Killers of the Flower Moon Review — Sucharita Tyagi
I’ve sat staring at my computer screen, reading articles upon articles about the Oklahoma “Reign Of Terror”, the subject of the book bearing the same name as this movie we’re talking about.
And yet, 50 open tabs later, I still hard to believe that this important part of the history of America, the genocide of indigenous people, has been so well hidden, kept out of popular culture.
The movie begins with a burial scene. A group of devastated Osage people sit in a circle as an elder says a prayer. It takes a moment to realize that what’s being buried isn’t a human but a “pipe.” It takes another beat to understand why the pipe is being buried. It’s because the Osage people have recently been forced by American federal lawmakers from Kansas to what is present-day Oklahoma. However, on-screen, this lament soon turns to unbridled joy as the first oil reserve is discovered on this newly appointed land, making the Osage people suddenly very wealthy.
Also meaning, the white man is coming. “When this money started coming, we should have known it came with something else”, a man observes later.
Sure enough, the town of Fairfax begins to see an influx of white Americans, some looking to work for the wealthy Osage people, while others have more nefarious motives. Capitalism rears its ugly head, and the very wealth that has favored the Osage puts a target on their backs.
This film is seemingly so personal to Scorsese, this time he isn’t just happy with making a cameo, he actually bookends the film, appearing twice. The second one we’ll talk about later, but in the beginning addresses the viewers directly, thanking us for choosing to watch his movie. This here is an 80-year-old man, who hasn’t just made films for 56 years, but has continually changed the way multiple generations interact with cinema. And if HE is coming on with his hands folded, the subject may just be more special than ever before.
So you settle in and hope for the best, your expectations are now higher than they were 5 minutes ago. As a foreigner mostly unaware of the history of the Osage people, I was worried I may not be able to follow and accurately contextualize the events of the movie. Since watching and speaking about it with a few American friends, when I tell you most white Americans THEMSELVES have little to no idea or interest in these tales.
This perhaps was a challenge Scorsese and the legendary screenplay writer Eric Roth saw when adapting David Grann’s book Killers Of The Flower Moon. The years of research that went into the book, could have resulted in a standard 1.5-hour movie set WITHIN a small period of time in this tale. Instead, over nearly 3.5 hours Scorses very slowly, and approachably goes from the discovery of the oil to the convictions many years later when the world found out the extent to which some men had gone to steal the riches of the Osage.
While I’m glad the movie was this long, allowing me enough time to absorb each scene before moving on to the next inciting incident, I did wonder why more of this time wasn’t devoted to Lily Gladstone, who plays Mollie Burkhart, the Osage woman Leonardo Di Caprio’s character Ernest marries, in hopes of stealing her family money, guided by his uncle Bill “King” Hale, played by Robert De Niro. When you meet Lily, the world around her is rapidly evolving. The roads still aren’t paved, but horse carriages are giving way to motor cars. Her community is thriving, jewels, servants, homes, they have it all. As such, Lily is wise to the advances of Ernest, even telling her sisters that she KNOWS he’s after her money, but is attracted to him because he wants to settle down. Her mother, the family matriarch Lizzie chastises her later for marrying a white man. The very wise, smart, woman of a few calculated words Lily gets swindled by two evil men, but the film doesn’t allow her to explain how or justify herself.
Perhaps she has allowed herself to be indoctrinated into believing she, in fact, is “incompetent”, a word she’s forced to use for herself in order to access her own money as according to federal law back in the day, Osage people needed to have white guardians controlling their money, for fear of misuse. Regardless to say, this position of power was the one eventually misused.
We also don’t keep Mollie company when she’s living her Osage life. In a haunting scene, an elder in her family dies and right before they pass, mystical apparitions walk the elder into her afterlife. Mollie’s only acknowledgment of her culture is one moment when she refuses to shut a window during rain, choosing instead to stay silent in respect of the storm. In a voice-over later you hear her talk about the rage in her heart against the men killing her people and looting her land, but the screenplay, not being from HER point of view, doesn’t give her enough room to express or act upon these feelings.
Killers Of The Flower Moon chooses to spend the most time with its biggest movie star Leonardo Dicaprio. Ernest is a World War 1 veteran, with a weakness for women and money. His uncle uses these two traits to orchestrate his big plan of stealing Osage’s money, lacking the foresight to even imagine this snake might have its own tail eventually. Ernest, despite his name, isn’t a sincere person at all. Of a simplistic bent of mind, it’s almost too easy for master manipulator Bill Hale to get him to do his dirty work. Through Ernest and Hale’s relationship, the film shows you how easy the federal government had made it for these white men, to do as they please. Even a simpleton like Ernest could execute and get away with large-scale theft, legally. Regardless, both actors are beyond terrific in their roles. While Hale doesn’t get a whole lot of depth beyond “evil man up to no good”, there’s one mention of being a 32nd-degree mason in a bizarre punishment scene, it’s Ernest whose character changes color with each passing sequence. Leonardo Dicaprio went from his trademark boyish charm to contorting his face into various monstrous expressions over and over. It almost reads like OUR current relationship with ongoing travesties in the world, the casteism, sexism, and queerphobia WE see around us and choose to ignore, doing just ENOUGH to not feel guilty about our lack of participation in revolutions. Are all now just idiots, being puppeteer by smart and wicked people into doing their bidding, while being not just useless but actively harmful to the causes we claim to care about?
The film WANTS its audience to feel this guilt, the long run time makes sure of it, master editor Thelma Schoonmaker, cinematographer Rodrigo Prieto and composer Robbie Robertson, ensuring your attention doesn’t waver. At one point Hale says to Ernest, this is going to be another common tragedy tomorrow, people will forget because people don’t care. Seeing where we are in the world right now, with wars and genocides unfolding in multiple communities and countries, are we not complicit in looking the other way? Are we not these people too? When Jesse Plemons shows up as a Washington DC appointed officer investigating the Osage murders, you almost breathe a sigh of relief. NOW the bad things will stop, someone ELSE is here to take care of it, I can just go back to watching like a supporting spectator.
Perhaps to drive THIS emotion home, the movie chose to follow Ernest rather than Mollie, an easily manipulated man we can see ourselves reflected in.
And lest you forget, ALL these people on your screen, nearly every last one was real person, doing the very things you’re seeing, Scorsese again pulls you up for treating stories like these are just “true crime”. During a radio show recording, an announcer categorizes it as “true crime” Scorsese shows up again, reading from a piece of paper an obituary that highlights what happened in the court cases against Hale and the like. This movie is straight away a cinematic masterpiece, one of Scorsese’s best, most moving works. Don’t let the duration or the lack of familiarity with the story deter you from watching this weekend.
