Killers of the Flower Moon – Film Review

Director – Martin Scorsese
Writers – Eric Roth, Martin Scorsese, David Grann
Stars – Leonardo DiCaprio, Robert De Niro, Lily Gladstone

The book “Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI” was written by American journalist David Grann and first published in 2017. The book focuses on the Osage Indian community in the Midwest of America during the 1920s. The community were extremely rich as oil was discovered on their land. The Indians were something of an oddity, extremely wealthy, while still being treated with similar disdain to other Indian communities. This made them easy pickings for the local town folk, who robbed, cheated and tricked them out of as much money as possible. A number of murders also took place during this period which is the focus of the book and film.

This film deals with Ernest Burkhart (Leonardo DiCaprio), who returns home from war to work with his Uncle William Hale (Robert De Niro). William Hale is treated as a close friend of the Osage community and Ernest starts to drive for a member of the community called Mollie (Lily Gladstone). Despite their obvious differences, the two grow close and eventually marry.

Ernest is a complex individual, who seems to love his wife very much despite his actions. It is this relationship which is at the core of the film. While Lily Gladstone is relatively unknown as an actor, she stands up against the famous names in the cast with a beautifully understated performance. Less is certainly more and her moments of calm with knowing smiles make her scenes more intense and gripping than anything De Niro or DiCaprio can muster.

While this may seem a new topic for Scorsese, in a sense, it is quite similar to the mob world he has explored many times before. The morality of the characters is suitable grey as they see their end goals as all-consuming. The film is nearly three and a half hours long and while it rarely drags, you have to question why it needed to be such an extended length. Many scenes could have easily been cut without altering the overall flow, despite being well-acted or beautifully shot. There are some impressive moments of cinematography and it is definitely the work of one of the greatest directors of our era. It is another strange and beautiful work from the master of many such pieces, where men put everything else aside in search of wealth and power.