Killers of the Flower Moon
Directed by Martin Scorsese
Screenplay by Eric Roth & Martin Scorsese
Based on Killers of the Flower Moon by David Grann
Produced by Dan Friedkin, Bradley Thomas, Martin Scorsese, Daniel Lupi
Starring
Leonardo DiCaprio as Ernest Burkhart, a greedy and gullible World War I veteran who is used as a pawn in the murders
Robert De Niro as William King Hale, Ernest’s uncle
Lily Gladstone as Mollie Kyle, Ernest’s wife
Jesse Plemons as Thomas Bruce White Sr., a BOI agent leading the murder investigation
Tantoo Cardinal as Lizzie Q, Mollie’s mother
John Lithgow as Peter Leaward, the lead prosecutor in the trials of Hale and Burkhart
Brendan Fraser as W. S. Hamilton, Hale’s attorney
Cara Jade Myers as Anna Brown, Mollie’s first sister
JaNae Collins as Reta (or Rita), Mollie’s second sister
Jillian Dion as Minnie, Mollie’s third sister
Jason Isbell as Bill Smith, Minnie’s husband. He marries her sister Reta following Minnie’s death
William Belleau as Henry Roan, Mollie’s first husband and close friend and later victim of Hale
Louis Cancelmi as Kelsie Morrison, an acquaintance and accomplice of Burkhart and Hale
Scott Shepherd as Byron Burkhart, Ernest’s younger brother
Brent Langdon as Barney McBride, a white oilman who travels to Washington, D.C. to seek federal help in solving the murders
Everett Waller as Paul Red Eagle
Talee Redcorn as Non-Hon-Zhin-Ga[d]/Traditional Leader
Cinematography Rodrigo Prieto
Edited by Thelma Schoonmaker
Music by Robbie Robertson
Production companies Apple Studios, Imperative Entertainment, Sikelia Productions, Appian Way Productions
Running time 206 minutes
Languages English, Osage
Budget $200 million Box office $156.3 million
In 1920, the Osage were one of the wealthiest and most fortunate tribes in North America. Unlike other tribes that had forcibly (and sometimes genocidally) been moved to desolate and unwanted patches of land, they flat out purchased their land, some 2,200 square miles along the northern border of Oklahoma, some 200 miles from the eastern border. It was one of the nicer areas, with vast fields of grain and a huge springtime display of color known as “the Flower Moon.” The Osage, since they purchased the land, also had control of the mineral rights. And then, during a ceremony of the Flower Moon, oil is discovered. Suddenly the Osage are filthy rich.
However, this is America, and the government decides the poor little savages were incompetent (the actual term used) and would need white men, presumably competent ones, to sort of look out for the poor little guys. (Note: the average Osage warrior stood between 6’4” and 7’ tall).
As you might guess, “competent white men” translated in most cases to “opportunistic and rapacious capitalists.” From 1920 to 1926, such creatures engaged in a reign of terror, during which time they strove to steal the wealth from the Osage through marriage or murder (predatory business deals were out since the Osage were deemed incompetent and thus any contract was nonbinding).
Robert De Niro is a smiling and avuncular William King Hale, proud family patriarch, lover and respecter of Osage culture, and one of the most murderous swine involved in this sorry operation.
Leonardo DiCaprio is Ernest Burkhart, fresh from the trenches of Europe, young, gullible, a bit dim-witted. He falls in love with an Osage woman, Mollie Kyle (Lily Gladstone) and to Hale’s delight, marries her. Hale isn’t delighted to get a new daughter; he’s delighted because through Ernest, he can control not only her fortune, but through judicious application of “unfortunate accidents” the fortunes of her sisters and other kin. Mollie herself suffers from diabetes, and Hale, every bit the caring father-in-law, secures for her a new treatment, insulin made from sheep. But of course, he doctors the treatment to keep Mollie docile and compliant.
Doesn’t work. Alarmed by the deaths of her sisters and others, she travels to Washington to plead for government assistance to stop whatever is going on in Osage country. President Coolidge is seemingly dismissive and uncaring, but a few months later a few federal Bureau of Investigations agents show up, determined to get to the roots of the suspicious deaths.
Sad to say, this is all based on historical fact. It’s to Scorsese’s credit that most of the huge supporting cast are residents of the Osage reservation.
De Niro is pure evil in this role, especially since he is so utterly charming as a conscientious and committed family man and public leader. DiCaprio and Gladstone also shine.
The movie is up for a raft of awards this season, and is well deserving.
But don’t be too shocked if it doesn’t win many. A Western that is accurate and honest isn’t popular with the American public, and on a $200m budget, it had a box office of only $156m.
But it is a superb movie, and long after the public have forgotten all of the other movies this past year, students will be studying this as lessons in both history and film-making.