Directed by Martin Scorsese
Year: 2023
Languages: English, Osage
Shaun’s Score: 4.1/5 ★
Before Watching:
There are some things which just don’t happen in the modern world, despite any amount of gossip to the contrary. The U.S. government doesn’t default on its debt, the Republican Party can’t agree on a Speaker of the House on the first try, and Martin Scorsese won’t make a crappy film.1 His latest epic historical drama Killers of the Flower Moon, clocking in at a whopping 206 minutes (*cough* Wang Bing? *cough*), is no exception, despite its extreme (though not uncharacteristic) length. Scorsese reminds us time and time again that he is still a giant of American cinema, indissoluble from the canonical core that has defined the genre for generations—there’s a reason that Bong Joon Ho quoted him in his Academy Award acceptance speech after besting him in 2019. In adapting his signature gangster drama to the true crime story of the Osage tribe, Scorsese lends his expertise to an underreported stain on American history, shedding light on one chapter of an epidemic of racialized killings that persists to this day.
The film is adapted from the 2017 novel of the same name by David Grann, centered on the string of (largely uninvestigated) murders in the Osage Nation2 of Oklahoma during the 1920s. William King Hale (the ageless Robert De Niro), a prominent white cattle rancher known as the “King of the Osage Hills” for being a benefactor of the Osage Nation, takes in his nephew Ernest Burkhart (the ageless-girlfriend-having Leonardo DiCaprio) after his return from World War I. Burkhart, working as a chauffeur for the Osage, kindles a romance with oil headrights-owning tribe member Mollie Kyle (a spellbinding Lily Gladstone). As their relationship blossoms into marriage, an increasing number of Osage are killed in gruesome murders, including members of Mollie’s own family.
Say what you want about honorary Marvel supervillain Martin Scorsese, but he knows how to cast a motion picture.3 De Niro (in his tenth collaboration with Scorsese) is almost as transcendent as he was back in Casino (1995) and Raging Bull (1980), which isn’t bad for an octogenarian. Gladstone and DiCaprio deliver a chemistry that is all the more amazing considering Gladstone is above the age of 25; they perform with the emotional intensity required to tell this harrowing story—notwithstanding another annoying DiCaprio accent.4 The film manages to not feel 3.5 hours long thanks to Scorsese’s veteran pacing and narrative skills, even as the script is padded with an unusual amount of silence. This silence, alongside the plot’s somber meter, is its own creative decision to highlight the dry silence in this history—how many stories went untold, how many wrongs went unrighted. Strung together by a non-diegetic drum pulse, the narrative is cunning and impactful—it is quintessential Scorsese, while sidestepping the cocaine-fueled frantic gait of Goodfellas (1990) and The Wolf of Wall Street (2013). Just as Wolf revels in the carnage and depravity of pre-crisis finance and The Color of Money (1986) throbs with the toxicity of professional billiards, Killers doesn’t spare the audience any exposure to the horrors of the Osage’s plight and sinks its teeth right into the violence.
Listen, I understand that not everyone can stay awake for a film longer than the SATs. The Economist’s news podcast The Intelligence recently ran a story about how perhaps cinemas should reinstate intermissions because blockbusters are ballooning in length to combat streaming successes. But Scorsese hasn’t just struck gold here, he’s struck oil—seamlessly refining differing genres into a blend of horror, action, mystery, and even courtroom processional (eat your heart out, Anatomy of a Fall). The acting is among the year’s best, and the production’s artistic choices bring the power plays to a higher dimension that can only be experienced once in a blue (flower) moon.
Killers of the Flower Moon premiered Out of Competition at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival. It is now available in theaters worldwide. The film is set to be released on Apple TV+.
After Watching:
He may have been in Goodfellas, but De Niro is certainly no goodfella here. Unlike the book, the film doesn’t leave any room for suspense in discovering who’s behind the atrocities; while a tad disappointing, this is forgivable given the restrictions of the format. DiCaprio (at age 48) is significantly older than the real Ernest was during these events, but his aged visage adds to the character’s emotional gravity and furrowed brow more than it detracts. Still, Leo is the weak link in the cast that is led by Gladstone.
The film skillfully highlights the Osage’s subversive ownership of their identity and empire even in embattled times—Henry responding the land is “my land”, Mollie responding her skin is “my color”, all while they’re tangled in guardianships and justice system red tape. I do wish the film had spent a tad more gas on the political impact of these investigations on the fledgling institution of the FBI5 (as hinted in the book’s full title, Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI) and less time on the possible redemption of Ernest in the final act, but I also acknowledge that cramming dense bureaucratic drama in after the action has already subsided is what made Oppenheimer feel so long. Adding too much law and order might have turned this film into Paw Petrol-ium.
Finally, Killers of the Flower Moon is also notable for its multimedia framing of history. We hear the prologue of the Osage through Ernest’s history book, through Mollie’s voiceover, through King’s stories, and we hear the epilogue brought to life through a radio play with Scorsese himself nabbing the last word. America has ignored and suppressed this history for too long, and now DiCaprio is showing us exactly what those who benefitted from these tragedies have long entreated the public to do: Don’t Look Up (these murders in the news).
Well, I mean The Irishman was fine I guess. And I was not thrilled by Shutter Island. But otherwise!
The world’s wealthiest population per capita for a period, after the discovery of oil on their land.
At least he isn’t playing Benoit Blanc… *shudders*