Martin Scorsese’s latest film, Killers of the Flower Moon, starring Leonard DiCaprio and Robert De Niro, is his most acclaimed film in decades and would have been opening in Israel on October 19 if the war had not shuttered all theaters.
The movie, which was released around the United States on October 20 (and which will eventually be shown on Apple TV+) had its premiere at Cannes last spring to mostly rave reviews.
Scorsese's biggest hit in decades
An epic, fact-based Western, the movie tells the story of a soldier (DiCaprio) who fought in World War I and returns home to Oklahoma. His powerbroker uncle (De Niro) lives in an area where the local Osage Native American population owns land upon which oil reserves have been found.
The veteran marries an Osage woman (Lily Gladstone, a distinctive actress whose star is rising) just as a series of murders of Native Americans are carried out to try to steal the Osage oil. It plays like Chinatown with Native Americans and oil.
‘The screenplay was based on David Grann’s nonfiction book, Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI.
Before shooting the film, Scorsese said he decided to shake up which characters would get the spotlight. He said he realized the movie focused too much on white men.
After his revision, the historical drama still centers on a white man, DiCaprio’s Ernest Burkhart, but the principal drama of the film becomes the marriage between Ernest and a Native American woman, Mollie Kyle (Gladstone).
“After a certain point, I realized I was making a movie about all the white guys,” Scorsese told Time Out. “Meaning, I was taking the approach from the outside in, which concerned me.”
DiCaprio was originally attached to play FBI investigator Tom White, who was sent to the Osage Nation in Oklahoma to probe the killings.
The script underwent a significant rewrite however, shifting the dramatic focus from White’s investigation to the Osage and the circumstances that led to them being systematically killed with no consequences. The character of White now is played by Jesse Plemons in a supporting role, with DiCaprio starring as the husband of Gladstone’s character – an oil-rich Osage woman – and member of a conspiracy to kill her loved ones in an effort to steal her family fortune.
Despite her initial skepticism, Gladstone, who is of Blackfeet and Nimíipuu heritage, praised the rewrite and told Vulture, “It’s not a white-savior story. It’s the Osage saying, ‘Do something. Here’s money. Come help us.’”
From the beginning of production, Scorsese worked closely with Osage Principal Chief Geoffrey Standing Bear and his office, said consulting producer Chad Renfro. On the first day of shooting, the Oscar-winning filmmaker had an elder of the nation come to say a prayer for the cast and crew.
Scorsese had long wanted to make the film, based on David Grann’s 2017 nonfiction book of the same name. He called the story “a sober look at who we are as a culture.”
After Killers of the Flower Moon premiered at Cannesal, some members of the Osage Nation, including Jim Gray, a former Osage leader who is a descendant of one of the Osage murder victims, praised the film for its portrayal of the historical events and his community.
“How was the movie?” Gray wrote in a series of tweets in May. “It was excellent. Scorsese even captured some of our humor. The performances across the board were Oscar-worthy, I mean it. I’ve never seen a movie like this before. No White Savior, nothing needed to be made up.”
Gladstone told Vulture that Scorsese consulted her and members of the Osage Nation – who invited the director to dinner in 2019 – while making Killers of the Flower Moon. As a non-Osage performer playing an Osage character, Gladstone also made it a priority to form connections with – and learn from the Osage during the production process.
“It was clear that I wasn’t just going to be given space to collaborate,” Gladstone said. “I was expected to bring a lot to the table.
“That’s what being equitable is – not just opening the door. It’s pulling a seat out next to you at the table.”
The film marks the sixth collaboration between Scorsese and DiCaprio after Gangs of New York, The Aviator, The Departed, Shutter Island, and The Wolf of Wall Street. It marks the 10th between the director and De Niro after classics like Mean Streets, Taxi Driver, Raging Bull, and Goodfellas.
Critics have already lavished it with praise. It has a score of 95% on Rotten Tomatoes. The Critics Consensus: “Enormous in runtime, theme, and achievement, Killers of the Flower Moon is a sobering appraisal of America’s relationship with Indigenous peoples and yet another artistic zenith for Martin Scorsese and his collaborators.”