Two Journal writers examined Martin Scorsese’s “Killers of the Flower Moon,” resulting in opposing reviews.
Ethan: With “Killers of the Flower Moon,” Scorsese goes beyond the immorality of mobsters and Wall Street brokers, delving into the ultimate American evil: Racists enforcing systematic genocide for money.
“Killers of the Flower Moon” provides a three-and-a-half-hour light on the Osage murders in 1920s Oklahoma, telling the story of the Osage Nation’s suffering from William Hale’s (Robert De Niro) plan to get their oil money. The movie follows Ernest Burkhart (Leonardo DiCaprio) as he helps Hale in committing crimes and killing Mollie Burkhart’s (Lily Gladstone) family, portraying their perspective for most of the runtime.
Besides the numerous brutal deaths depicted throughout, there are scenes of Osage people getting their pictures taken, which would often cut into a shot of the photo, focusing heavily on the people within them through extreme close-ups.
No matter how much the people within the Osage Nation are victimized, the film still respects them, making sure to give characters like Mollie the same level of development as Burkhart or Hale. In fact, Gladstone gave the best performance in a film with notable stars like De Niro and DiCaprio.
The film, while still really good, falls into the usual tropes seen in Scorsese’s films. It has the narration, the snazzy camerawork, the yelling DiCaprio and more. It does some impressive and new things like Thelma Schoonmaker’s editing that keeps the film going at a consistent pace, the late Robbie Robertson’s unnerving score, Jack Fisk’s amazing and period-accurate production design and the fresh presence of Lily Gladstone. But those positives don’t do much to tackle the exhausting runtime.
Suddenly, the film takes a brilliant turn at the epilogue and reminds the viewer of what this film is truly about, along with making the monstrous length worth seeing in retrospect. It is at this point that you realize the film forced you to see all the events that happened in this forgotten massacre, all the devastation that happened because of it, and the greed and sociopathic tendencies that caused it to happen. It forces you to remember the faces, the victims, the people who were exploited by others who thought of them as a commodity. Martin Scorsese forced you to realize that what you are watching isn’t just a well-made true crime story: It’s an American tragedy.
Aly: “Killers of the Flower Moon” is a culturally relevant historical piece with beautiful cinematography. The film aids the viewer in truly understanding how indigenous peoples have been mistreated throughout history.
Despite the significance of the story, the film was overall utterly boring with its excessive runtime and an ending that didn’t make up for the wasted time.
Dicaprio plays his typical Scorsese character of a money-hungry selfish anti-hero. The story starts with Ernest meeting Mollie (Gladstone) and eventually marrying her. As time goes on, he starts to resent her and mistreat her.
The best part of this film was the cinematography. One specific scene that stood out was the continuous rolling scene throughout the house with the camera in Ernest’s point of view. Another example is when Ernest is looking at the fire, and it looks like a painting.
Arguably, this is a feminist story. The film emphasizes the pains that women of color go through. Mollie, the true heart of the story, lost everyone in her life, including her sisters, her daughter and her mother. Everything was stripped from her just so some white men could steal her fortune.
One scene that stood out was when Ernest screamed at Mollie and called her culture and lifestyle stupid. This scene shows that he never truly cared about her. Mollie’s story is one in history that has been undermined for years and the type of story that should be taught in history textbooks.
One thing about this film that stands out is that the murders are all very quick and short scenes. I believe Scorcese did this because he wanted to show how little the murderers thought of or regretted what they did. It was just another typical daily task for them. In fact, there are so many murders in this film that if you looked away for a moment you could miss one. Mollie’s sister Anna was even pregnant when she was killed, and as the man confessed to her murder, he showed no regrets or pain. I understand that the film is from the murderer’s perspective, but when making a movie about such a significant and emotional story in history, the murder scenes need to have more emotion to them.
The first 45 minutes are the most interesting and enjoyable, and after that, the story becomes boring and repetitive. The acting was average overall, although there were a few incredible dramatic scenes, with DiCaprio’s yelling scenes and Gladstone’s sobbing scenes standing out.
Overall, I think the film correctly portrays the main point of the story, which is the complete ignorance and disrespect that white men had toward Native Americans. There was a low turnout for my viewings, and I understand why. Nowadays, most people would just prefer a Netflix short series over a three-and-a-half-hour feature film.
Share this post
Alyssa White
