Killers of the Flower Moon Review – A Cinematic Masterpiece, Tour De Force Performances
- Details
- Category: Film
- Published on Thursday, 19 October 2023 21:40
- Written by Janet Walker
Killers of the Flower Moon, an Apple Original Film, presents a thrilling western crime drama as it tells the story of the Osage Indians who became oil rich and the greed, money, power, and murder that followed.
The film begins with black cue cards setting the scene for the audience and moves into an Indian ceremonial burying of the old ways. We understand from the ceremony, this passage from tribal dependence to interacting with a world that had pushed them from their homelands into what was considered the middle of nowhere, a prairie of nothingness, was heartbreaking. We hear the sobs as the moment had arrived and they had to confront, once again, the white man and his evil ways.
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As the Osage Indians went to bury the symbolic token of the past, a pool of black oil begins to bubble and in seconds a geyser explodes from the ground, raining droplets of hope on the Indian land.
Soon a stream of names, men, and women, who were murdered, and all swept away like the dust on the floor. This takes us to the present. And the scene cuts to Ernest Burkhart, played by Leonardo DiCaprio, a soldier on his way home to live with his uncle William Hale, played by Robert De Niro. Ernest is riding with an Osage Indian to his uncle's home, and we understand, as there are oil wells across the horizon, that some time as passed since the Indians were rewarded for their sorrow or so it seemed.
Once Ernest arrives at William's home, he is reintroduced to society through the ways of Bill Hale who explains the lay of the land. Once the oil began to flow on Indian land, this little nothing town was booming, and every oil company had to pay the Osage to drill on their land.
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Of course, when there is oil money (think unlimited resources) and Indian woman with full rights ownership, well the money attracts men with no consciences, those who will seduce the women, stay married for a sufficient time and then find a way to murder them without it looking like murder, until in Osage it was nearly 35 unsolved murders.
As Ernest explains, "he does love that money," so soon he is pulling small petty crimes, stealing jewelry from the local Indians, gambling, and drinking. Not much of a laborer either as he admits, he runs a cab service and begins to pick up Mollie, played by Lily Gladstone.
We have met Mollie earlier as she, even as a capable woman, is forced to ask permission from a white man for access to her money and of course, he explains, the recent grocery store bill purchased by her mother, Lizzie, played by Tantoo Cardinal, was just too high.
Soon he and Mollie are considering marriage, and his Uncle Bill explains the passage of oil rights. As a full-blooded Osage, she is entitled to oil rights, shares that upon her death would pass to her relatives, husband, children or as she deems fit in her will.
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Ernest, who appears to understand the words, but doesn't grasp the meaning or the value, appears as his wife, Mollie explains as she tells her sisters, "Of course he wants the money, but he also wants to settle down."
Soon they had a child and are building a young married life. And when there is oil money, there is greed, and plotting, planning, diabolical evil to undermine, circumvent, lie, cheat, steal and find a way to take it all. Mollie has three other sisters', Minnie, played by Jillian Dion. Reta, played by JaNae Collins, and Anna, played by Cara Jade Myers, and slowly as if the hangman were pulling a noose around the neck of this family, one by one the sisters were murdered until all that remains was Mollie, who was diabetic and taking insulin injections.
The film is truly remarkable, so much so that I hesitate to mention what may have been a glitch as there were some Osage spoken language scenes, especially the moments that appear tender between Ernest and Mollie, that the subtitles did not show, which may have been for effect, but I would have liked to have understood all that was being said.
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Killers of the Flower Moon is an entertaining true crime drama and at over three hours the film moves at a good pace with a solid, slow build of intrigue, and an unraveling of a master web, layer upon layer, decades of politics and the existing state of citizenship and rights for the Indian made the murders possible and an investigation and prosecution outside of the realm of possibility.
A cinematic masterpiece! It goes without saying that the performances by Robert De Niro and Leonardo DiCaprio were masterful, and the performances of the collective cast were exceptional. Lily Gladstone was incredible, and the complexity of her emotional range impressive.
The music, the use of the ceremonial drum, throughout and especially in the Insulin scenes, like the insulin the music the slow beat gets under your skin.
Killers of the Flower Moon opens everywhere Friday, October 202, 2023. See it.
Country: U.S.
Language: English, Osage with English Subtitles.
Runtime: 206 minutes.
Director: Martin Scorsese.
Producer: Dan Friedkin, Daniel Lupi, Martin Scorsese, Bradley Thomas, Justine Conte.
Writer: Martin Scorsese, Eric Roth.
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, Yancy Red Corn, Tatanka Means, Tommy Schultz, Sturgill Simpson, Ty Mitchell, Gary Basaraba, Charlie Musselwhite, Pat Healy, Steve Routman, Gene Jones, Michael Abbott Jr., J.C. MacKenzie, Barry Corbin, Katherine Willis, Delani Chambers.
