Killers of the Flower Moon

Though The Irishman was not the final film of Martin Scorsese’s career, in many ways it felt like the close of a chapter. Returning to the gangster film genre for the first time since 2006’s The Departed, The Irishman brought together Scorsese collaborators Robert De Niro and Joe Pesci as well as marked Scorsese’s first film with Scarface and The Godfather’s Al Pacino. With its innovative de-aging technology, a three hour-plus runtime, and broad distribution to America’s living rooms through Netflix, The Irishman represented one of the most ambitious films of Scorsese’s career and potentially one last hurrah within the gangster genre.

Turning to the Osage Nation, Killers of the Flower Moon provides Scorsese with an equally ambitious endeavor in telling the story of the Osage Nation murders that occurred in the early 1900s. Back then, the Osage Nation were some of the richest people in the world due to oil found on their land. Through including archival footage, Scorsese shows us the lavish and comfortable lifestyle the Osage lived. They could afford luxury, jewelry, drivers, and servants to attend to their every need.

This would change over the years. One such man, Ernest Burkhart (Leonardo diCaprio), comes to Osage Nation after returning home from the First World War. He meets with his uncle, the influential William King Hale (Robert De Niro), who assesses the young man and offers him a job as a driver. Hale knows that money is king. He owns interest in several businesses that operate in Osage towns and introduces Ernest to the concept of headrights. The Osage maintain their wealth through mineral rights royalties that are paid to the tribe. These royalties are distributed to those in the tribe who own headrights. Certain Osage families have maintained their “full headrights” and are the full recipients of lucrative royalties. These headrights can be passed from generation to generation through inheritance. They also represent perverse opportunism for White men who live in Osage towns and seek to marry into Osage families with full headrights. The White men are not subtle in their courtship of Osage women, mentioning with depraved pride they married into a full headrights family when introducing themselves to other White men.

To pursue a full headright for his family, Hale encourages Ernest to form a connection with one of the women, Mollie (Lily Gladstone), who he is a driver for. Mollie lives with her mother, Lizzie Q (Tantoo Cardinal), and has three sisters. Which means if Lizzie were to pass away, her family’s headrights would be split amongst the sisters. Unless – and here we come to the awful conclusion – Mollie’s sisters were to die. Early on, Killers of the Flower Moon shows us a number of murders that ultimately result in no investigation. We see a White father shoot his wife in front of their baby while her back is turned. Scorsese crafts an uncomfortable atmosphere through the entirety of his film as he makes clear the cruelty behind these murders. These murders became infamous amongst the Osage Nation, the tribe’s men and women knowing that a wrong marriage could put their lives and their family’s lives at risk. For Mollie, she falls in love with Ernest and decides to marry him against her better judgment. Perhaps she thinks that Ernest’s uncle’s wealth might protect her.

When meeting with Ernest at the start of the film, Hale explains to Ernest a little about Osage culture. He provides Ernest with a book on the tribe for him to read and tells Ernest that the Osage have a tendency not to talk a lot or blabber. He explains that the Osage are comfortable with silence and not to start talking to fill in the silence. Hale has a deep understanding of the Osage and is held in high regard by the tribe, participating in their traditions and tribal meetings. He is there to comfort the Osage in hard times, the Osage unaware of his connections to the murders. Hale is charismatic and, like Ernest and Mollie, an expertly-written character. He is always composed and even though it becomes clear that every word that comes out of his mouth is a downright lie, De Niro delivers the lines with such sincerity that his feigned kindness and compassion is believable. Knowing that he has the full trust of Ernest, who toes the line between astoundingly obtuse and malicious, Hale takes advantage of Ernest as Mollie’s family is killed one by one. Ernest lives a double life, loving Mollie and their children while also robbing the Osage at gunpoint for their jewels and committing heinous crimes. At the Cannes press conference for Killers of the Flower Moon, diCaprio praised Scorsese for his ability to humanize the most horrid of people and Ernest is no exception. It’s hard to imagine Ernest is so dense and ignorant of what will happen to Mollie and her family and of his complicitness, but his greed, the ease at which he is persuaded, and his desire to maintain favor with his uncle make him a fitting accomplice.

More than any other character, Mollie tells the story of her tribe’s suffering. There is pure evil as the Osage are shot point blank, slowly poisoned, even blown apart by dynamite by those they trust. Through expert editing and pacing, the weight of our empathy for Mollie becomes heavier and heavier. Few people have suffered as much as Mollie, her hardships and faith in her husband not unlike the biblical character of Job. Her trust in Ernest is tragically misplaced and we see a staggering amount of grief and pain in her eyes. Mollie refuses to be powerless however, and she hires a detective and travels to Washington D.C. despite being ill (poisoned) to speak with President Calvin Coolidge on the murders. The Bureau of Investigation, precursor to today’s FBI, sends out an agent who aptly realizes the gravity of these murders and the coverups at play.

Killers of the Flower Moon is a story of historical revisionism. The film draws parallels between the Tulsa race massacre and the Osage murders, stories of people who were victimized due to their wealth and the color of their skin. The Osage Nation and Mollie’s story is an example of historical erasure, Mollie’s own obituary not mentioning the murder of her sisters. To tell this story, Martin Scorsese enlisted the help of the Osage Nation, collaborating with Chief Standing Bear to film on location and feature the Osage in front of and behind the camera. Leonardo diCaprio and Robert De Niro both speak the Osage language in Killers of the Flower Moon, their use of the language significant in the trust the Osage form with their characters’. Hale and Ernest’s assimilation into the Osage culture make their betrayal all the more twisted and, for Mollie, her love for Ernest offers him chance after chance for redemption in her eyes and emphasizes the cruelty of his betrayal and the beautiful life with her he threw away.

Killers of the Flower Moon is Martin Scorsese’s first collaboration with production designer Jack Fisk who brings to life the Osage Nation in the early 1900s. The care to detail seen in the film and depiction of Osage traditions is evidence of the reverence Scorsese and his team hold for the Osage Nation and their culture. Killers of the Flower Moon shows just how much was taken from the Osage and destroyed by greed and racism. During the film, Mollie remarks that her Osage garments put a target on her back.

The book of the same name that Scorsese’s film is based on places a stronger emphasis on the formation of the FBI in the investigation of the murders rather than the Osage. Working with the Osage Nation directly, Scorsese is able to tell a stronger story by depicting the true circumstances of what the Osage experienced. Like The Irishman, Killers of the Flower Moon is an ambitious work of filmmaking. As Scorsese knows, however, he is brushing up against the limits of how long a film can be while keeping a captive audience. He condenses the end of his story by telling it through a radio show, but I can’t help but feel that this softens the impact of the close of the film despite what commentary one could draw from true crime told through the radio show format and Scorsese’s cameo in the scene. And while many wished that The Irishman was told in a serialized television format, Killers of the Flower Moon and its escalating sense of dread would not be well suited for that format. Even though the film clocks in at three and a half hours, I can’t help but feel a tinge of incompleteness the way the story closes. With Killers of the Flower Moon, Scorsese and his cast and crew are as great as they’ve ever been and leave us wishing we could spend even more time with Mollie and the Osage.