Last time we looked at The Killer—now we look at a recent film with a plural of Killers! This time of the Flower Moon! It’s Martin Scorsese’s latest epic, at three and a bit hours long, so here I see if it justifies the runtime.
I must admit I did blanche for a moment at yet another backside-numbing length, but then again, Scorsese is no stranger to epic films, so there is some retroactive justification here. And I must admit, apart from maybe a few bits near the very end, it was edited well enough that at no point did I feel like I was dithering about here.
The film focuses on the Osage Native American tribe and how what became their benefactor also became a curse of sorts—oil deposits found on their land lead to a surge of wealth for them. What may have come at the cost of a loss of traditional ways, at least allowed for some luxury. However, this still being the early 20th century, racial attitudes of the time lead to a ‘guardian’ system that lead to white ‘companions’ to allow the wealth to be managed—this is something that is somewhat hastily explained, but nevertheless we do quickly segue into the main plot.
Leonardo DiCaprio is Ernest, a former soldier arriving home from World War I, soon finding himself under the thrall of his charismatic and seemingly affable uncle William Hale (Robert DeNiro), who quickly recruits him into a scheme that involves the murder of married Osage so that their oil money may be claimed for his own benefit. Ernest ends up falling in love—genuinely, so he insists, though perhaps not completely—with a well-spoken Osage woman Mollie (Lily Gladstone). Over time, however, Hale’s machinations worsen and get more brazen, while the attention of the outside world soon falls upon the town of Fairfax.
The locations and period setting are done perfectly—we get to know the area and the town as the film goes on, with the touches of the early 1920s setting all feeling too genuine. From vehicles to clothes, from the disparity between the economic classes—and the attitudes of the time are on full display, all too relevant to the plot. Though the Osage command some superficial respect from whites living around them, the resentment is tangible, and we have all the realities of the time from mentions of Tulsa to Klan parades in the open to—in perhaps one of the most memorable scenes—a recreation of a period radio play of the time, with all the tastelessness you can imagine.
Over the course of things, there’s always a sense of something going on, of things about to happen, and the conspiracy getting bolder—for my money, the pacing is definitely better executed than in the Irishman, with little feeling of things being drawn-out in the runtime. From the tribal elders of the Osage to Hale’s henchmen, we’re able to get a feel for the film’s rather wide cast we perhaps otherwise wouldn’t.
Nevertheless, perhaps what flaws I can pick are more to do with what the film doesn’t focus on—Mollie feels like a character whose perspective we could’ve seen more of, with her family being targeted, but Ernest is very definitely our focal point. He does have visible guilt and unease about what he’s doing, but ultimately comes off as a rather dim-witted and easily lead on fellow—perhaps that’s the point. Hale is able to win people over with warm words and familiarity, and eventually, a few vile acts turn into a whole web, with those involved too tangled into it to break free. I suppose you can argue it illustrates all too well how charisma and ill-advised bonds of loyalty can be twisted, and there’s no shortage of examples beyond that.
Later in the film we partly shift perspectives to federal investigators, lead by Jesse Plemons—the original book focused predominantly on him, and the involvement of one J. Edgar Hoover, who had to be essentially bribed for any government intervention to happen at all (the film mentions this, but rather offhandedly). He’s a much easier protagonist to root far, and there is some satirisation to watch the beginnings of a fightback against the murderous cabal in Fairfax—though bittersweet feelings remain, some characters remain beyond redemption, and a memorable cameo from Scorsese himself punctuates that things are never that cleanly resolved.
Overall, despite some minor ambivalence about some of the story choices, I definitely enjoyed Killers of the Flower Moon, moreso than some of Scorsese’s other recent work. There’s strong visual work, performances are no worse than decent and keep you watching along, and the questions of justice still ring true, a century on after the film’s setting. You can take it on that level, or as a tale of how corruption can spread and sink in easier than you realize--and, with the last shots, we do at least have something positive to take with the story of the Osage. For me, it’s a solid entry for 2023.
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