -- in exchange for the pet chip registration. In Bob's view, that would be the end of it.
But when Eric fails to show, Bob puts two and two together. He strongly suspects that Marv is going to have someone steal the drop, and he suspects Eric might be that guy. He brings the money, in case he can still do the agreed-to exchange for the chip registration, and he also brings a gun to be ready to deal with the theft of the drop.
How is it possibly a setup when Eric is the one who comes to steal the drop? How on earth did Bob arrange for that?
But when Eric shows up at the bar, with a gun and with Nadia as his captive, and wants to steal the drop, he forces Bob's hand. Bob brought the gun only to use in case he got pushed into that last corner, and Eric did that in a huge way -- refusing to turn over the chip registration (making him a continuing threat to Rocco), kidnapping Nadia (making him a threat to the woman he cares most about), and attempting to steal the drop (which if Bob allowed would mean death from the Chechans), in addition to the obvious threat of pointing a gun at him. Yet this is somehow Bob setting up Eric?
Why he may have been stalking him and only 'rescued' Rocco because he knew that Eric had thrown him away.
Wow. What an invented fantasy to justify your opinion of Bob. Nothing in the film supports this, and everything in the film suggests the opposite of this.
The scene of Bob finding Rocco is Bob just walking by on his way home from the bar. The scene even shows the camera looking at Bob a couple of times from around a corner, suggesting that it is Eric secretly watching Bob discover Rocco, which is necessary from a plot standpoint to justify Eric knowing that Bob found the dog so that he can threaten him later.
What I insinuate from all this is that Eric's plan was for Nadia to find the dog and take care of the dog that he couldn't handle, but Bob found him first.
Your version is just absurd.
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KutWrite (1220)
7 years ago
Well said.
I had the same thought about Eric leaving Rocco in that particular trash can on purpose. One way or another it would be a tie to bring Eric back into Nadia's life - he would think that way, anyway.
I also thought that Marv was using Eric to try to bring Bob into the robbery. Bob had served well in the Whelan situation back when. Remember? In the scene right before, Marv tells Eric he might be able to help him. I figured Eric asking for $10k would bring Bob to Marv asking for help. Marv would tell him there's a way he could quickly earn the $10k, i.e. rob the drop for Marv.
Marv had a plastic sheet ready in the trunk. Eric was already doomed, just not in the way Marv had planned.
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