Killers Of The Flower Moon

UK Release Date. 20 October 2023
Certification. 15

Running Time. 3 hours 26 mins
Director. Martin Scorsese
Cast. Robert De Niro, Leonardo DiCaprio, Lily Gladstone, Jason Isbell, Jesse Plemons, Scott Shepherd.
Rating. 69%

Review.

Martin Scorsese's latest film, Killers Of The Flower Moon is based on a best selling, non-fiction book from journalist David Grann.

Following the conclusion of World War I, a series of brutal and increasingly bold killings would appear to be a co-ordinated attempt to slowly transfer the wealth of the oil-rich Osage tribe over to the white men that surround them, via a combination of marriage and murder. The narrative structure of Grann's account is provided by the book's subtitle, The Osage murders and the birth of the FBI. Much of Grann's book centres on the investigations, the men who conduct the investigations and the origins of the newly formed Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Scorsese's genius is to shift the focus from the investigation and the FBI, and to turn the spotlight on the victims. Key to this is his decision to place the relationship between Mollie (Lily Gladstone) and Ernest (Leonardo DiCaprio) centre stage. 

In Mollie, Scorsese offers up a complex female character - a character all too often absent from his work. From the director's prodigious back catalogue, I can only think of Ellen Burstyn's Alice from Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore as a comparable strong, complex female lead. Lily Gladstone has outdone expectations with a standout performance as Mollie Burkhart, which is no mean feat in a film that contains Leonardo DiCaprio and Robert De Niro. Come 10 March, 2024, I wonder if she will be rewarded for this impressive performance by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences?

Killers Of The Flower Moon opens with the frenetic hustle and bustle of Fairfax, Oklahoma - a boomtown where cowboys and oil workers coexist. The oil fields herald progress. An unfamiliar, if not unique western trope. The initial scenes immediately elicit comparisons with Sergio Leone's Once Upon A Time In The West and Paul Thomas Anderson's There Will Be Blood. Indeed, acclaimed art director, Jack Fisk responsible for the production design on There Will Be Blood, is also responsible for the production design on Killers Of The Flower Moon.

Killers Of The Flower Moon is ambitious. Hugely ambitious. With a run time of almost three and a half hours the film is unnecessary protracted. Tighter editing could have easily trimmed 30 minutes with minimal effect on the storyline. And the decision to wrap up the conclusion of the story with the players from The Lucky Strike Hour radio show jarred immensely.

Whilst David Grann's book, Killers Of The Flower Moon may be read as an account of the Old West surrendering to the regimentation of a modern police force, Martin Scorsese's film, Killers Of The Flower Moon, turns out to be the simplest of things - the story of a marriage. Love, trust and betrayal. Without ever labouring the point, Scorsese ensures Ernest's monstrous behaviour serves as a stark metaphor for the ultimate betrayal of the Native American population.

Will this great American tragedy be Martin Scorsese's epitaph? I hope not. Scorsese, himself, has already spoken about his desire to adapt another of David Grann's books, The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder. My interest is piqued already.