Killers Of The Flower Moon (2023)
SHOULD I SEE IT?
YES
One of the most anticipated films of 2023, Killers of the Flower Moon is a major awards contender people will be talking about for a long time to come.
Lily Gladstone. Alongside Leonardo DiCaprio and Robert De Niro, the talented actor holds her own and is the film’s heart and soul with a stunning, powerhouse performance. Gladstone is not a secret anymore.
The film is a technical marvel, masterful in how Scorsese and long-time editor Thelma Schoonmaker do not waste a moment of its 206-minute running time, bringing forth a disgraceful moment of American history we all need to know.
NO
Though we will binge-watch shows over the course of an entire weekend which prove much longer, the words “206-minute movie” strikes fear in the most well-intentioned of moviegoers. If you are not engaged here early on, I imagine this will feel like one exceptionally long time at the movies.
The question remains - when compared to the source material and the film’s adaptation - did Martin Scorsese take the microphone away from those who should truly be telling this story?
This is a tough watch thematically, both because of the subject matter and the suffering of Indigenous and Native Peoples so prominent in the film. For those sensitive to this subject matter, please proceed with caution.
OUR REVIEW
One reality of American history is that we have seemingly had a problem when non-white people acquire wealth. Presently, the wealth gap between whites and Persons of Color continues to widen. A recent study by the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis indicates that while white college-educated individuals see greater opportunity to amass wealth through higher life-time earnings and economic potential, Black and Brown college-educated individuals see their wealth decrease over time. Black and Brown individuals are also increasingly likely to financially support their families, whereas white individuals generally are able to provide and receive support and assistance at greater levels.
I mention this because Martin Scorsese’s new film, Killers of the Flower Moon, a 206-minute adaptation of David Grann’s 2017 book of the same name, looks this reality squarely in the eyes. To set the scene, near the turn of the 20th century, circa 1897, Osage Native Americans, in what would later be known as Osage County in Oklahoma, found oil on their reservation land. Over the course of the next 20-25 years, the Osage earned immense wealth, supported by the federal government through the distribution of parcels of land to the Osage people. With headrights granted to their respective property holdings, heirs and next of kin were authorized to inherit Osage land if a tribal member were to pass away.
As the Osage became increasingly wealthy, white businessmen descended into the area. When Oklahoma earned statehood in 1907, the Osage were unaware of the fate which would eventually come their way. In 1921, Congress passed a law which required the Osage to have “a mentor” or “guardian” to assist them in managing their financial affairs. These mentors/guardians, basically code for “white men,” eventually exploited the Osage and started finding convenient opportunities to seize land and wealth from the very people they were there to help and protect.
1921 is significant, because in nearby Tulsa, Oklahoma, on June 1, 1921, the Tulsa Massacre took place. On that day, a gang of white men, including politicians and law enforcement, raided the Greenwood District and burned down a Black community dubbed “Black Wall Street.” In total, 36 people were murdered in the attacks and hundreds more were injured. Their community, built from the ground-up, was destroyed and lives were ruined.
The Tulsa Massacre of 1921 overlays with the tragedies that began affecting the Osage Nation that same year.
As Killers of the Flower Moon illustrates, nearly two dozen Osage began dying, some mysteriously and some through obvious signs of murder, in events which would later come to be known as the “Reign of Terror.” In the film, Scorsese and co-writer Eric Roth (Forrest Gump, A Star is Born, Dune), initially set their gaze on Mollie Kyle (Lily Gladstone), a woman who has seen tragedy engulf her family. With her mother passing away and two of her sisters now gone, their respective headrights have been passed on to her. Stoic and steely in her resolve, Mollie keeps pushing forward through pain and sorrow, eventually meeting the newly arriving Ernest Burkhart (Leonardo DiCaprio), who serves as her driver initially and takes an immediate liking to her.
The town is led by philanthropist William Hale (Robert De Niro). Nicknamed “King,” Hale is an opportunist of sorts, but always willing to assist the Osage in anything they need. A new ballet school and dance studio? Done. Float some money over to someone in exchange for consideration of something beneficial to him? Of course. Listen and offer advice? Anytime. Please, take a seat.
