Review 711: Killers of the Flower Moon

  

Killers of the Flower Moon is overlong, exhausting and unflinchingly grim and yet fascinating and masterfuly crafted by Martin Scorsese along with excellent performances from Leonardo DiCaprio and Robert DeNiro.

Based on the nonfiction book, Killers of the Flower Moon by David Grann, the film focuses on the Osage Indian murders in 1920's Oklahoma, when oil is discovered under Osage nation land The tribal members retain mineral rights on their reservation

a harrowing tale about the birth of the American century and how the Osage tribes were exploited and Scorsese handles it in a distant, reflective manner,

With a running time of three-and-a-half-hours, Killers of the Flower Moon is demanding and tough to sit through but  the score by Robbie Robertson is beautifully haunting, the cinematography is gorgeous and captures the beauty and prosperity of 1920's Oklahoma.

Leonardo DiCaprio delivers a  performance playing Ernest Burkhart, a World War I veteran who returns to live with his brother and uncle and start a new life. Ultimately, he's rather pathetic as he's just a dumb thug who is an accomplice to a horrendous conspiracy but is just an easily manipulated pawn in his uncles schemes.

Lily Gladstone in a breakout perfromance is mesmerising playing Mollie Burkhart. Mollie is often bedridden with diabetes which worsens over the course of the film. She's the owner of one of the prized Osage headrights to oil but being full-blooded Osage, she can't access her money without a white "guardian"  She sticks by her duplicitous husband.

John Lithgow is also in this film playing