Killers of the Flower Moon Review
One of the most anticipated films of the last few years, because production kept getting pushed back. Scorsese’s latest epic finally and thankfully hit theaters this past weekend.
With the academy’s new eligibility rules, we’re going to get more streaming films in theaters, instead of having to watch all these great films at home.
The film is based on David Grann’s non-fiction novel “Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI.” It tells the true and relatively unknown story of the Osage Indians who were pushed out of Kansas and forced to relocate to Oklahoma.
On their new land barren land in Oklahoma, they discovered oil and became some of the richest people in the United States. Then systematically Osage are murdered in a scheme to gain the “head rights” to the oil fortune.
Like the Tulsa massacre, there are blemishes in this country’s history that are never touched on in our schools. Granted they cannot cover everything in history, but even in my college post-civil War history class they never covered this stuff. It is taking filmmakers to bring to light these moments in history.
It is incredible at 80 years old Marty has this in him. So many filmmakers lose their touch as they age and as Quentin Tarantino puts it: “Stay at the dance too long.” Martin is not only still at the dance but he is keeping it alive.
If you’ve read the book you know it’s told basically from the perspective of the FBI and its lead investigator Tom White. The first cut of this script was more of a procedural. Marty and Leonardo realize the story here is the marriage of Ernest and Mollie Burkhart.
It’s a smart choice. If this was a procedural it’d be more of a popcorn thriller. It’d be fun, but here Marty presents something much messier and more complicated. It allows time for the story to build and the audience to sit with the characters.
One character who is fleshed out, though she has a large part in the novel, is Mollie Burkhart. Mollie’s family is especially struck by tragedy during this time. Lily Gladstone who gives possibly my favorite performance of the year so far plays Mollie.
She says so much with a look. When she is on screen with Leo she blows him completely out of frame. She is so captivating in her stoicism that your eye is drawn to her no matter who is in the scene with her.
De Niro also delivered one of his best performances in many years. Lily conveys so much with a look and De Niro does the same, except his is always a look that sends a chill down your spine. Everything is subtext with William Hale.
Instead of leaving the revelation to who is killing for later in the story as the book does. Putting it up front makes De Niro’s performance so chilling. If it weren’t revealed what he was doing until two hours into the movie his performance would seem flat. Instead, it’s calculating and chilling.
Martin has crafted a modern Western historical epic. The closest film I can compare it to is something like Giant. If you want seven hours of brilliant epic filmmaking that would make an excellent double feature.
We were given something special here that will take multiple viewings to really sink in. Though this is not told from the Osage perspective, Marty gives time to the Osage and gives us one of the most touching and beautiful scenes in his entire filmography with Mollie’s mother.
It’s not the Osage story but it is the story Marty knew how to tell and it’s a near masterpiece, and on a second viewing, I may think it is one. It’s crazy to think this may be Martin Scorsese’s 10th-best film and it’s still a near masterpiece. It just goes to show he is one of the greatest American directors we’ve ever had.
4.5/5 Stars
