'Running with the Devil' focuses primarily on a gritty drug trade narrative, with character roles and plot developments driven by story needs rather than identity checklists. There’s little evidence of forced representation or narrative sacrifice for ideological messaging. The lead characters (mostly male) fit genre archetypes and display realistic flaws.

The film does not take aim at traditional values or institutions. Masculinity, family, and morality are explored in the context you'd expect from a crime thriller, messy, complex, and thematically neutral. There’s no soapbox preaching or subversion of cultural cornerstones present here.

Alternative worldviews are present as part of the criminal and law enforcement settings, with no heavy-handed villainization of dissenting perspectives. The film avoids stereotyping by sticking to genre conventions, not modern ideological narratives.