Movie Review: Killers of the Flower Moon

One of the more horrifying things I've come to learn as an adult is just how little Americans know about the history of their country. So much shit that's happened over the past hundreds of years has been obscured or erased through a combination of time and a purposeful obstruction of teaching people about these events by the nation's school systems and government. Among these unjustly minimized events is something that has become known as  "The Osage Murders". A greatly condensed version of how this string of mass killings came to be is as follows: In 1897, the Osage Tribe of Oklahoma discovered oil on their land. This brought a tremendous amount of wealth and prosperity to a region that didn't have it previously. Once the Osage came into this wealth, white people from all over the country started to move to their reservation. 

Beginning in 1918, members of the Osage started turning up dead and through marriage, friendships, etc, more and more whites took over the headrights (royalties from oil) to their estates once they were killed. In 1923, the federal government got involved in the investigation and while several arrests and convictions were made and a law was passed in 1925 that prohibited non-Osage individuals from inheriting headrights, many of the murders remained unsolved. It's estimated that at least 60 Osage were killed from 1918 to 1931 and there's a widespread belief that many other suspicious death during that period could've also been murders that were covered up. 

For his 26th narrative feature film, Martin Scorsese elected to make a movie about the Osage murders. While not without some miscalculations, Killers of the Flower Moon is a respectfully-rendered, absorbing crime drama about a forgotten chapter of American greed, cruelty and bigotry.

Killers of the Flower Moon unfolds from the perspective of Ernest Burkhardt (Leonardo DiCaprio)-a recently discharged military cook who arrives in Osage County to stay with his uncle William Hale (Robert De Niro) with the hopes of finding work and prosperity. Through his job as a chauffeur, he meets Mollie Kyle (Lily Gladstone)-one of the richest oil heirs on the reservation. As they get to know each other more, Ernest and Mollie fall in love and eventually marry and start a family. 

Meanwhile, members of the reservation start dying with increasing regularity-including members of Mollie's family. All of the dead bodies have one thing in common: they all have oil money and their fortunes are being inherited by white settlers that mostly have connections to Hale. As Ernest begins to become involved with his uncle's dealings, he gets excited by the prospect of making more money and the murders begin to become more brazen and frequent. Eventually, all of the dead bodies piling up attracts the attention of the Bureau of Investigation (the precursor to the FBI) and lead investigator Tom White (Jesse Plemons) threatens to blow the lid off their whole operation-which puts Hale, Burkhardt and their many co-conspirators in a position they never thought they'd find themselves in: potentially facing legal consequences for their actions.

What Killers of the Flower Moon does so well is paint a portrait of pure, deep-rooted evil. What Hale, Burkhardt and their cohorts do is gain the trust and respect of the Osage nation by befriending them and really engrained themselves in their community, only to be secretly plotting to take their money and land by finding somebody to execute them. It's a really calculated, long con plan that Scorsese portrays brilliantly with a deliberate touch that allows the cold, insidious nature of the crimes to really sink in and linger. Even when the film reaches the stage where some semblance of justice is served, the stench of greed, deception and self-preservation is still so strong that the retribution delivers no solace. Telling this story in such an uncompromisingly bleak, sober fashion allows to it become a haunting history lesson that Americans have long needed to sit through and it's a blessing that a filmmaker that is as fearless and articulate as Scorsese was the one who was tasked with bringing it to the screen.    

As impressive as Killers of the Flower Moon is, there is something about centering this story around Ernest Burkhardt that just doesn't feel right. For starters, Burkhardt is portrayed with more sympathy than he deserves. While the film never comes close to exonerating him of his crimes or pretending that he was a good man, it does portray him as a gullible idiot who followed his uncle's lead and someone who really did love his wife despite all of the harm he caused her (or at least somebody that believes that he does). Was Hale a more blatantly evil individual for masterminding the whole operation? No question, but Burkhardt was still heavily involved in carrying out Hale's plans and showed no remorse as members of Mollie's family all met their demise in brutal fashion. That's an individual who doesn't deserve a shred of compassion shown towards them and I wish that Scorsese had portrayed him in a more unflinchingly unfavorable light.        

The other major issue with having Burkhardt as the protagonist is that it puts the Osage on the backburner in a story that is about the atrocities committed against their people. The emotional impact of this story would've been greater if it had been told through the eyes of Mollie-who watched these outsiders slaughter, torment and steal from her people opposed to Ernest-who didn't care how many Osage died as long as his pockets got fatter. However, the harsh reality is that as beneficial as it could've been to the broader narrative, Scorsese probably couldn't have gotten this film made if it were told from an Osage point-of-view. A $200+ million epic western crime drama with the almost always bankable DiCaprio in the lead role is a hard enough sell for studios, so putting a Native American woman in Gladstone whose previous resume mainly consists of bit parts in indie movies-front and center would've likely caused additional hurdles in the greenlighting process. Not to mention, the David Grann novel in which it's based is on also features Burkhardt as the protagonist and from what I've read, Scorsese significantly increased the role of the people of the Osage Nation in the adaptation. Settling for something that at least valued the Osage enough to get members of their community involved in the creative process of making it and portray them with dignity on screen is ultimately an acceptable compromise since it allowed this important film to enter the world.    

As we enter Hollywood's awards season, much will be made of Killers of the Flower Moon's prospects and rightfully so. DiCaprio, Gladstone and (especially) De Niro give outstanding performances. Scorsese's direction is among the most assured of his storied career. Rodrigo Prieto's cinematography is gorgeous. The final score produced by the late Robbie Robertson is hauntingly melancholic. But all of that extracurricular stuff pales in comparison to the value that this film's existence provides to the world. It may not be perfect or 100% accurate, but Killers of the Flower Moon exposes the masses to a chapter of undertaught history and provides an important lesson of how profoundly evil mankind is capable of being when things like money and the opportunity to make a whole lot of more it are involved. That provides more value than any gold statue can and I hope that its messaging is carefully considered when people examine violent, hate-fueled events of past, present and future.                     

Grade: B+