Hale is seemingly everywhere all at once. His ubiquity makes him central to the Osage as they struggle with a number of their women falling sick and slowly losing their fight against whatever may be ailing them. Hale matter-of-factly tells Ernest, who is also his nephew, that the Osage sadly seem to not ever live to a ripe old age.
A sprawling American tale of greed, deception and tragedy, with fits and starts of hope and inspiration, Killers of the Flower Moon strives to pay loving tribute to the Osage people. The film embraces an authenticity it needs to engage the viewer. Jack Fisk’s set and production design is painstakingly recreated to the time period and wonderfully complements four-time Oscar winner Jacqueline West’s frequently beautiful costume design.
You can easily get lost in the technical mastery of the film, and much of Scorsese’s film is mesmerizing. Nary a wasted moment exists within these 206 minutes. Seldom boring, you do wonder if the film could have seen a few moments excised for a tighter, more efficient presentation. Yet as it exists, this is a film with a significant number of unforgettable images and moments. De Niro, engaged and the best he has been in years, proves both charming and sinister, intimidating and imposing. He rarely raises his voice, staying tightly wrapped and focused specifically on trying to mask over some very real truths that we are privy to early on with Scorsese and Roth’s adaptation.
Setting a fixed jaw and brandishing a tight, grunting demeanor, DiCaprio reminds us that he is still at or near the top of our finest working actors in the industry. Marrying Mollie soon after they meet, Ernest is split between loyalties between his uncle and his wife; a woman he loves and is starting a family with, even as her health begins to decline.
The takeaway here though is Gladstone, a tremendous actor who is likely not going to remain under the radar for very much longer. Though she says relatively few words within the film, she radiates strength and resolve, even as she becomes afflicted with an illness that seems to infect so many of these Osage women. As Ernest cares for her, treating her existing diabetes with new insulin provided by two white doctors who have been treating the Osage for their medical maladies, Scorsese lets us know things that Grann kept suppressed for a later reveal in his novel. In some ways, it is a bold move to show your cards so obviously, especially relatively early in a three-plus hour historical drama. Then again, Scorsese, at 80 years young, writes his own book on how he tells a story, makes a movie, and approaches his audience.
As Gladstone both wins and breaks our hearts with a stunning, haunting performance, you cannot help but wonder if Scorsese’s approach to telling this story unfortunately takes the microphone away from the Osage Nation. Consultants who worked with the director have recently vocalized a struggle in the shift of narrative focus from the Osage, found with Grann’s book, to essentially that of DiCaprio and De Niro’s characters. In reality, this feels more of a story about a white uncle and nephew, until Gladstone’s Mollie enters a scene and then grounds us back to where our focus properly and rightfully needs to be.
And yet, I am struck by how Scorsese bookends his film. Opening with a newsreel recreation, it is a final sequence which has proven divisive, perhaps by intentionally removing the voice of the Osage from their very own story, Scorsese seeks a bigger point though. Who tells our nation’s history and for what purpose? Is Scorsese himself acknowledging a complicitness by making the movie? Is the director reminding us how tragedy and trauma can be exploited for entertainment? Which further adds this question: Why is a story this significant in our nation’s history going to be new learning for people more than 100 years after it took place?
With his 26th feature film, Scorsese skillfully opens up a dark chapter of American history, reminding us that the ills of the past remain pervasive more than 100 years after the “Reign of Terror.” We are reminded that these stories play a vital role in shaping our understanding of the past and the present. And as the legendary director straddles the line between interpreter and translator for this particular story, he delivers yet another compelling, thoughtful, and unforgettable cinematic experience.
CAST & CREW
Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio, Lily Gladstone, Robert De Niro, Jesse Plemons, Jason Isbell, William Belleau, Tantoo Cardinal, Cara Jade Myers, Tatanka Means, Louis Cancelmi, Scott Shepherd, Yancey Red Corn, Sturgill Simpson, Ty Mitchell, JaNae Collins, Jillian Dion, Tommy Schultz, Steve Witting, Steve Routman, Gene Jones, John Lithgow, Brendan Fraser, Jack White, Charlie Musselwhite, Larry Sellers, Barry Corbin, Pete Yorn
Director: Martin Scorsese
Written by: Martin Scorsese, Eric Roth
Based on the book “Killers of the Flower Moon” by David Grann
Release Date: October 20, 2023
Paramount Pictures