Killers of the Flower Moon (2023)

Killers-of-the-Flower-Moon-(2023)
Killers of the Flower Moon (2023)

Killers of the Flower Moon

“Can you see the wolves in this picture,” says Ernest Burkhardt (played by Leonardo DiCaprio) as he flips through a children’s book at the start of Martin Scorsese’s “Killers of the Flower Moon.” They’re not really hidden and they won’t be in the movie that follows, an immaculately researched historical drama about monstrosity operating in plain sight. One of the scariest aspects of Scorsese’s ambitious adaptation of David Grann’s nonfiction bestseller is how little it leaves to the imagination. It’s about men who treated murder as a matter of routine, ordering hits like drinks at a bar. Scorsese walks this line between telling a very specific story about a couple at the center of a tragedy and saying something about evil itself, something not inherent but ambient. And these wolves do not stop to think twice that what they are doing might be wrong so long as it ends up making them rich.

Pushed onto presumed wasteland around Oklahoma at the turn of the 20th century, after being forced to abandon their property time and again throughout history, only to see it taken from them every time only to become heirs presumptive to oil wealth overnight and become richest per capita among groups in America members of the Osage Nation had every right to believe they’d seen it all. But this was something different.

Once just cattle thieves themselves, white people were now stealing land from under Indians’ feet for cattle that weren’t even theirs, once just cattle thieves themselves, white people were now stealing land from under other white people’s feet for oil that wasn’t even theirs; once just cattle thieves themselves, white people were now employing other Indians to steal land back from Indians for oil that belonged neither to whites nor those other Indians: This was Osage County.

Hale could sense easily manipulated prey when he saw it, his nephew Ernest had just come back from the war, and he was ready to fight. He starts by driving around wealthy Osage, it leads him to Mollie (played by Lily Gladstone). They get married, and then Mollie’s family starts getting killed. Anna (Cara Jade Myers), Mollie’s sister, who’s married to Bryan (Scott Shepherd), Ernest’s brother, is found shot by a creek on the same day as another Osage Nation man is shot.

Mollie loses a sister to something called “Wasting Disease.” Then she finds out she has diabetes. It also may not end well.

Ernest, Mollie, and Hale are the center of Eric Roth & Scorsese’s script. But this historical drama is populated by many other unforgettable characters and familiar faces, including Jesse Plemons as a BOI agent leading the investigation into the Osage murders, John Lithgow and Brendan Fraser as dueling attorneys in the case, Tantoo Cardinal as Mollie’s mother, and a fascinating array of musicians turned actors that include Charlie Musselwhite, Sturgill Simpson, Pete Yorn, Jack White, and a memorable Jason Isbell who has a juicy role as Bill Smith, an Ernest brother-in-law who could be trouble.

“Killers of the Flower Moon” may not be his traditional gangster picture but it’s completely in line with the stories of corrupt violent men he’s been telling for fifty years. And yet there is also an elder statesman quality to Scorsese here it feels like he’s using this horrifying true story to ask how we got here one hundred years later. How did we let blood grow into the soil of this country? Scorsese and Roth took a book that is essentially about the formation of the F.B.I. via investigation into the Osage murders and shifted storytelling to a more personal perspective for both Mollie and Ernest. Through their story, it’s not just about injustice but reveals how much it was built into wealth creation in this country. It hums with commentary on how this kind of casual violence against people deemed lesser was at least part of what underpinned a century of horror. The references to Tulsa Massacre or KKK aren’t incidental they’re connected to everything else: people subjugate because they can.

And his visions don’t work without his team of collaborators. Rodrigo Prieto’s camera work can be sweeping when capturing vast territory like Osage Nation but also intense with sweaty close-up shots if need be. Robbie Robertson’s throbbing score is practically a character itself, giving the movie a pulse that adds to its already considerable running time. This story wouldn’t have anything close to the same momentum with a traditional classical score. Finally, Thelma Schoonmaker is part of what makes Scorsese a rhythm director, and “Killers of the Flower Moon” will stand as one of her most notable accomplishments some may crack wise about editing on longest Scorsese film but think about this multi year saga and how deftly she helps us pace the final piece, pushing us through our nation’s violent history without ever losing track of this crazy story.

When it comes to performance, there’s a certain amount of power just in seeing Scorsese’s two muses play off each other again for the first time since “This Boy’s Life” as De Niro and DiCaprio feed off each other in what is essentially another story about an abusive father. But this will be Gladstone’s movie for most people. The standout from “Certain Women” knows how to play this part, never tipping into melodrama and always staying rooted in the truth of the moment rather than serving as a stand-in for all Indigenous victims. There are moments where it feels like “Killers of the Flower Moon” could veer into a wider political statement, but the performances, especially Gladstone’s, keep it at being about character. That whole ensemble gets this aspect, playing the reality of the situation instead of treating it like a history lesson. Mollie Burkhardt didn’t know her saga would help found the FBI or shine a light on injustice 100 years later she just wanted to survive and love like so many who had those basic human rights stolen from them.

Ultimately, “Killers of the Flower Moon” is like a puzzle every piece does its part to make up the whole picture, when you put it together, it’s depressingly easy to see who were wolves among us. The question now becomes once we find them?

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