No film could ever hope to fully convey the extent and severity of the inhumane violence inflicted on indigenous peoples of North America, such as members of the Osage Nation, by white colonial settlers and their descendants over several centuries. But with Apple TV Plus’s highly anticipated historical crime drama “Killers of the Flower Moon,” director Martin Scorsese seeks to shine a harsh light on this horrific aspect of America’s all-too-recent history and illustrate how much of a part of it it is Heritage of the country.
Based on journalist David Grann’s 2017 nonfiction book of the same name, Killers of the Flower Moon is a disturbing chronicle of how the indigenous community of Oklahoma’s Osage County was rocked by a two-decade-long string of brutal murders after the unexpected discovery of oil on theirs Country at the turn of the 20th century. Like other tribes, the Osage are no strangers to loss and displacement at the hands of the American government when we first meet them, decades before masses of other people flock to Oklahoma of their own accord.
From the moment a group of young Osage men first encounter one of the countless oil deposits that litter the land that rightfully belongs to them, the fate of the entire Osage Nation takes a dramatic turn. The sudden, sustained influx of wealth almost immediately makes the Osage literally the wealthiest people in the entire country. But with the wealth of the Osage also comes the blatant jealousy of white outsiders who view the natives as undeserving simpletons. “Killers of the Flower Moon” details how exactly this mindset culminated in one of the most ruthless and shameful murder campaigns in American history.
To this day, it is not known exactly how many Osage people were murdered during the “Reign of Terror” as part of conspiracies by white people to seize their valuable oil reserves. But Killers of the Flower Moon attempts to honor these lost lives by focusing on Mollie Kyle (Lily Gladstone), one of the many Osage who were encouraged to portray white ranger William King Hale (Robert De Niro) as a kind of local hero to see calling him by his middle name as a sign of respect.
In some ways – such as the way Killers of the Flower Moon briefly foregrounds a startling, beautiful depiction of the Osage people truly thriving in luxury after generations of abuse – the film succeeds in giving you one small aspect to show who the murdered Osage were and the greatness they deserved. But when the focus turns to Mollie – a silent but loving Osage woman who is deeply committed to her sisters Minnie (Jillian Dion), Anna (Cara Jade Myers) and Rita (JaNae Collins), and her elderly mother Lizzie Q (Tantoo Cardinal) – The film’s approach to humanizing its characters becomes far more delicate in a way that is both admirable and deeply questionable.
Many details of Scorsese and co-writer Eric Roth’s script are lifted directly from Grann’s book and work to highlight the broader system of economic disenfranchisement imposed on the newly minted Osage through a corrupt guardianship program. But Scorsese and Roth’s telling of the historical record also focuses on Ernest Burkhart (Leonardo DiCaprio) – Hale’s nephew and accomplice – alongside Mollie. And while their stories are undoubtedly connected, it’s a decision that ultimately makes “Killers of the Flower Moon” feel like a film largely intended for a white audience.
This might come as a surprise to non-Indigenous viewers, given how frequently Mollie and everyone around her resorts to speaking in Osage, and given the film’s commitment to detailing just how racist, violent, and truly evil the culture is of self-identified “good guys” is “White People™” is often the case. Focusing on Ernest and his willingness to smile in the faces of the people he later maims, it’s impossible not to see Killers of the Flower Moon as a self-conscious exercise in exposing viewers to the brutalization of non-white people to make arguments about his own subject and the act of turning such stories into “prestige” entertainment.
“Killers of the Flower Moon” is often a film full of subtlety, particularly in the way it shows how innocuous aspects of everyday life such as medicine, food and alcohol can be used by authority figures under the guise of caring for the health of others. can be used as a weapon. But it’s also a film full of clarity – both in terms of the sickening scenes of violence that are worth watching and the way Scorsese uses the last 15 minutes or so to ask his audience to think about what What’s so captivating about this story is watching it.
In this way, Scorsese all but acknowledges the imperfections of this work and asks us to question why, for example, people are so quick to amuse themselves with meme images from the film or gloss over criticisms of it from real Osage people. “Killers of the Flower Moon” is not a perfect film or even one that is representative of who the Osage were and are without their story surviving despite systematic persecution. But it is a very moving, devastating and utterly powerful piece of cinema that must be seen.
“Killers of the Flower Moon” also stars Jesse Plemons, John Lithgow, Brendan Fraser, Jason Isbell, William Belleau, Scott Shepherd, Everett Waller, Yancey Red Corn and Tatanka Means. The film is in theaters now and will soon be streaming on Apple TV Plus.