“Killers of the Flower Moon” (2023) is the newest Martin Scorsese movie, and may just be his most impactful work yet. It tells the story of how a Native American tribe, the Osage, found oil beneath their land and sold it to become the richest people per capita in the world at the time, and the string of murders that befell upon them because of it. From the perspective of Ernest Burkhart (Leonardo DiCaprio), he and his uncle William Hale (Robert De Niro) maliciously steal, murder, and scheme against the Osage to take their money.
Never have I been so angry watching a movie as I was this one. Angry at the injustice and atrocities committed against these people and how little was done about it. Part of that has to be credited to Leonardo DiCaprio and Robert De Niro. They were fully immersed in their roles of the despicable men that carried out these acts. The man that De Niro plays, William Hale, was the brains of the operation and had complete control of the men carrying out these heinous acts, and De Niro gives us the best glimpse we’ll get of how someone that sinster would act. The most twisted part of Hale’s story is that he played a wolf in sheep’s clothes. From the perspective of the Osage he was respected and trusted among the community. At certain parts of the movie Hale would even speak their native language, showing how he immersed himself in the community. But directly contrasted with that he would be in a scene negotiating the terms of how he wants a hired hitman to blow up one of the Osage’s homes. By the end of the movie I wanted to reach into the screen and punch De Niro in the face because of how sickening the actions he did was. And I believe no other actor alive could’ve gone to as dark a place that De Niro went to in playing this man.
Now onto Leonardo DiCaprio who also gave an incredible performance but in a very different way. First off, he helped Scorsese write the script and it was actually his idea to shoot the movie from the perspective of Ernest Burkhart. And just like his uncle, Ernest Burkhart was an extremely malicious man. Ernest Burkhart carries out his orders with complete faith and abandonment, and like most of the men Hale employs, is completely manipulated by him. Burkhart is completely blinded by his greed for money and his lust for women, and this leads to him marrying Mollie Burkhart. When the movie was being shown at the Cannes Festival, Scorsese described the movie as “a movie about trust, and the betrayal of that trust,” and that is most evident when it comes to Ernest and Mollie. Ernest would say how much he loves and respects Mollie to her face, and then commit terrible atrocities against her people while she was sleeping. Their relationship is at the heart of the movie, and just like De Niro, I was ready to sucker punch DiCaprio in the face by the end. In very subtle ways, DiCaprio portrays how little guilt Ernest felt about the actions he was doing, and only cared about the money he was stealing from these people. As disgusting as DiCaprio and De Niro’s characters were to watch, one of the things that made it palatable was the monumental performance by Lily Gladstone as Mollie Burkhart.
There’s this tingle you get when you know you’re watching an all-time performance, and I felt that tingle almost every time Gladstone was on screen. She plays the role with such sincerity and emotion that I feel many other actors wouldn’t have been able to land as gracefully as Gladstone. The character she plays, Mollie Burkhart, goes through a heartbreaking experience, losing most of her family because of the murders. Gladstone could have easily given an over-the-top performance, but she instead gave this subtle and nuanced portrayal that speaks to the reality of these murders beautifully. When the movie was shown at the Cannes festival, the cast and crew received a standing ovation. Gladstone had this to say about it, “I was grateful that the audience saw Mollie the way they were supposed to, and the way they should have, it was an affirmation of what fine storytelling this is. What people thought would be an impossible feat is the story we were able to do.” The Osage suffered in silence during the reign of terror because most people either didn’t know about the murders, or even worse knew and did nothing about them. And even after, the children and grandchildren of the victims had to live and somehow move on knowing that their people will never get the justice they deserve. That’s why this movie is so important; It’s shining light on a dark spot in our nation’s history that was swept under the rug, and giving a voice to a nation of people that for too long have been passed up or out right massacred for another group’s gain. I believe that there’s only a handful of directors alive today that could bring this all together and tell their story with the sincerity but also the brutality it requires to shake the core of the audiences in the theater; and one of those directors is Martin Scorsese.
The thing about this movie that I was most impressed by was how authentic and real it felt. While filming the movie Scorsese spoke extensively with the real Osage community to capture the authenticity. The lead actors even learned the Osage language from a teacher in the community, Christopher Cote, and the Osage costumes were done by actual Osage artists. Scorsese took his time to craft this masterpiece (7 years to be exact) and immersed this movie in the culture unlike I’ve ever seen before.
To wrap up, I want to address the run time. The movie is 3 hours and 26 minutes long, and you feel every minute of it. And I’m not gonna sugarcoat it, it feels exactly as long as you think it would. But I 100% believe this run time is justified. While we have to sit through a long grueling movie, the victims of the terrible crime and their ancestors have to sit with this history for a lifetime. While this movie certainly isn’t for everyone, but for those who wish to know more about America’s dark past, I believe this is an essential watch.
Nathan Castimore is a third-year Communications Studies major. NC973905@wcupa.edu