In the 1920s, the people of the Osage Nation became the richest people on earth after oil was discovered under their supposedly worthless land. The money drew ambitious white men and not long after, Osage began to die in a series of suspicious deaths, some of which were clearly murder. Based on journalist David Grann’s bestselling non-fiction book “Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI,” Martin Scorsese’s KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON turns that non-fiction book into drama that combines elements of romance, mystery, and the history of the 1920s Osage murders, in an epic Western thriller starring Leo DiCaprio, Robert De Niro and Lily Gladstone.
Grann’s non-fiction book details these killings and suspicious deaths, which occurred as fortune-hunting white men found that marrying Osage women was a way to access the Osage Nation’s wealth. Their arrival was followed by a series of brutal, mysterious deaths, first noticed in 1921, but continuing for a long time with little investigation by the local authorities charged with overseeing law enforcement on tribal lands.
Scorsese turns this horrendous bit of history into an epic tale of evil, greed and deceit set in a sweeping Western landscape with one of unexpected love, in a visually lush, moving, tragic film. The film was a hit a Cannes, where it debuted out of competition. The film has resonated with both critics and audiences, but the most positive responses seem to come from those who read the bestselling non-fiction book. There is no need to have read the book to follow the story but it seems that having done so might deepen understanding of the Osage Nation’s plight. Scorsese’s film focuses primarily on this one story, while the non-fiction book takes a broader view.
Scorsese’ movie follows the deaths in one particular Osage family, of which Mollie Kyle is one daughter of the ailing matriarch, played by legendary Native actresses Tantoo Cardinal. Ernest Burkhart (Leonardo DiCaprio) returns from World War I with a war injury that limits the kind of physical work he can do, and comes to stay with his uncle William Hale (Robert DeNiro), known as King, hoping to find work. The uncle has a prosperous ranch within the Osage reservation but his land has no oil. Having lived there so long, King Hale has established friendly ties with the Osage Nation, and even speaks the language, but he is also a powerful man some fear. King sees an opportunity with his handsome but not-too-bright young nephew, and before long he is hinting that his nephew might want to marry one of the Osage women, and even offers some advice when speaking to them.
Ernest listens politely but doesn’t entirely buy his uncle’s idea. Still, in addition to doing odd jobs for his uncle while living in his mansion, Ernest also drives an informal taxi service since most of the Osage don’t drive. While richer Osage have chauffeurs but others just hire taxis like Ernest’s. Waiting for potential fares, he spots and taken by one pretty young Osage woman, Mollie Kyle (Lily Gladstone). She coolly rebuffs his offer, and his flirtatious advances. Yet, later when she does need a ride and he again badgers her to let him drive her, she begrudgingly gives in.
She remains stand-offish during the ride but over the next days, his persistence and good humor start to amuse her, and she softens. “He’s dumb but he’s handsome,” she tells her sister, shortly before she invites him to dinner at her home, a mansion she shares with her aging mother Lizzie Q (Tantoo Cardinal).
Ernest is truly smitten almost from the start and Mollie eventually falls for him too. The love match certainly is convenient for the uncle who has his own plan for his nephew’s new wife and her family.
Leonardo DiCaprio and Robert DeNiro are excellent, essentially playing against type with DiCaprio’s dimwitted Ernest manipulated by DeNiro’s Machiavellian uncle. But the big revelation is Lily Gladstone, in what may be a star-making performance. Scorsese cast Native actors in several roles as Osage, including Lily Gladstone, who is of Piegan Blackfeet and Nez Perce heritage and grew up on the Blackfeet reservation, but she is also a cousin of British former prime minister William Gladstone. She gave standout performances in small roles in two Kelly Reichert films, CERTAIN WOMEN and FIRST COW, but this larger starring part gives her a chance to really shine. And shine she does, nearly stealing the movie from her more famous costars.
Robert DeNiro’s uncle King is all sweetness and solicitousness when dealing with the Osage, and even his nephew Ernest, most of the time, but he can forcefully, frighteningly pivot if he doesn’t get his way. Even in his smiling mode, DeNiro’s King has an underlying current of menace. The Osage deal with him as a friend in public but when just among themselves, there is fear and growing suspicion. Ernest isn’t the only white man to marry into Mollie’s family, and the family trait of diabetes means that Mollie, her mother and one sister are often sickly, in this pre-insulin era. DiCaprio’s Ernest gives mixed messages about who he is and his true motives, seeming to truly waver between good and bad, although we are never certain, and perhaps Ernest isn’t either.
But as people start to turn up dead, even in Mollie’s family, in freak accidents and even clear murdered but with no suspect found, things grow tense and then frantic. The Osage leaders know the community is under attack but are powerless to stop it.
Several messages and messengers are sent to the federal government back east, alerting them to the murders, with little effect. Finally a representative of the newly-formed FBI appears, in the form of seemingly mild-manner official, played well by Jesse Plemons.
Epic is the right word to describe this drama, as this film runs about three and a half hours. However, the film is so well structured, so involving and gripping, and so perfectly paced, that one does not feel the running time.
The photography is stunning, as are the costumes and careful attention to period details, making the film both an immersive experience and visually pleasing. In an opening scene, oil gushes from the ground, spewing over some Osage men transversing the windswept plain, symbolicly covering them. In another moment, a huge fire fills the screen in a nighttime scene, creating a horrifying image that mirrors the growing panic of the Osage people under attack by the hidden foe. Eventually tTension is so thick as the drama unfolds that both the characters and the audience are on edge.
Scorsese also skillfully uses a number of period-appropriate techniques to give us a strong sense of time and place for this moving drama. These include written text in a form that resembles title cards in silent movies of the era, newspaper headlines and newsreel footage in movie theaters referencing the Tulsa Massacre, which overlapped these events, and period appropriate jazz, blues and old-time country music. Towards the end, Scorsese uses a radio drama format in a thrillingly effective scene.
One does not have to have read the excellent non-fiction book to follow this tale of love, betrayal and murder, but having read the book deepens one’s understanding of the history it depicts. The film only lightly touches on details such as that Osage were among the peoples relocated to what would become Oklahoma in the Trail of Tears tragedy. Like the Cherokee, the Osage had made a decision to partly assimilate while retaining parts of their culture, in their own fashion, trading with the white economy and adopting some of white culture such as a written language. The hope was to avoid the annihilation happening to other Native peoples, by becoming “civilized” and working in partnership with whites.
The drama unfolds in stages, smoothly shifting at each step, first a romance and family drama, then a crime drama and mystery, then a courtroom drama. At each pivot point, the characters develop and transform, revealing more of their true nature or being changed by events. The end is both heart breaking and exactly as it should be. It all adds up to a stunning piece of cinema on a unjustly forgotten moment of in the long history of injustices toward Native peoples. KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON is a masterpiece movie by a master filmmaker, which seems a likely Oscar winner.
KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON opens in theaters on Friday, Oct. 20.
RATING: 4 out of 4 stars
