Killers of the Flower Moon

WATERTOWN, New York (WWNY)

Martin Scorsese’s adaptation of the bestselling nonfiction book, Killers of the Flower Moon is an impressive opus, especially since the American venerable director is a ripe 80 years old. Chronicling a dark period in American History that is part of the native American genocide, it is the true story of the mass killings of Osage tribe members by venal white people who hope to gain their “headrights” to the land that belongs to the Osage, which has recently been gushing oil. Particularly vulnerable is young Mollie (Lilly Gladstone) whose troubles only get worse when she marries, greedy handsome charmer, Ernest Burkhart, played by Leonardo Di Caprio. Ernest, who has recently returned from service in WWI is part of his uncle William Hale’s (Robert DeNiro) crime family. It seems that everyone works for Hale, and everyone loves Hale.

The story, which needed to be told, is difficult to watch at times, as the horror and murders of the tribe members pile up. It doesn’t take long to see who is up to all the murders as the desire to secure headrights spurns more and more desperate sociopathic behavior. This ruthlessness eventually does the perpetrators in as they begin to make stupid mistakes. Concurrently Mollie and other activists finally make it to Washington DC to meet with President Calvin Coolidge to advocate for investigation, prosecution and eventually justice for the horrible plight that plagues their tribe. But hope is tenacious, as someone remarks, you have a better chance of convicting a man for kicking a dog than a white man for killing an Indian.

When Coolidge finally sends someone to Oklahoma, agent Tom White (Jesse Plemons), the story picks up. This second act curtain comes a long way into a film where the second act sometimes feels interminable. Plemons’ presence is important because the story is told too often from the criminals’ point of view. Perhaps this is the crux of the book, focusing on the bad guys and telling the story from their point of view, but I found this to be the movie’s biggest misfire. However, this is a Scorsese trademark, focusing on and telling stories from the criminals’ points of views. Plemons’ moral center is a welcome addition.

Lily Gladstone is a revelation as Mollie. Her performance is a master class in understatement and being true in the moment. Di Caprio is very good too, but towards the end I began to feel like he was a bit much, showing us all what a great actor he is. However, this just made Gladstones performance even more interesting. De Niro, on the other hand, is superb. I have often lamented his choices in the second part of his career and sometimes also felt he was showing us what a great actor he was, but here he is mesmerizingly subtle. It is truly hard to believe that he would do anything wrong, his avuncular presence warm and genial.

Killers of the Flower Moon is great storytelling, but I am not sure if it is a great movie. At nearly three and a half hours, it is long commitment. It isn’t that it is boring, but the story might have been more impactful if it were told in two and a half hours. For all the despair that unfolds on the screen, I often felt emotionally remote from the characters and the horror. Gladstone is the one exception, but her character is underwritten, and she doesn’t have enough screen time.