Martin Scorsese is back with his next long (3 1/2 hour) character piece with Killers of the Flower Moon. The film is adapted from the book Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI. The based on true events story follows the events in the early 1920s with a string of murders of the Osage in Oklahoma. This previously untold story was chronicled in the book by a then-journalist from the point of view of the FBI agent who investigated the events. Scorsese made a point before the film to acknowledge the importance and influence of the Osage in the telling of this story and his adaptation of the story for the film.
In the 1920s, members of the Osage Native American tribe of Osage County, Oklahoma, are murdered after oil is found on their land, and the FBI decides to investigate.
Review
The Osage found oil on their lands, and as a result, came into a great deal of wealth after fighting for the head rights in court. However, the oil companies and white settlers had their own plans for all that money, and over time began to pick off members of the families with those head rights in a series of ‘accidents’. Robert DeNiro plays William Hale (or King as he is nicknamed). He is the self-appointed king of the town and faines being friends with the Osage, speaking their language and providing them with medicine and help when they need it. However, when his nephew Ernest, played by DiCaprio, comes into town, his mobster side shows its ugly face.
With time Ernest marries one of 3 sisters of a prominent Osage family Mollie (played by Lily Gladstone). Hale eyes the fortunes of her family making its way to Ernest and then himself. Over the course of the 3 1/2 hour film, Scorsese takes his time to show the slow burn of the perceived naivete of Earnest and his now wife. And we watch as both change and our perception of each also changes. It wasn’t until Mollie went to Washington DC after several failed attempts with private investigators to get the help of the US government. Here the newly formed and fledgling FBI gets involved and shows up in force to the town to start digging in. The lead agent, Tom White (Jesse Plemons), makes quick work of the facts.
While the story does start to show the beginnings of and importance of the start of the FBI in those times, the story’s heart and soul rest with Mollie and the events surrounding her family. As Hale’s plans begin to unravel and those around him stop supporting him, the expectation of honor and repentance from those who harmed her family, including her husband, becomes a disappointment. In the end, we are not rooting for a happy ending for the couple anyway, not after what happened. Not after what he did. Even at 3 1/2 hours, leaving the room for even 10 min meant you missed another death. Another important piece to the story.
Scorsese made it clear he didn’t want you to turn away or leave any moment you could miss. I certainly felt over 3 hours was going to be too long going in, but I am hard-pressed to think of any moment worth cutting for the sack of time that wouldn’t compromise the story. It is hard to know for sure how many were killed from Hale’s plots, officially 20 were listed, but many leaders within the tribe estimate hundreds. Scorsese worked with the Osage directly to ensure a level of additional accuracy and authenticity to the story that was being told. Killers Of The Flower Moon may end up going down as one of Scorsese’s best works of his career.
We may never know the true scope of what happened, but it is important that the story be told.
Killers Of The Flower Moon is in theatres on October 20th.
Courtesy of Apple TV.
