Killers of the Flower Moon (2023)

Engrossing historical epic from Scorsese - Killers of the Flower Moon review by PD

This one's ideal if you're on a long-haul flight or need to kill a rainy Sunday, for you could probably read David Grann’s excellent book about an audacious 1920s conspiracy to steal resources from the Osage people by murder in less time, and you’d also learn a whole lot more about how J. Edgar Hoover and the newly formed FBI used this case to establish their place in American law enforcement.

Granted, this is Martin Scorsese, who has obviously earned the right to tell stories as he wants. The trouble is, at 206 minutes (and it felt like it), the film isn’t an 'epic' so much as a miniseries - if if had been closer to two hours, I have the feeling it would have been a much better film. However, as it is, “Killers” is still a compelling true story, one that Scorsese has thankfully avoided being a standard detective yarn in favour of a more morally thorny look at how the white culprits plotted and carried out murder. It’s engrossing from the start, the palpable tension methodically echoed by Robbie Robertson’s steady-heartbeat score. But it keeps going and going until everyone we care about is dead, dying or behind bars, with nearly an hour still in store.

Scorsese opens on prosperous times for the Osage people, who’d become super-wealthy thanks to the countless oil derricks that cover their bland land, but which made them obvious targets to be exploited. Early on, the director draws a direct line between the Osage Murders and the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre, referenced via old-timey newsreels — both cases in which white supremacists couldn’t stand to see others prosper, counting on a biased legal system to cover their crimes. But this isn’t the story of one murder. Taking a page from “Goodfellas,” Scorsese runs through half a dozen suspicious deaths right upfront, dismissed without investigation. That’s the climate into which DiCaprio’s character, an opportunistic World War I veteran named Ernest Burkhart, moves to Fairfax, Okla., where he soon finds himself participating in the killings. Ernest’s first stop off the train is the place of his uncle William “King” Hale (played by De Niro), who welcomes him to town, glad to have the perfect patsy. Ernest doesn’t realize it, but the scheme is already underway. For it to work, King needs his nephew to marry Mollie Kyle (Lily Gladstone), an Osage woman who’s too sharp not to recognize a gold digger, but too trusting to imagine just how sinister her suitor’s intentions may be. It’s classic Scorsese to present this case from the criminals’ perspective, together with a fascination for corruption, violence and underground dealings, and Grann’s book offers all that, plus an intriguing challenge for DiCaprio, who plasters a gargoyle-worthy frown across his mug for most of the film. Meanwhile, Gladstone is so sympathetic as Mollie, we cringe at every turn as her life is destroyed.

The country’s ambivalence toward Natives makes their job easy, and without bothering much with context, “Killers” illustrates some of the ways the system was designed to defraud them. De Niro lays on the charm, serving as a kind of godfather figure to everyone in Fairfax, but Scorsese's focus in the drawn-out climax is around Ernest: will he protect King to the bitter end, or will he testify against his uncle and maybe save Mollie in the process? The decision comes down to the fate of his children (who somehow got short shrift in the preceding three hours).

For me, the last sections of the film are by far the weakest, which feel rushed by comparison with what went before. And instead of following the courtroom drama to its natural conclusion, we cuts to a Technicolor epilogue, as a Hoover-endorsed radio show summarises what happened. It’s an odd way to wrap a film that’s taken its time thus far, and a reminder that no one is telling Scorsese 'no' — because if this device were an option, it could have kicked in an hour earlier. All in all, however, worth a watch if you've the time and patience!

Epic Tale of Murder & Corruption - Killers of the Flower Moon review by GI

Director Martin Scorsese presents a really remarkable story here that echoes the genocide of Native Americans in a sordid tale of corruption, greed and murder, themes that Scorsese has repeatedly returned to in his films. This is epic in structure and has a quiet, deliberately slow pace that makes it all the more powerful. Based on real events in Oklahoma in the 1920s on the reservation of the Osage tribe who have become rich on the discovery of oil on the land. This brings about a serious anomaly for American culture where the whites are subservient to the wealthier Indians but still operate a control with corrupt laws that forces the Osage to have white financial overseers to control their money. Into this mix returns Ernest (Leonardo DiCaprio), a needy and stupid man, freshly demobbed from the Army, who is given a job by his uncle William (Robert De Niro). William is one of Scorsese's most abhorrent villains, a man of deep resentment of the Osage but to whom he outwardly presents himself as a friend and benefactor all the while plotting to gain their wealth. He manipulates the useless Ernest to court and marry wealthy Mollie (Lily Gladstone), an Osage who along with her family are oil rich, to then control her wealth. Members of the tribe including Molly's family are gradually being murdered with little if any intervention by the local authorities. But eventually the newly formed Bureau of Investigation intervenes to get to the bottom of who is behind the deaths. The scenes of casual murder are shocking, all the more so by them being presented as almost idle chores by the odious white men under William's control. The racism exhibited here is central to the film's message and Scorsese does not hold back on his condemnations and in this I was reminded of the similar power of Mississippi Burning (1988). This true crime drama is a powerful film, a story of the bloody birth of modern America that is quite horrific. DiCaprio is excellent as the easily controlled weapon of De Niro's William Hale. Ernest is a man of complex emotions he cannot understand in himself, he carries out Hale's bidding without compunction but equally appears to really love and care for Mollie. Hale and Ernest' eventual downfall at the hands of the FBI (with Jesse Plemons excellent as the lead agent) is a mix of betrayal and conflicted loyalties. De Niro, DiCaprio and Gladstone are all superb here. An utterly absorbing film despite its length and certainly one of Scorsese's triumphs as a filmmaker.