- October 27, 2023
‘Killers of the Flower Moon’ movie review: Martin Scorsese’s slow-burn look at the troubling birth of enterprise is frustratingly opaque
Leonardo DiCaprio in ‘Killers of the Flower Moon’
| Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
Let me say straight away and be damned for blasphemy. Three and a half hours is too long to tell this story of the cruelties visited upon indigenous people as a result of white men’s greed. On the other hand, three-and-a-half hours is too less a time to exculpate the systemic slaughter of a civilisation.
Martin Scorsese, who has given us so many searing portraits of crime, wealth, family, love, brotherhood, violence and redemption, is in familiar territory with his frequent collaborators — Leonardo DiCaprio and Robert De Niro — in this handsome production.
The film is based on the American journalist David Grann’s 2017 non-fiction book, Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI. It isabout the investigation into the murders of Osage People in the 1920s after oil was discovered in their land.
Killers of the Flower Moon (English)
Director: Martin Scorsese
Cast: Leonardo DiCaprio, Robert De Niro, Lily Gladstone, Jesse Plemons, Tantoo Cardinal, John Lithgow, Brendan Fraser, Cara Jade Myers, JaNae Collins, Jillian Dion
Runtime: 206 minutes
Storyline: The investigation of the murders of the Osage People in Oklahoma in the 1920s and the greed that fuelled it
The film opens with Ernest Burkhart (Leonardo DiCaprio) returning from World War I with a busted gut and not much else. He returns to his uncle William King Hale’s (Robert De Niro) ranch. Hale projects himself as a friend of the Osage but has a cunning plan of murder and theft.
He tells Ernest to court Mollie (Lily Gladstone) whose family, comprising her mother, Lizzie (Tantoo Cardinal), and sisters, Anna (Cara Jade Myers), Rita (JaNae Collins) and Minnie (Jillian Dion), own oil headrights.
Apart from a spot of armed robbery, Ernest drives a cab and upon Hale’s prompting, a tentative friendship blooms between Mollie and Ernest which progresses to marriage and three children.
With more and more Osage People meeting mysterious deaths, and the local law enforcement not doing much, the people make a representation in Washington DC. When that is met with threats and violence, Mollie though weak from diabetes, meets the President, Calvin Coolidge. Finally, The Bureau of Investigation (BOI) sends Agent Thomas Bruce White Sr. (Jesse Plemons) to look into the deaths.
There is a court case where Hale’s attorney, W. S. Hamilton (Brendan Fraser), crosses words with Prosecutor Peter Leaward (John Lithgow) and a kind of justice is meted out.
A still from ‘Killers of the Flower Moon’
| Photo Credit:
Special Arrangement
Killers of the Flower Moon is beautifully shot and scored (lovely bluesy 1920s music and native American songs). There is a seductive richness to the production designn—nfrom the lamps to the curtains and crockery, they are all exquisite.
The screenplay by Eric Roth and Scorsese has gone for an effective slow-burn with sharp, shocking beats of violence. That epilogue in the form of a radio broadcast was so lovely with all those wonderful sound effects.
On the acting front, DiCaprio, hiding his golden good looks behind bad teeth and hair, aces Ernest as the basically good guy who is rather weak while De Niro has all kinds of fun as the benevolent tough guy Hale. Gladstone brings a breathless dignity to Mollie, while Plemons is in his element as a decent man just doing his job.
Despite its 206-minute running time, Killers of the Flower Moon is opaque about the motivations of the different characters. And whatever little motivation is provided, is for the white characters; the Osage People are all within the noble, simple, suffering template, which is rather frustrating.
Killers of the Flower Moon is currently running in theatres
