“Can you find the wolves in this picture?”
Martin Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon is, on the
surface, not at all like a typical Scorsese movie. It’s a sort of neo-western
set in the 1920’s of Oklahoma, as the Osage Nation discovered oil on their land
and became per capita the richest people in the country. The movie watches as
the Osage are taken advantage of by a cadre of white people who outwardly claim
to be friends of the Osage, only to plot their murders and lines of inheritance
behind their backs. In that way, it’s a very typical Scorsese movie, following
the doings of murderous, amoral thugs taking advantage of those around them. It’s
about the brutality of what humans do to one another, and just like the
gangsters we’ve followed before, it’s almost always about money.
Interestingly, the reaction to this movie from the Native
community, and the Natives that I know in my own life, has been extremely
mixed. Some praise the movie for its respect for the Osage Nation, and the
importance of telling their story, especially from such an underrepresented
group and era of American history. There has been talk from others that movies
like this only focus on the victimization of Native peoples by white people in
this country and that reinforces rather than breaks down stereotypes in the Native
community. There is also a sentiment among many that the movie uses the Osage
as dressing for telling a story more focused on white men than Natives.
Obviously, there are grains of truth in the arguments from
all sides. My take on the movie is that it treats the Osage with as much
respect as could be asked of, and yes tells the story through the lens of a
white star actor in Leonardo DiCaprio, but not to the detriment of the Native characters.
We see many sides of Native actors in the movie, not just in star Lily Gladstone’s
magnetic central performance as Mollie, but also in the spiritual mother Lizzie
played by Tantoo Cardinal, or Mollie’s reckless party animal sister Anna (Cara
Jade Myers), the depressed Henry Roan (William Belleau), or undercover Bureau
of Investigation agent John Wren (Tatanka Means). There are many shades of
Native character in the movie, and not all are shown as victims, even if most
of them are perpetrated against.
The movie circles mostly around Ernest (DiCaprio), a WWI veteran
come to Oklahoma to work for his uncle William King Hale (Robert De Niro), and crossing
paths with Mollie (Gladstone), with whom he falls in love. Mollie is strong and
quiet, and I think (rightfully) suspicious of Ernest and Hale, even though she
says she’s known Hale essentially her entire life. DiCaprio didn’t get enough praise
during awards season for his portrayal of Ernest. DiCaprio is an extraordinarily
smart actor with very expressive eyes, but Ernest has a perpetually upset
looking, downturned mouth, is not the brightest fella, and finds himself easily
manipulated by his uncle. It’s unlike anything DiCaprio has done before, and it’s
wonderful.
Hale is one of De Niro’s best performances, and easily his
best late career work. Hale is a frightening sociopath out to manipulate anyone
and everyone around him, either through being smarter than they are, or through
the power and influence that comes with money. He says he’s a friend to the
Osage, yet he callously tells Ernest that he needs his “best friend” Henry to
stay alive a couple months longer so that he can cash out the full insurance policy
on him before he dies by suicide, or Hale has him killed.
Gladstone’s Mollie is the crux of the whole operation, as
the rights to so much of the land (the “head rights” as they’re called) go
through her, and because of her through Ernest and their children. Gladstone is
so infinitely watchable that even when she’s sharing the screen with two legendary
stars like De Niro and DiCaprio, our eyes go to her. Gladstone says so much
with a look, a half-smile, a gesture. The tender way she grabs DiCaprio’s face
tells us all we need to know about Ernest and Mollie’s relationship. She loves
him, even if we may not understand why. She makes us believe. We see her eyes
and know that she is distrustful of nearly all the white people around her,
except Ernest. She trusts Ernest and part of the tragedy of the movie is us in
the audience knowing that she shouldn’t.
The movie went through a lot of rewriting in the development
process as DiCaprio was first tipped to play Tom White, a Bureau of
Investigation (the beginnings of the FBI) agent sent from Washington DC down to
Oklahoma to investigate the Osage murders. That character was eventually played
by Jesse Plemons. If White had been the central figure, the structure of the
movie would have been a much more traditional police procedural kind of setup,
which might have made for a more mainstream hit of a movie (as is the movie
didn’t even make back its budget at the box office, much less turn a profit), but
would’ve been less interesting than what we are given here. There’s no mystery
as to who is committing the murders of the Osage, we are shown that up front,
in the opening few minutes of the 206 minute movie. So, as now constructed the
movie becomes a tragedy, as we pull for Ernest to resist Hale’s manipulations
and protect rather than slowly poison Mollie. In the beginning I was even
pulling for Ernest to be a beacon of hope in the sea of wolves around him. I
thought “well, Ernest loves Mollie, so even though he’s mixed up with his
uncle, Ernest himself isn’t participating in the crimes. Oh, how wrong I was.
Due to the three-and-a-half hour runtime, the matter of fact
way that Scorsese shows the violence, and the tragic nature of the story, Killers
of the Flower Moon is not an easy watch. However, I like that Scorsese is not trying
to make an entertainment here. This is not The Departed or The Wolf of Wall
Street. Scorsese wants us to be intrigued, engaged, but it’s not an easy
journey and really it shouldn’t be. This is a tragic story, it deserves a tragic
telling. I think it’s one of Scorsese’s best, even if not quite up there with
Taxi Driver, Raging Bull, Goodfellas, or even later career masterpieces like
The Aviator and Silence. But it’s a wonderful 9/10 in my book, and as always
Scorsese didn’t disappoint.
