There’s definitely a smell of Oscars in the air The American touch (Flower Moon Killer), the brand new work by Martin Scorsese starring Lily Gladstone, Leonardo DiCaprio and Robert De Niro.
Make no mistake: “The American Note” is Scorsese’s best film since “Gangs of New York” and one of his most successful features. We find there the sense of the epic of the feature film with Daniel Day-Lewis, the examination of the cruel greed of The Wolf of Wall Street and the portrait of the birth of a country ultimately made up of gangsters, a reminder of Les Affranchis or Casino just to name a few.
The Native American “Dream.”
Scorsese and DiCaprio have been working on The American Note since 2017, and the filmmaker took advantage of the pandemic to rewrite the script for this adaptation of David Grann’s work of the same name, an inspired decision. Because while the book focuses on the birth of the FBI, the film presents the story from Osage’s perspective.
The Osages, an Indian tribe, are “the richest people in the world per capita,” we learn at the beginning of the feature film. Their money comes from the discovery of oil on their land. And since they were not dispossessed, Americans (and by extension whites) found other ways to acquire their wealth, such as placing tribal members under guardianship, making bank deposits, and, when that wasn’t enough, marriage of Osage women at the hands of unscrupulous white men.
Enter William King Hale (Robert De Niro, royally) who dabbles in everything from ranching to Osage exploitation. And that’s why he asks his nephew Ernest Burkhart (a perfect Leonardo DiCaprio, the actor gets better with age) to find an Osage woman and marry her to get his fortune. Ernest really falls in love with Mollie (Lily Gladstone, masterful), marries her, and therefore has to obey his uncle’s orders while the bodies pile up around Mollie’s loved ones.
JaNae Collins, Lily Gladstone, Cara Jade Myers and Jillian Dion in “Killers of the Flower Moon,” premiering in theaters worldwide on October 20, 2023. Photo provided by Apple TV+
The story is true – known as the Osage Indian Massacres of 1910 to 1930 – and took place not far from the city of Tulsa, Oklahoma, site of the 1921 massacre of the same name, which Scorsese alludes to as if to emphasize that a One crime leads to another, that the United States is built on bloodbaths and dispossession.
The performance of the three actors is unforgettable. Lily Gladstone gives Mollie’s look a power that pages of dialogue wouldn’t have had, and she will no doubt be richly rewarded this nascent awards season. The meeting of Leonardo DiCaprio and Robert De Niro (they hadn’t played together since “You’ll Be a Man…” in 1993) creates sparks, the formerly good-looking boy has grown up and gives his somewhat simple character a character impressive depth.
One could say that The American Note is too long at 206 minutes, as was the case with The Irishmen. But no. All plans are necessary and not a single dialogue is superfluous. The photography direction by Rodrigo Prieto, a frequent collaborator of the director and Alejandro Iñárritu, is also incredibly visually rich.
Everything is there, everything is perfect. Yes, The American Note is by the great Scorsese.
The American Note (Killers of the Flower Moon) hits theaters October 20th. The film will be available on Apple TV+ a little later.
Rating: 4.5 out of 5