And I’m not referring to the movie’s length.
(Note: No spoilers here but some of the links provided below do indeed provide plot details.)
Yes, it’s three-and-a half hours long without intermission.
“Killers of the Flower Moon”, directed by Martin Scorsese, is the until-recently untold story of the Osage Nation murders in 1920s Oklahoma. The movie focuses on three main characters, played by Robert DeNiro, Leonardo DiCaprio and Lily Gladstone, although “it underplays the extent” of the murders.
More than 2,000 Osage Nation members became extremely wealthy when oil was struck on their land. This led to outsiders (white men) swooping in and marrying their way into these inheritances (“headrights”), robbing them or outright killing them.
Sometimes all of the above.
Almost inevitably, the film is receiving mixed reaction from indigenous peoples despite Scorsese having worked directly with surviving Osage Nation members.
I really liked the movie. Yes, it’s loooong, but it seemed to me necessary in order to tell the story in the scope in which it needed to be told.
DeNiro is DeNiro. He’s not phoning it in here like this is “Meet The Fockers 4”. This is full-on DeNiro as William Hale, a true-life political boss and crime lord who enlists his nephews, Ernest Burkhart (DiCaprio) and his brother Byron ‘Bryan’ Burkhart (Scott Shepherd) to marry Osage women and to carry out crimes, intimidate others to follow suit and lay claim to Osage headrights.
The movie depicts the murders of Osage tribe members and the apathy of the federal government to do anything about them. The newly-formed Bureau of Investigation (later to become the FBI) finally decides to look into it and while they do eventually close the case, the governemnt manipulated how the story was told by either omitting or distorting what really happened which is exemplified by the movie’s ending.
Look for surprising cameos from this guy, this guy and this guy. And while not a cameo as he has a pretty prominent role, musician Jason Isbell does a great job in his first-ever acting gig up against some A-list Hollywood heavyweights.
This is a film worth seeing for the performances, for the cinematography, for Scorsese’s directorial moves…but mainly for the story of the Osage Nation and what really happened to them a century ago in Oklahoma.
“Killers” has Oscar stank all over it.
I give it four-and-a-half Congress Avenue Bats out of five.
