Killers of the Flower Moon
Martin Scorsese’s overlong, long-awaited historical epic reminds one of the power of cinema.
Oil’s well: Leonardo DiCaprio and Lily Gladstone
The ‘Flower Moon’ is the name that the Native Americans gave the full moon of May, heralding the burst of floral life with the coming of Spring. It was then, in 1918, and for many years afterwards, that members of the Osage nation were murdered, after oil was discovered on their land and making them, per capita, the richest people on earth. The fact that the murders were never investigated caused mounting apprehension among the Osage, many of whom had married into white families, perhaps with ulterior motives.
Any film from Martin Scorsese comes with enormous expectations. And more often than not they are warranted. As soon as his Killers of the Flower Moon begins, one is reminded of the power of superlative filmmaking, and most of his aesthetic choices here are exemplary. The sets, production design, locations, editing, cinematography, camera moves and costume design are all top-notch, as is the subliminally foreboding drumbeat of the late Robbie Robertson’s score (to whom the movie is dedicated). But perhaps the heart of the film belongs to Lily Gladstone, whose beauty, serenity and inner strength propels the drama’s emotional undercurrent. Having grown up on a Blackfeet reservation herself, Gladstone is now being tipped for a best actress Oscar, a trophy that will make history. If, or hopefully when, she receives that honour, it should bring joy to the family of Sacheen Littlefeather, the latter who stepped up to the stage in Los Angeles to decline Marlon Brando’s Oscar for The Godfather, which he turned down in objection to Hollywood’s treatment of the Native American on screen. The year was 1973, when Scorsese first directed Robert De Niro, in Mean Streets.
Robert De Niro has done much of his best work for Scorsese, winning the best actor Academy Award for the director’s Raging Bull in 1980. Killers of the Flower Moon is their tenth picture together, although De Niro’s performance here is just that – a performance. Lily Gladstone seems far more of an actual human being than De Niro’s cattle baron William King Hale, a figure of sleazy bonhomie with the actor’s now trademark fixed grimace. Likewise, Leonardo DiCaprio, as Hale’s nephew Ernest Burkhart, is caught acting, his clenched jaw and active eyebrows doing much of the heavy lifting. He, too, is a Scorsese regular, this being their sixth collaboration. So, when Jesse Plemons turns up as a newly assigned member of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, his measured understatement is a welcome counterpoint to the thespian histrionics of his co-stars.
Even so, as performers, DiCaprio and De Niro are Titans of their craft, bringing a menace to their characters that blusters with indignant self-justification. At one point, Ernest earnestly declares that he loves money as much as he loves his wife, and one senses that he actually believes it, even if his actions might speak otherwise. The tragedy is that a part of Ernest thinks that he is really a good husband, and that his wealthy Osage wife is worthy of his compassion in spite of all her “Indian horseshit”.
As “her kind” are ravaged by type-2 diabetes and alcoholism, the white man thinks they can save her with their modern medicine, even as the Osage cling to the benefits of the natural world that has kept their people healthy and robust for millennia. The genocide of the Native American is still a polemic seldom broached by Hollywood, in spite of estimates that the white invaders were responsible for the extermination of 55 million men, women and children. In light of this, last week’s rejection of a referendum in Australia to permit an Aboriginal advisory body to the government (for fear of “privileging one group over others”) seems unimaginable. Killers of the Flower Moon goes some way in shedding light on a shameful passage of American history. But its challenging length, which could easily have been shortened by 45 minutes, may prove a stumbling block for many modern audiences.
JAMES CAMERON-WILSON
Cast: Leonardo DiCaprio, Robert De Niro, Lily Gladstone, Jesse Plemons, Tantoo Cardinal, John Lithgow, Brendan Fraser, Cara Jade Myers, JaNae Collins, Jillian Dion, Jason Isbell, William Belleau, Louis Cancelmi, Scott Shepherd, Everett Waller, Talee Redcorn, Yancey Red Corn, Tatanka Means, Tommy Schultz, Sturgill Simpson, Ty Mitchell, Gary Basaraba, Pat Healy, Steve Witting, Steve Routman, Jack White, Pete Yorn, Barry Corbin, Elden Henson, Katherine Willis, Martin Scorsese.
Dir Martin Scorsese, Pro Dan Friedkin, Bradley Thomas, Martin Scorsese and Daniel Lupi, Ex Pro Leonardo DiCaprio and Rick Yorn, Screenplay Eric Roth and Martin Scorsese, Ph Rodrigo Prieto, Pro Des Jack Fisk, Ed Thelma Schoonmaker, Music Robbie Robertson, Costumes Jacqueline West, Dialect coach Tim Monich.
Apple Studios/Imperative Entertainment/Sikelia Productions/Appian Way Productions-Paramount Pictures.
205 mins. USA. 2023. UK and US Rel: 20 October 2023. Cert. 15.
